Making a Splash: Middle Township Sports Hero Giulian Helps Avalon Beach Patrol Win County Title
David Giulian (left) with doubles rowing partner Gary Nagle.
Blue-collar mindset, blue-chip rewards.
Those assets define the tenacious work ethic and budding maturity that turned 2022 into a breakout campaign for 18-year-old Stone Harbor native David Giulian.
A festive summer began last month, when he was named the Press of Atlantic City’s Male Athlete of the Year. Few knew that the lofty pedestal, representing Giulian’s exploits in football, wrestling and track for Middle Township High School, was just a warmup.
The encore, a literal high-water mark, occurred in July.
Giulian teamed with Gary Nagle to win the doubles rowing competition for the Avalon Beach Patrol in the season-opening Cape May County championships. It launched a night that saw Avalon win its first Cape May County crown since 1990 and spread optimism for the summer racing campaign.
Giulian had been the unknown factor in the equation. Erich Wolf’s singles victory could have been anticipated, along with a nice swimming triumph by Dolan Grisbaum.
But Giulian is just hitting his stride in the out-of-town circuit. His doubles triumph was eye-opening because it represented his calling card – hard work – in a different sport.
Last summer, he narrowly missed representing the Avalon Beach Patrol in the major lifeguard-circuit races. Now he’s showing signs that he could make that lineup.
“When we were one boat length off in the Avalon patrol competitions last year, I knew I’d be ready to work hard and make up that difference,” says Giulian, whose doubles partner Nagle is the captain of the Ursinus College wrestling team. “Gary has shown me a lot about how I am supposed to train, how I should treat my body, and how I should prepare.”
There’s always been a mentor for Guilian, who absorbs instruction like a sponge.
There’s Nagle. There’s his older brother Karl, a three-sport star who graduated from Middle Township in 2020 and forced Dave to evolve. And there’s Avalon Beach Patrol chief Matt Wolf, also his wrestling coach for four years at Middle Township.
“He has instilled many things in me,” Giulian says of Wolf. “Maybe the biggest is to be comfortable in uncomfortable situations. Get used to how hard something may be and go get what you want.
“You have to be willing to lose along the way. Look, if I am not getting my butt kicked, I am not getting any better. If someone beats you, that is your challenge to improve.”
Giulian improved so much in four years that he notched some eye-popping numbers for Middle Township in his senior year.
On the gridiron, the 5-foot-10, 190-pound running back/middle linebacker rushed for 751 yards and made 106 tackles. Giulian become Middle’s all-time wrestling wins leader with 117 (against just 24 losses). He captured a county championship with a discus throw of 121 feet.
When he was honored by the Press of Atlantic City, that was a big deal. The designation includes schools from several South Jersey counties, including Cumberland. That’s the home of 2009 winner Mike Trout.
That Mike Trout? Yes, the Millville phenom and three-time American League MVP with the Los Angeles Angels once earned the same award Giulian just won.
“This has shown me that the sky is the limit,” Giulian says. “It’s crazy for me to think that this kid from Stone Harbor can be placed in the same category as Mike Trout. He’s a terrific role model, in and out of baseball.
“What the award says to me is that I can go as far as I want to go if I am willing to do the work. You have to do the work.”
Giulian wins with relentless drive, and while some success comes from physical tools, much of it stems from his refusal to be denied.
Wolf uses the wrestling circuit to trace Giulian’s rise.
He recalls Giulian going 0-6 in a preseason tournament at The College of New Jersey, now his new college home, before his freshman season of high school.
“He took off from there,” Wolf recalls. “He just kept working hard. That year he went 26-6 and reached the regionals as a freshman. He had a 10-5 season two years ago during COVID, when the schedule was lighter. When he won his first three matches in the state finals in Atlantic City, that was a first for anybody in our school.
“Dave is the type of kid I always want to be around. When you surround yourself with people like him, the quality bleeds through.”
Wolf and Giulian savor his final wrestling march, which defined Giulian’s entire work ethic.
Dave had an epic trilogy against Danny DiGiovacchino, one of the best wrestlers in the history of Delsea High School.
In the districts, Giulian lost to the Crusaders star, 9-3.
One week later, DiGiovacchino pinned him in the regionals.
Lo and behold, they met again March 4 in the third round of the state tournament in Atlantic City’s Boardwalk Hall.
And David slayed his own Goliath, 4-2, in sudden death.
The milestone was remarkable not simply because Giulian won, but that he’d turned the tables on his nemesis on the highest stage.
Most students could not make the trip for the Friday afternoon contest. It unfolded during the school day, so classmates did the next best thing by following the livestream.
Classrooms erupted joyfully when Giulian notched the decisive overtime takedown.
“I wanted that match badly and knew I could beat him,” Giulian says. “Before the match, coach Wolf came up with a game plan. He said that in the first two matchups, I had been too aggressive and let him score points off of my mistakes.
“This time we decided to slow it down, try to make him come to me. I knew we were both tired at the end of regulation, but I felt he was more tired than me. Winning that one was a great feeling.”
Adds Wolf: “That wasn’t an easy way for him to do it. Dave likes to be aggressive. But I had seen the video of the districts and I told Dave he had been doing everything right, but that this guy was waiting on him. David tried to make his opponent make the mistakes. When it went to overtime, he just smiled at me. We both thought he was going to do it. Dave was in phenomenal shape.
“Everybody [in school] was watching that feed,” Wolf says with a laugh. “I don’t think anybody learned anything that afternoon.”
Giulian was recruited as a linebacker for The College of New Jersey, and time demands might force him to focus less on wrestling, because the seasons overlap.
However it works out, the eyeball count will grow for him.
It will be interesting to watch Giulian’s path going forward. For fans of Middle Township sports and the Avalon Beach Patrol, he’s maturing before their eyes.
