Acupuncture in Old Bridge, NJ

MATAWAN, New Jersey (WABC) -- A fundraiser was held for a high school wrestler who was severely injured during a match last weekend in New Jersey.

Students and parents don't usually pay an admission fee to see a high school wrestling match, but it wasn't just any match.

The Old Bridge High School Knights and Lady Knights were on the mat Wednesday night against South Plainfield High School, but while they are squaring off against each other, they were wrestling for one common goal.

The match was a fundraiser for 16-year-old Adriana Maria.

On Saturday, after the Lady Knight was pinned down, the gymnasium was filled with her cries, "I can't move."

Maria was unable to feel her arms and legs.

"We were all quiet. We were all silent. We were letting the paramedics do what they immediately needed to do. And immediately prayers, immediately prayers," said a parent, Ascencion Reyes.

Maria's spinal cord was displaced, compressing her nerves.

After undergoing neck surgery, she regained some movement in her arms but still can't move her legs.

She underwent a second surgery on Monday.

Doctors are hopeful. Her coach and teammates say she's a fighter.

"You have to be passionate about wrestling if you succeed, even if you're going to stick it out for a season and that's something that you know she communicated to me often that she loved this word and that's one thing," said Maria's wrestling coach, John Post.

Her friends and family say she's a vibrant, high-energy student athlete who pours her heart into everything she does.

They say she's deeply caring, and a bright light to everyone who knows her.

A GoFundMe for her has already raised nearly a $100,000, and that's not including the money raised Wednesday night.

"Our students are coming in and instead of paying $3, they're handing us a $20 and handing it all over to Adriana and her family," Reyes said.

"It's a big town, 42 square miles, but whenever there's a tragedy, the town comes together," Old Bridge Township Mayor Debbie Walker said.

"We love them. We're praying for them and we can't wait to see her back her at Old Bridge High School," School Superintendent Vincent Sasso said.

----------

Submit a tip or story idea to Eyewitness News

Have a breaking news tip or an idea for a story we should cover? Send it to Eyewitness News using the form below. If attaching a video or photo, terms of use apply.

Jane Maline didn’t see a dangerous move or a hard slam.

But she knew something was wrong.

The Old Bridge athletic trainer watched as Adriana Maria, an Old Bridge High School wrestler, didn’t get up after she was pinned during a Saturday bout.

“My eyes were on her match,” Maline said. “I watched it happen.”

Maline rushed over to Maria, who lay still. The teen could not move her arms or legs, but reported sharp pain in her neck. Maline stayed calm, relying on two decades of training, and worked to stabilize Maria, supporting the 16-year-old’s neck and spine.

Maline then helped Maria onto a spine board and waited for EMTs to arrive.

Maline kept her composure as EMTs rolled Maria out the doors of the gym at Old Bridge and loaded her into the ambulance to be transported to RWJ Barnabas Hospital in New Brunswick.

Then she walked into her office, broke down and cried.

“I am a mother myself,” said Maline. “I saw (Maria) as possibly one of my own daughters. We’ve had conversations, and she’s been in my office for non-injury reasons, so it was upsetting for me to see her in this situation.”

On Monday night, Old Bridge wrestling coach John Post posted an announcement on Facebook that Maria sustained a severe spinal cord injury and was unable to move after getting taken down. A medical evaluation revealed Maria’s spinal cord was displaced along the C4, C5 and C6 levels, compressing the nerves and resulting in loss of movement, the Facebook post said. The permanence of her injury is so far unclear.

Post said it was a “freak” injury and there was nothing “malicious” about the move that led to it during her bout on the girls JV team.

He was wrapping up a boys practice in another room on Saturday when Maria was injured in a match. When an assistant told him what happened, Post bolted back into the gym.

“At that point, you just (expletive) drop everything,” Post said.

Post said he was there on the mat alongside Maline as she evaluated Maria. He grabbed the wrestler’s hand and, at that time, she was able to move her right arm and squeeze Post’s hand.

“I’m the type to always hope that, in the grand scheme of things, everything’s going to be okay. So I was like, ‘hey, there’s movement there, see, let’s be happy,’” said Post. “But real quick it became a pretty serious situation. There’s a lot that goes through your head at that point. I watched the footage a million times. Her surgeon was a wrestler himself. He looked at it and there was nothing out of the ordinary.”

Maria underwent surgery over the weekend and regained some movement in her hands. She had not regained movement in her legs, Post said on Monday. A second surgery was scheduled that day, Monday, Feb. 2, to further stabilize Maria’s neck and provide additional relief. Post wrote on Monday “doctors remain hopeful that as inflammation decreases, Adriana may regain additional movement.”

There has not been a public update, as of Thursday morning, on Maria’s progress after Monday’s surgery.

At a team meeting during the week, Post outlined the severity of the situation. Old Bridge brought in school guidance and crisis counselors to speak with Maria’s teammates.

“When it first happened, it was a little difficult for everyone to open up about how they felt, or any feelings they had about the whole situation,” said teammate Sofia Sousa. “But after talking about it in a big group and just sharing everything, letting it all go, it’s gotten a little bit easier.”

A GoFundMe describes Maria as a “vibrant, athletic, high-energy 16-year old who pours her heart into everything she does — especially wrestling, a sport she truly loves." That GoFundMe originally set a goal for $50,000. It’s now over $100,000 in donations.

“She’s a great kid, loves wrestling,” Post told NJ Advance Media on Monday. “She’s one of those ‘light up the room when she walks in’ type kids.”

On Tuesday night, the Old Bridge community came out to support Maria during a match against Raritan. A photo of Maria was printed on posters that decorated the hallway outside the gym. Maria’s hair is in curls in that photo and she’s wearing sunglasses and a bright pink top, sporting a smile that greeted everyone at the ticket booth that night.

There was a donation jar there, and a QR code at the bottom of the poster for the GoFundMe.

The gym was packed again on Wednesday night for a match against South Plainfield.

“You have parents and family members and players that can come together and be together and support someone that maybe they haven’t even met,” said Old Bridge Athletic Director Dan DiMino. “There are people reaching out to me who have no idea who Adriana is, but want to help as much as they can. That’s just amazing. It really is an amazing feeling.”

Inside the gym on Tuesday, Maria’s teammates wore bright pink shirts with #ForAdriana printed on the front. The boys team beat Raritan, 41-27. The girls won, 66-6.

Post said most of the girls in his program, like Maria, are first-year wrestlers. That includes Devyn McAndrew, Maria’s best friend since seventh grade. The girls already played field hockey and lacrosse together, so McAndrew agreed to join the wrestling team with Maria.

When it came time to pick a training partner in November, it was an obvious choice.

Only a few months later, McAndrew saw her best friend lying motionless on the mat.

“I was so scared and I’m still so upset for her,” said McAndrew. “I’m still going for Adriana because I know she would want me to keep going. I’m doing everything for her now.”

Chef Steven Botta is known for his Italian restaurants like Feast Italian Kitchen in Old Bridge, Brando's Citi Cucina in Asbury Park and Osteria Cucina Rustica in Marlboro.

But his new restaurant — more than six years in the making — coming to the Shoppes at Old Bridge on Route 9 will be a different concept for the storied chef, yet with traditional roots.

The Chop Shop, a classic steakhouse, is set to open in March with dry-aged steaks, timeless steakhouse sides and dishes finished tableside, a rarity in New Jersey.

Dishes on the menu will include Caesar salad finished tableside, duck à l'orange, stuffed whole salmon, Dover sole, barbecue chicken, slow-cooked beef rib over fried rice, and desserts finished tableside like baked Alaska and cherries jubilee.

The highlights, of course, will be the steaks, which will be displayed in a glass case. Customers can opt for dry-aged steaks or regular steaks, for a lower price point. For example, Botta said, at his other restaurants, he sells a dry-aged porterhouse for two for $140 and a regular porterhouse for two for $90.

Steaks will be complemented by sides like creamed spinach, German potatoes, shrimp cocktail, crudos, and oysters Rockefeller cooked over an open grill.

The sides are what inspired Botta to open a classic steakhouse. "Italian cuisine is great, but the market is overcrowded," he said. "Plus, everyone always says to us, 'We love your steaks, but we also love everything that goes with them.' "

Dishes will be served in a space that, like the Chop Shop, will have both classic and modern components, all designed by Botta and co-owner Angelo Bongiovanni, unlike most restaurants that enlist interior designers.

The 130-seat interior with a 28-seat bar will include a mix of textures in elements including Venetian plaster, tin ceilings, tufted banquettes, stone, brick, 27 crystal chandeliers of differing sizes and shapes, leather chairs, and a mural of the Brooklyn Bridge.

It almost wasn't, though. Botta originally planned to open a Brazilian steakhouse in the Shoppes at Old Bridge, right next to Feast Italian Kitchen. However, when COVID-19 hit and salad bars disappeared, he decided to change the restaurant concept since salad bars are an integral part of Brazilian steakhouses.

Go: 3899 Route 9 at the Shoppes at Old Bridge; opens in March.

Contact: JIntersimone@MyCentralJersey.com

Jenna Intersimone has been a staff member at the USA TODAY NETWORK New Jersey since 2014, although she's a lifetime Jersey girl who considers herself an expert in everything from the Jersey Shore to the Garden State's buzzing downtowns. To get unlimited access to her stories about food, drink and fun, please subscribe or activate your digital account today. You can also follow her on Instagram at @seejennaeat and on Twitter at @JIntersimone.

OLD BRIDGE, NJ — The 16-year-old Old Bridge girl who was critically injured in a wrestling match Saturday currently cannot walk because multiple vertebrae in her spinal cord in her neck were displaced, according to Old Bridge High School wrestling head coach John Post.

The teen, pictured here, can only slightly move her arms. She's had two surgeries to try to restore movement, but as of Monday afternoon, she cannot move her legs, said her coach.

The injury occurred during a regular wrestling match, when the Old Bridge teen was pinned by a Perth Amboy High School wrestler, also a teenage girl. The Perth Amboy wrestler pinned her and at the end of the match, the Old Bridge teen said she was unable to move or get off the mat. She reported extreme pain in her neck.

The Perth Amboy wrestler was not issued any penalties, and witnesses say she used all routine wrestling moves during the match.

"At approximately 12:00 p.m. this past Saturday, (the teen/name redacted) competed in the final match of the day," Post wrote Monday in this public Facebook post. "During the match, she was taken down and pinned by an opponent from Perth Amboy. Following the conclusion of the match, (she) did not get up. Our athletic trainer responded immediately to evaluate her condition. (She) reported severe neck pain and indicated that she was unable to move her arms or legs. Emergency Medical Services were contacted immediately."

The injury happened during a girls' quad wrestling match, where girls' teams from four high schools compete against each other in an all-day tournament, held at Old Bridge High School.

The injured girl, a junior at Old Bridge High School, was taken out of the Old Bridge HS gym on a backboard and rushed to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick. Since Saturday, she has undergone two surgeries to her spinal cord, with the most recent surgery on Monday.

She has gained limited movement back to her arms, but is unable to move her legs, said her coach.

"Since the incident, (she) has undergone neck surgery," he continued. "Medical evaluation revealed that her spinal cord at the C4, C5 and C6 levels was displaced and compressing the nerves, resulting in loss of movement ... Following surgery, (she) regained some movement in her arms; however, she currently does not have movement in her legs. (She) is scheduled to undergo a second surgery today, February 2nd, to further stabilize her neck and, hopefully, provide additional relief. Doctors remain hopeful that as inflammation decreases over time and with continued treatment, Adriana may regain additional movement in her arms and legs."

The head coach said he and others have been by her side in the hospital since Saturday. Old Bridge school officials also visited the girl in the hospital. All doctors can do right now is hope the swelling and inflammation goes down, said the coach.

Here is the GoFundMe that was created for the injured teen: https://www.gofundme.com/f/sup...

An Old Bridge High School wrestler remains hospitalized after suffering a serious neck injury during a match over the weekend, prompting an outpouring of support from the school’s wrestling community.

Junior athlete Adriana Maria, 16, was injured at approximately 12 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 30, during the final match of the day, when she was taken down and pinned by an opponent, another female wrestler from Perth Amboy, according to Old Bridge wrestling coach John Post.

"It was a very routine move," Post said. "There was nothing malicious or harmful done by Adriana's opponent. It was a standard technique, and Adriana just landed in the wrong way.

After the match ended, Adriana did not get up and reported severe neck pain, telling responders she could not move her arms or legs.

The school’s athletic trainer responded immediately and provided care while emergency medical services were called, Post said. Adriana was secured on a backboard and transported by ambulance to the hospital. Doctors later determined that Adriana’s spinal cord at the C4, C5, and C6 levels was displaced and compressing nerves, resulting in loss of movement, according to Post.

"Spinal cord injuries for high school athletes in general are extremely rare," Post added, noting he's been doing extensive research since Saturday. "We caught one of these unfortunate anomalies in Old Bridge."

Adriana underwent emergency neck surgery and has since regained some movement in her arms, but does not currently have movement in her legs. Adriana had a second surgery Monday, Feb. 2, to further stabilize her neck, with doctors hopeful that additional movement may return as swelling decreases over time.

"The surgery went well considering what she’s up against," her coach said. "She still has a long road ahead of her in terms of recovery but she did as well as she could have."

Post said it's too soon to know what the longterm effects of the injury look like but said now that there's relief on Adriana's spinal cord, the hope is that in time her mobility will return.

Coaches and school officials have remained with Adriana and her family since the injury, Post said. Fundraising efforts will take place during upcoming wrestling matches at Old Bridge High School on Tuesday, Feb. 3, against Raritan and Wednesday, Feb. 4, against South Plainfield, both starting at 6 p.m.

A organized by Yesenia Baez for Adriana had raised more than $57,000 as of Monday, Feb. 2. The fundraiser describes Adriana as a dedicated 16-year-old wrestler facing a long recovery following emergency surgery and notes the financial and emotional strain on her family as they focus on her healing.