With a recent victory at the Virginia Duels, a case can be made the 2009-2010 St. Marks Spartans wrestling squad is the best team to ever compete in Delaware. Led by All-American Bobby Telford the Spartans will be tough to beat.

Saying a team is the best of All-Time in any sport is never easy. In today's society when things have changed so much it is hard to say how players of today would have fared against players in the past and vice versa. However, the recent victory by St. Marks in the Virginia Duels and their strong showing at the Beast of the East Tournament puts them solidly in the conversation.

Looking back in history the Spartans have had some outstanding teams and some outstanding wrestlers. How the 2010 squad would stack up against past Spartan teams as well as other past state champions makes for great debate.

Could the 2009 Spartans defeat the 1998 Spartans? The 1998 squad had State Champions LA Collier, Bruce Kelly, Mike Collins, David Williams, Justin Jackson, Brian Santoro, Pete Santoro and John Testa. It is hard to imagine anyone topping that squad.

What about the 1996 William Penn squad that featured wrestlers standout Damien Creighton, Jeff Snow, Jordan Elliott and Joe Bond? How about the 2001 Caesar Rodney squad that featured 10 wrestlers place in the top 3 including state champs B.J. Hicks, Tony Harris, Brian Palmer, Dwayne Graham and Chris Parker?

DePreps.com has not even mentioned some of the great Hodgson teams that dominated Division II in the late 1990's and who can forget the 2009 Sussex Central squad?

Go back further into the early 1980's and the 1970's and wrestling was arguably more competitive with just about every high school team fielding solid line-ups from top to bottom.

The 1985 Newark team had wrestlers like Kurt Howell, Tom Bockius, Jeff Cowan and Ray Nabb to name just a few. How would that teame faired in a dual-meet setting comapred to the tournament format of old?

Is the St Marks' squad of 2009 the best ever? It is hard to deny their accomplishments. However, it is a different time with different enrollments, different demographics and different training. It is like trying to figure out who would win between Steve Bastianelli and Pat Atkinson or how about Pete Santoro vs. Danny Reeder. It sure would have been fun to watch!

As any wrestling coach will tell you, "it is all about the match-ups".