John Caramihalis was a member of the Springfield College squad under Doug Parker (1949-53) and was New England A.A.U. champion in 1952. That same year he completed in the National AAU championships at Cornell University.
Caramihalis came to Sanford in 1958 and immediately made his presence known in this "new" sport called wrestling. Early newspaper accounts place the first interscholastic dual meet in Maine at Sanford gymnasium between Portland and Sanford High Schools in February 1959. That year Sanford and Portland split dual meets on a home and home basis, while Sanford lost to the Perkins School for the Blind. Mainstays for the squad were the brother combination of Ron and Rick Sparkowich. In the first interscholastic tournament ever held in Maine, Sanford outlasted a tough Deering team 110-105, with Sanford crowing four individual champions. This was the first of six consecutive championships that Caramihalis won at Sanford, and this first of 11 consecutive titles for Sanford before Belfast would knock them out of the top spot in the 1969 Class A tournament.In 1960 Sanford extended their wrestling schedule to Cooperstown, NY against Central High. It was the start of a two year dual competition. Portland also continued to wrestle the Redskins. An oddity occurred in the state meet that year as Sweeney and Bean, both of Sanford, ended the 121 pound finals in a 6-6 draw. With no clear means of breaking the deadlock, both wrestlers were declared the winner, the only time that such a tie has occurred in any tournament competition in Maine.
Wrestling in New England was really beginning to grow in 1961 and the Sanford schedule was also extended to include Winnacunnett High School of Rye, New Hampshire, as well old foe Perkins School in Boston. This was also the first year the Northern New England Tournament, the winners of which would be eligible for the New England meet. Sanford won that first Northern tourney by edging Braintree, Massachusetts 70-79. White (120) and Sparkowich (154) won gold medals.