TONIGHT: MOORE LEAGUE WRESTLING
Poly @ Lakewood, 3pm
Millikan @ Compton/Cabrillo, 3pm
Jordan @ Wilson, 3pm
I will begin by saying I played baseball and football in high school and continued my baseball career at the collegiate level, so I have no personal experience on the mat. The first time I ever watched a high school wrestling dual was in 1990 when my brother Brad went from captain of the Glendora High CIF championship football team to a standout wrestler on a program that was coming of age.
The dedication and discipline of this sport was at the core of making my brother what he is today; a First Sergeant in the U.S. Marines, who leads a Special Ops unit in Afghanistan and is on his third tour of duty for our country.
After ten years of not attending any wrestling events, I started covering high school wrestling in 2000 for the San Gabriel Valley Tribune. I almost felt like it was a punishment and it seemed boring because I didn’t understand the sport or the athletes. But almost a decade later, there is no athlete, coach or sport that I admire more than that of high school wrestling.
I won’t try and convince you that wrestling is more exciting than football, basketball, baseball and volleyball, but it’s what they go through and the men they become that has won me over. After seven years of covering arguably three of best programs in the Southern Section (Northview, South Hills and West Covina High Schools), I have found the Long Beach wrestling scene to be a continuation of the San Gabriel Valley.
Many who don’t follow wrestling don’t realize what these kids actually do.
There are 14 weight classes from 103 pounds all the way up to heavyweight (285 pounds). No other high school sport is impacted by one’s weight, and yet every wrestler with the exception of heavyweight spends seven days a week trying to drop or (in their words) cut weight to compete at the lowest weight class possible. Techniques used to cut weight (safe and not safe) include not eating, eating the lowest caloric meals possible, running with trash bags over their clothes, steam rooms and other methods that coaches would never condone or permit in their presence.
The point being, there is no other sport where a kid has to go face to face with an opponent in a competition that is based on strength, speed, agility and technique and do so with little to no gas in their proverbial tank.
Can you imagine an offensive lineman for Lakewood trying to block a linebacker from Edison without having eaten a meal in three days?
In last week’s three-way dual with Norwalk and Torrance, a Poly wrestler with a name and weight to be withheld for privacy reasons, was dumped on his back and pinned with much of the reason being he said he hadn’t eaten in three days just to make weight. And despite the intense dedication and devotion he and every wrestler has for his sport, you won’t find one that will complain about what it takes to become a champion.
Despite this being a Long Beach web site, I find it appropriate to give you an example from one of the best programs over the last 20 years, Northview High School in Covina. The reason is simply to show you why wrestling is not only a sport with the most dedicated, disciplined and respectful athletes, but to show how family-orientated it has become.
Four years ago at the Masters Meet in Fontana, a very popular and talented Northview High wrestler named P. J. Martinez (112 pounds) was in a match that had he won would have qualified him for the State Meet in Bakersfield the following week and a loss would end his high school career.
Martinez lost a 6-5 decision that essentially ended his career, and outside of Carter High School, despite sending five guys to state (second most of any team from Southern California), 13 other Vikings wrestlers were in tears hugging and consoling their teammate because of the family atmosphere coach Dave Ochoa, Bobby Bellamy and their staff had created.
That kind of family-first mentality is rooted in the yearly commitment a wrestler makes to his teammates, coaches and their program. Local area coaches like Marshall Thompson (Millikan), Andy Miramontes (Lakewood), Bart Roper (Poly), Frank Soto (Norwalk), Tim Brogden (Warren), Omar Delgado (St. John Bosco), Miguel Soto and Monico Enriquez (Downey) are not only coaches and mentors to these boys, they are in most cases a second father to these young athletes.
A lot of wrestlers come from less than ideal home scenarios and these coaches not only take care of them in and out of the classroom, but on and off the mat. They also, as importantly, teach these boys the respect they show their peers, their opponents and those they come in contact with.
Wrestling is the one sport where the great majority of competitors can compliment an opponent without feeling they’ve denigrated themselves or their program. All of this for a sport that produces just a hand full of college scholarships, little to no press coverage and even less fanfare among the masses. But among those of us that have given wrestling a chance and have learned the sport and gotten to know the athletes and coaches, you can’t help but walk away with a sense of honor.
This is a sport that turns boys into leaders and leaders into men.
This is a sport that within its community has a rabid fan base, but it deserves your respect and support as well.
Go out and watch Poly take on four-time Moore League champion Lakewood tonight at 3pm at Lakewood.
Go out and cheer on Lakewood’s Kimo Napohaku (130), or Poly’s 145-pound Jesus Preciado or Millikan’s 152-pound captain Nick Pena. These kids, these coaches and this sport deserve your respect, your time and the community’s support.
They have literally shed their blood, sweat and tears for a common good and they ask for very little in return. The least we could do is applaud them.