| Like many wrestlers, my journey began my Freshman year of high school. One of the main reasons I wanted to wrestle was because in middle school I saw two kids get into a fight. The smaller kid, locked up a head and arm and threw the other kid. The fight was instantly over, and I thought it was one of the coolest things I had ever witnessed. That kid had talked about wrestling before, and I knew I had to give it a shot. It’s been 7 years since I saw that head and arm, and I still suck at head and arms, but that did lead me to walking into Centennial’s wrestling room for the first time. I was so nervous and anxious. Wrestling was so foreign; unlike anything I had ever done before. |
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| Thankfully however, I was greeted by two welcoming and amazing coaches, Coach Wike and Coach Hall. I am so fortunate to have ended up at Centennial with them. My first year of wrestling was spent just trying to learn wrestling on Junior Varsity. I loved everything about JV. Everyday there was a new move to be learned and experimented with. Everyday a new door was opened to so many possibilities. I feel like that excitement for practice changes as you get more experienced, where the curiosity to wrestling fades away and you pretty much know what to expect. After a few years you kind of know your go to moves. While you are still learning, it is more about fine-tuning your skills, and learning the occasional funky move, that will probably get you yelled at if you actually tried to use it. My Freshman year was fairly successful for JV, and I took second at JV zones, which was a huge accomplishment for me. I continued wrestling all summer at Centennial and was getting more comfortable with the sport. |
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| My Sophomore year was a step up, it was my first year on Varsity. Varsity was much more intense and I lost a lot of matches that year. Coaches often talk about setting goals, and I did just that. I had a road map of how I planned to go through my high school career. My Sophomore year the goal was to qualify for State, my Junior year to place at State, and my Senior year to win State. I had smaller goals in between those, but those were the main ones that the others led up to. The goals seemed to be lining up. At Regionals my Sophomore year I had made it into the Consolation Finals. If I won, I would take third and go to State, but if I lost, I would go home. My goal was right there within grasp. The person I was wrestling was someone I had beat the day before in the same tournament. I went into that match thinking I should be able to qualify for State, easily. Instead, I learned a valuable lesson. Nothing is granted in wrestling. Every match must be earned. He beat me, and I was devastated. Looking back, I think it is a good thing I learned that lesson early in my wrestling career because I did not deserve to win that match. |
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| Each Summer Coach Wike would always harp on us that we needed to get 50 matches in. It didn’t matter what the tournament or style was, just get to the number 50. Every single summer of high school, I hit that 50 number. It contributed so much to my growth as a wrestler, and every summer I could see myself taking a leap. As my Junior year progressed, I was having a lot more success. I even placed at a couple tournaments. This culminated in Regionals, where I again did not reach my goals and failed to qualify for State. I was 0 for two on my large goals, and I started having a lot of self-doubt. I am so fortunate that even when I doubted myself, I had coaches and family that always believed in me. I knew my Senior year had to be different, and I worked hard to make that a possibility. |
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| Another summer of being Coach Hall’s throwing dummy and 50 matches later, it was my Senior year. I could not believe how fast it came. I went on to have a good season. I took 3rd at Freakshow, 3rd at the Liberty Classic, 1st at the Bulldog Grappler, 5th at the Sierra Nevada Classic, and 1st at the Raul Huerta Invitational, but it all came down to Regionals. The entire year I thought about one of the upperclassmen when I was a Freshman, Sergio Hernandez. His Junior year he went 0-2 at Regionals, and his Senior year he placed at State. If he could go from not even making it to State, to placing at State in a year, so could I. I took Second at Regionals and punched my ticket to State. It was such a relief to finally make it to State after so many years of failure. I ended up placing Second at State and that concluded my high school career. |
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| I thought I was done wrestling until I ran into Nathan Egbalic at UNLV. He told me how he was wrestling for UNLV’s NCWA team. At first, I was hesitant because I didn’t want to rush into anything and I was satisfied with my closure on wrestling, but the more I thought about it the more inevitable it seemed. Then I went to a practice, and I was hooked. Destry Talledo was my main practice partner, and I’m so thankful for the way he pushed me and made me a better wrestler my first year. That year I was the NCWA West Coast Conference Champion. |
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| As of writing this, I plan to graduate in December with a degree in Civil Engineering, so this will be my last year wrestling. Last Nationals, I lost in the blood round, and this Nationals I have hopes to All-American. I would like to thank Coach Wike, Coach Hall, Coach Downing, and Coach Karst. They are not only great coaches, but even better people and they have made such an impact on me. I would also like to thank my family for always being there for me and supporting me. |
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