On Dec. 1, the junior varsity wrestling team competed in a tournament at El Camino High School. The purpose of the tournament was to give novice wrestlers an introduction to competitive wrestling and prepare them for the coming season.
Although junior Douglas Valle lost both his matches, he claims, “This was a very good experience. I learned a lot on how wrestling works. I had my opponent pinned down within the first 15 seconds, but he kept getting up. I never knew how intense wrestling was. It’s just you and your opponent during a match and your coach yelling at you from the corner of the mat.”
Last year, the Dons tied for the CCS division title. In order to win the title again, they must defeat Burlingame and Mills. Coach Steve Ratto says, “A rivalry with Burlingame is establishing. Because they are the closest to us skill wise, our matches are very competitive.”
Ratto has his team practice after school every day from 3 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. The team practices different wrestling moves and conditions by doing cardio during practice. Although the training can be difficult, Valle says, “I enjoy the workouts and the muscle memory that wrestling requires. Even though it can be hard on us, I know that this training will benefit my wrestling. We usually do a bunch of jumping jacks, sit ups, push-ups, wall walks, bear crawls, and forward rolls. Because you don’t really have to think much in wrestling, you have to rely on muscle memory. So this conditioning will definitely help me in my matches.”
Senior Marc Reichenberger says, “We usually learn one or two moves each day, and we mostly do conditioning at the beginning and end of practice. I think we need to work on our aggression this year because in the past we’ve lost plenty of matches due to kids being nervous on the mat.”
Each wrestler has a different goal for the season. Junior Cody Lim says, “I want to improve my takedowns. I practice them every day… Improving my takedowns will help me win my matches.”
Wrestlers must make sacrifices outside of school. Because there are weight divisions in the sport, wrestlers must watch and maintain their weight. Ratto says, “I try to have my wrestlers cut down on fast food. I don’t make them eat less because they’re kids and still growing. Instead, [I] try to get them to eat healthier foods such as vegetables to grow stronger muscles.”
Valle joined the team this year because he wanted to try out a contact sport. He says, “Joining the team was pretty intimidating at first. I knew wrestling was a hard sport to pick up and that it was very physical and dangerous… At first, I did everything really slowly. I wasn’t aggressive so the moves didn’t work out well. When the football players came in, I wrestled with [junior] Stevie Panelli. His speed and aggressiveness woke me up. Stevie helped me calm my nerves before matches… Taking someone down is the best feeling in the world. I love the huge variety of moves you can pull on an opponent. I’m really glad I joined the team.”
Junior Stuart Purdy says, “My favorite part about wrestling is the friendships you make throughout the year. You also love the feeling of accomplishment you get after the year, knowing you survived wrestling season.”
The team plans on participating in a wrestling tournament in Sonoma. Purdy says, “We are wrestling in the Sonoma tournament this year. It sounds pretty fun and will be a good experience for me.”
The first varsity tournament is the Peninsula Varsity Tournament at Half Moon Bay High School on Dec. 8. The first dual meet, in which both junior varsity and varsity compete, will be against Hillsdale at Aragon on Jan. 10.
