On Saturday, Feb. 21, all wrestlers who qualified for the Central Coast Section (CCS) Masters concluded their season one step short of the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) State Championships.
This year, eight wrestlers qualified for the first CCS tournament, and five of them went on to wrestle at CCS Masters.
“It is a tricky tournament,” senior Miles Reeth said. “California is one of the most difficult states for wrestling. I know some people didn’t go as far as they wanted to, but I think CCS Masters is an accomplishment which we should all be proud of.”
In the tournament, wrestlers faced formidable competition from across the section, and ultimately did not overcome their opponents.
“I had a tough draw, a really tough weight class,” Reeth said. “I was kind of unlucky with that, but I just knew if I went out there and wrestled my best match, then I’d be fine with the result either way.”
Despite not sending any wrestlers to the state championship, head coach Ernesto Nuñez said he has high hopes for the team’s future.
“It is painful considering the success we’ve had the last couple years, but it is part of the sport,” Nuñez said. “It’s part of the growing pains, you have ups and downs when it comes to qualifying to state. This was a down year, but again, there’s a lot of potential on the team right now that I have high hopes for next year.”
This season also marks the end of multiple seniors’ wrestling careers.
“I’m losing a couple good seniors,” Nuñez said. “I’m losing a couple Masters qualifiers, these guys, these wrestlers, led by example, so I do lose them, that’s gonna sting. But on the flip side, we did have a relatively young team that had a lot of potential, and I do plan to capitalize on that next season.”
Reeth said he agrees the younger wrestlers show potential and that he looks forward to seeing the team develop.
“Four out of the five wrestlers that went to Masters this year will be graduating,” Reeth said. “So it kind of leaves the coaches with less to work with, but there is definitely a lot of potential in the [mat] room that can grow. I’m looking forward to tuning in after I leave and watching how the team can grow and how far they make it. We’re gonna be losing a few people but I definitely think the talent’s there in the [mat] room, they just have to keep looking for it.”
Reflecting on the tournament and season as a whole, Nuñez noted the importance of commitment and that the team could have benefited from more of it.
“So again, we need to get more committed to the program, meaning we need to wrestle year-round,” Nuñez said. “We need to do more freestyle, more Greco, all the kids we’re losing to from other schools, like 90% of them, wrestle year-round. So we need to find a way to get more of that going on on our team.”
Nuñez said he plans to manage the program more strictly next season to achieve his desired results.
“Wrestling is not one of those sports where you can miss a certain amount of practices and expect to be successful,” Nuñez said. “Wrestling is that sport where you get out what you put in. And so if you’re not 100% in your efforts, the results will show on the mat. So next season, we got to improve on our commitment levels.”
Nuñez has multiple plans to grow the program, including making use of the new gym that opened this year.
“We do have plans to continue, to restart our club team, which we had for several years,” Nuñez said. “But when we went to Mills, it was hard to keep the club team going, because, you know, I don’t have access to their gym, to their mat room. Well, they don’t have a mat room. So here, I do want to take advantage of our facility, our brand new facility, and start having club at least 80% of the school year.”
