The future of wrestling in South County continues to look promising.
The Gilroy Hawks wrestling club recently ended its season by putting on a spectacular performance at the California Freestyle State Championships. The Hawks earned a total of 15 state medals, including seven state champions. On top of all that, the Hawks team also produced three national champions and numerous All-Americans.
"We are always trying to improve from our previous performances," coach Greg Varela said. "Last year we had 22 state medals but only two champions, so this year we made a push for more champions. We had seven champions this year, but only 15 medals. So, there is always room for improvement."
For seven individuals, there was no way to top the way their season ended.
Jose Andrade, Juan Lopes and Tony Andrade all won first place in the Midget division, Jasmine Yanez won the Cadet division, Joseph Barnes won a title in the Bantam division, and 12-year-olds Isaiah Locsin and Nicholas Villarreal both won national titles on top of state in the Novice division.
"It's no wonder (Locsin and Villarreal) are buddies because they work their butts off," Varela said.
While the pair are the same age, the two faced different opponents according to weight after Villarreal grew three inches over the past year. Neither was about to say the past 12 months were easy, but they did say the grueling training paid off.
"It was hard, but for the national tournament we worked really hard," Locsin said.
Villarreal has goals that go beyond just one national title. After winning the Reno Worlds in April, he plans on going for the vaunted trinity award, which is attained by winning the three most prestigious national tournaments. To do so, Villarreal would have to win the Kickoff Classic in November, and the Tulsa Nationals in February.
"I think I can do more," Villarreal said. "I just want to keep on winning."
By combining the experience of Varela and Armando Gonzalez - Gonzalez was named California Wrestling Coach of the Year in June by the California Coaches Association after he and Varela helped lead Gilroy High to a record six straight Central Coast Section titles and a school-best second-place finish at state this past season - with a successful annual "Casino Night" fundraiser (which will be taking place August 23, go to www.gilroywrestling.com for details) and access to a new state-of-the-art training facility in Morgan Hill known as TFL (Train For Life) Fitness, coaches feel the club is poised to become even more dominant.
"The third key ingredient to Gilroy's success has been our strength and conditioning program headed by Danny Locsin, owner of TFL Fitness," Varela said. "His program has led to four years of injury-free wrestlers and his gym has been a godsend. Although Gilroy High would build us a new room (to train) if they could, in reality they can't.
"TFL provides (the wrestlers) a place to practice, lift weights and condition all under the same roof. As a coach, we're able to push them on the wrestling mat because we know Danny has something new for them to do every week."
Using different methods such as combat training that doesn't focus on just wrestling, medicine ball exercises, pounding sledgehammers on tires, rowing on machines and workouts that don't involve heavy weight lifting, the Hawks are taking an approach that few amateur athletes pick up at such a young age.
"The key to this thing is it's safe," Varela said. "They're not lifting weights, it's just their own body weight."
Of course, the wrestlers get a little bit heavier with each new trophy to hoist.
Josh Koehn Josh Koehn is the sports editor of the Gilroy Dispatch.
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