Krystal Rincon with her parents at the SF Giants Game
Wrestlers pin the competition on the road to CCS
By Krystal Rincon
Sports Editor
With four years of Central Coast Section (CCS) Championships under their belts, Gilroy High School’s varsity wrestlers are hungry for another victorious season. Yet success is not an easy goal to pin down, it requires an amount of dedication and sacrifice that most people cannot even begin to understand.
It is well known that the Gilroy High school wrestling team is ranked one of the highest schools in the state. With a full roster of 18 strong, the Mustangs are hoping to claim their fifth title this year; a feat that has never been accomplished in CCS history. This year the team won the Mid-Cal tournament for the second time in a row, and the Mission San Jose tournament for the fourth time. The squad has not lost a single dual meet since 2001, giving them thirty-five straight wins.
“I’m pretty sure it’s the hardest sport here,” said junior Travis Sakamoto. “Everything is high intensity of it’s gotten a lot more competitive.”
Although the season officially starts in November, being a wrestler requires year-around dedication. For wrestlers like senior Nico Naranjo, wrestling season started at age five and has never stopped. Naranjo has been part of the Gilroy High varsity squad for all of his four years at GHS, and is ranked fourth in the state in 2005.
“I am passionate about wrestling,” said Naranjo, “I love the sport. I love the intensity and the amount of dedication you have to put into it.”
One of the biggest dedications is the amount of time that a wrestler needs to devote to wrestling to be great.
“It’s pretty much a life now,” said seven year wrestler Sakamoto.
Most of the boys wake up in the morning and run three miles, spend their normal day at school, attend a study session for an hour after school, and run three more miles. The boys than start official practice for two hours, run the Mantelli Hill immediately after, and go home to weight lift on their own.
“Their day starts at six AM and it ends at about eight PM for sixteen weeks,” said ten year head varsity coach Armando Gonzales. “It’s unlike any other sport. And people wonder why our wrestling program is successful, that’s why. There's no secret to it, we work extremely hard, and these boys are extremely dedicated.”
With this amount of dedication and training, it is no wonder that the boys are able to stay in the shape that they do.
“You have to make weight every time you wrestle and you have to be that exact weight that you are trying to wrestle,” said Sakamoto.
Consistently maintaining weight is one of the biggest challenges in the sport. There are many levels of weight classes, and in order to wrestle, the wrestlers must weigh in before the tournament of match to qualify. If they miss weight, all of the training and practice that was put in, is wasted until the next match. Sometimes the weight margins are so close, that wrestlers use a spitting technique to lose up to one full pound in the last hours before weigh in.
“Some people just sit there with jolly ranchers or starburst and just spit,” said Naranjo. “Some people can spit a pound off a pound on the way to a tournament.”
Although this method is one that is only used in the last seconds before weighing in, there are others that are used consistently. Some wrestlers wrap plastics around their bodies and wear sweats during practices and runs in order to lose all the weight that they need to. Others stay in a sauna for a period of time in order to sweat off weight. Yet sometimes, not even these techniques are enough for victory.
“You can work as hard as you can, and you never know if the other guy has outworked you. So you can train and train and train with no guarantees for success and you have to be able to come back the next day and do it all over again,” said Gonzales.
Hard workouts and weight loss techniques are not the only factors that contribute to successful weight management. Eating habits are also an essential element in maintaining weight. A wrestler’s diet is mostly composed of chicken, water-based vegetables, fruits and proteins; no soda, no pizza, and no junk food.
“It takes a tremendous amount of discipline to eat right for that amount of time,” said Gonzales. “The cleaner you eat, the cleaner your body burns.”
Not only is the type of food eaten important, but how much is eaten is important as well. Wrestlers only eat in small portions so they will not overeat and gain weight. It is a method they no longer hassles them because they have done it for so long.
“We do want to eat more, it’s just that we’re disciplined not to,” said Sakamoto. “I’ve kinda just grown into dieting.”
Although many of the wrestlers assure that their eating and training patterns are healthy, others have different opinions.
“I admit I was in good shape but I don’t think I was healthy,” said senior and former wrestler Ismael Gutierrez, “You eat very small portions to where you’re kinda weak and fatigued.”
Gutierrez wrestled for the Mustangs three and half years and quit in the middle of his junior year, due to a personal conflict. He once recorded himself losing eight pounds in one day by not eating and still training hard.
“When you get food taken away from it’s not fun. When you have it, it’s not that big of a deal, but when you know its there, its hard,” said Gutierrez, “Even when you’re in the shower, you don’t want to take a sip of that water because that’s just like a .1 weight difference.”
Gutierrez is not the only person to feel that the lifestyle of a wrestler is less than healthy. The California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) has adopted a “nationally recognized program [that] is required for all CIF wrestlers beginning with the 2006-2007 season, with the hope that if followed, it will decrease the probability of health risks to any CIF wrestler who might be instructed or choose to utilize unhealthy practices in order to ‘make weight.’” This ‘hydration’ program is based on finding the minimum weight a person can weigh, and still stay healthy. It is tested by urine samples that detect the amount of body fat percentage a wrestler has, and how much he should have. He will not be able to participate in the match or tournament if found to be unhealthy.
“They don’t want you being unhealthy anymore,” said Gutierrez. “And they’re trying to keep people healthy now with this program.”
Despite these types of criticisms, the Gilroy High program is still confident that their training and eating patterns are done correctly and healthily.
“Through all of my knowledge and all of my experience, I’ve learned to do it the right way and the right way is the way we do it here at Gilroy High School,” said Gonzales. “We don’t ever cut them like people think.”
Although there will always be speculations about the health of this squad, it has proven itself to be successful in all aspects of its sport. The work-ethic, dedication and discipline that is required to be a wrestler, will al be engraved into their character for a lifetime. There is no doubt that the Gilroy High squad is, and will continue to be, a team to be proud of.
Gilroy High School
The Free Press
December 16, 2007