It’s amazing what a difference a year can make. Last year the majority of incoming varsity wrestlers had to “learn how to be varsity,” according to Coach JJ Garcia.  This year the struggles and lessons of last year were put to good use and the team thrived.  “The difference between this year and last year, is that the kids are the same kids, the same skinny kids except this year they’re a little stronger and a little tougher, mentally better prepared, and more knowledgeable and less overwhelmed in going to the big show-CCS,” said Garcia.

While the success on the mat is nice, Garcia is focused on the big picture, life. “My main job is to get these kids to be passionate about something,” he said, “the rest will follow.” He uses wrestling as the vehicle to get them to be passionate. “Wrestling makes them care about their grades so they can wrestle, which gets them to care about school, which makes them care about their future and about their life.” Junior Juan Ruelas says that Coach JJ teaches them a lot, which he values and uses to get better and to not stop trying.  The main message Garcia delivers is to push the good, to get better, and to achieve the best, which he sums up in his motto, “You don’t become a badass overnight …it needs work”.

After experiencing two close losses against Gilroy and Palma, everyone worked hard at getting better. Senior Kevin Bucio, a third year varsity competitor, said,“ As a team I was expecting to beat Palma, however, losing made us put things in better perspective in order to finish season strong.”

The season’s turning point came in the win over Hollister, who they had lost to in an earlier tournament, where their hard work began paying off.  The team built on the victory over Hollister, with wins against rival Alvarez, North Salinas, and Christopher. Finishing second with a 15-7 record, left the team feeling like they were ready for CCS and State.

However, they had one more step to get ready for CCS, the MBL league match.   Thanks to their performances in the league match, 12 of the 14 varsity wrestlers qualified for CCS. The twelve were: Enrique Zavala, Ricardo Huerta, Rudy Vargas, Diego Ramirez, Brian Vargas, Juan Ruelas, Chris Piceno, Albert Maravillo, Nathaniel Dalerio, Kevin Bucio, Jose Gomez, and Ricardo Cruz.  Ruelas, a second year varsity competitor said, “I felt that I had to make it, I expected it, but was also excited.”

At CCS, everyone was up for the challenges. After every round, the level of intensity was tougher with better competition.  Senior Ricardo Huerta was the most successful, overall placing 5^{th ,}  going 5-2. Juan Ruelas finished top 8 as well as Enrique Zavala who finished top 12. Both proved competitive, but were unable to win through the tougher rounds. While he didn’t make it to day 2, senior Nathaniel Dalerio was philosophical, “I wrestled through the pain for the love of the sport, I didn’t get as far as I would’ve had liked to, but I never stopped.”

The 2014-2015 journey was intense and memorable.  As Garcia has said numerous times to his wrestlers, “We win, and sometimes “we learn” and this time we learned together!”