By: Sergio Mancilles
Although Redwood’s Wrestling season doesn’t take place until late fall early winter, CIF has set new schedules due to COVID-19. This means their season will be pushed back to spring 2021. Hopefully by then, COVID-19 will be more controlled and teams can resume.
So how will wrestlers stay prepared for the season, and what can we expect from the team if the season does go one way or another? Only time will tell.
Speaking on behalf of last season, Head Wrestling Coach, David Watts, said “I think we did better than expected because we were a young team. Varsity was 2nd in WYL and JV won WYL. We qualified 10 wrestlers to the Masters tournament and 2 wrestlers to the State Championships. The team and individuals need to work more technique and lift off season.”
Coach Watts also mentioned what this season will look like, “Hopefully we get this virus under control and get kids back to school. I’m not sure how fast that can happen but I’m hopeful, and look forward to getting back to some normalcy. Sports will be divided into 2 seasons instead of 3 so some athletes may have to give up one of their sports for this year. If we get back to school it will be interesting having wrestling in the spring!”
Although this year brings a lot of change for their season and the rest of the year, Coach Watts remains hopeful that the team will bring home a Division II Valley title.
Eczequiel Jaurrieta, ‘22, is one of the most experienced wrestlers on the team and has improved in many different ways in the short 2 years he has competed for Redwood.
“[Last] season was great! The team bonded really well. I placed at most tournaments I went to, and made it to the Central Section Grand Masters,” said Jaurrieta.
He also mentioned how he thinks the new season may look like during this
whole pandemic,“Well it’ll take some getting used to, but once the ball gets rolling things will be great. And with the new members on the coaching staff and with the help of our new AD, Redwood wrestling is going to be amazing this year.”
“The team is going to be and do amazing. Last year our team was pretty young and we did pretty good, so there’s no way to go, but up. We also have some promising freshmen coming into the program this year.”
Eczequiel Jaurrieta, ‘22
Sebastian Nevarro, has been wrestling for Redwood for 3 years now, and he has hope to come back and have a good last wrestling season on the team.
“For me Wrestling was a way to escape from the struggles that are happening in my personal life and it just brings the real person out of me. As a teammate I love everyone like a brother it may not seem like it but I do. If they show that they’re trying to make improvements in the sport it just shows me who you really are that vary you from a quitter or a person that gets back up every time you fall. Now with all the support the team has for each other, over all the team did very good, and better than expected, so I think we had a very good season last year,” says Navarro.
“For me Wrestling was a way to escape from the struggles that are happening in my personal life and it just brings the real person out of me. As a teammate I love everyone like a brother it may not seem like it but I do. If they show that they’re trying to make improvements in the sport it just shows me who you really are that vary you from a quitter or a person that gets back up every time you fall. Now with all the support the team has for each other, over all the team did very good, and better than expected, so I think we had a very good season last year,” says Navarro.
Among a worldwide pandemic, Navarro said, “To me I feel like the season would look a bit different for usual since they’ll probably limit the amount of schools that could enter in a tournament and limit how big crowds would have to be…but we’re going to be city champs again, win WYL, get that DII title and touch the valley title, with the new and current wrestlers and staff, we’re going to make a name for ourselves this season.”