Today there was a post on Twitter about the Poway line up. It is deep. According to the post (it can be backed up on the website CSS-Rank which ranks all California wrestlers) some weights at Poway have as many as four wrestlers who are top 50 in state and often top four in San Diego. Now this is impressive. But if you are a parent who is thinking of where to send their freshman or even with a wrestler in high school considering moving, this should give you pause. Why? Because it means that your potential state qualifier at another school will warm the bench for the next two to three years.
Most programs in San Diego are not competitive. However of the 89 programs, there are about 20 which are capable of providing the necessary program to allow a good wrestler to get to state championships and place there. This includes La Costa Canyon, Rancho Buena Vista, Helix and many others, including Patrick Henry.
Why? Because contrary to what people think, one does not need a room of 80 tough wrestlers to go to state that would allow a scholarship. What is necessary is a dedicated coach who is willing to spend time with the athlete and take them to the necessary tournaments where that athlete will get the exposure to competition that will allow them to perform well at Masters. This is why we were able to get two wrestlers to State Championships last year.
Our philosophy is not to have 80 wrestlers and have a back up for every tough wrestler. This in my opinion is exploitation. Instead, we and I believe most other programs work to get every wrestler to their potential, whether it is just a winning season or a podium spot in Bakersfield. In our room, we don’t have Stephen Neal, but there are 5-6 coaches who are dedicated and are there to pay attention to young wrestlers and help them perfect their moves. They are also mostly young and able to also be the wrestling partners for the varsity wrestlers who need someone who will push them to the next level. This ratio of coach to athlete is impossible to meet in a program with more than 40 athletes.
However, coach to athlete ratio is not the real reason why your freshman should think twice about going to Poway over their home school. A talented freshman at Patrick Henry will be able to break through a line-up and wrestle varsity their freshman year. They will be able to go to Masters and State. Going to State Championship multiple times is the biggest predictor of future performance and placement at State Championships.
However, the chance of that happening to a talented wrestler in Poway is actually very low. This is because when they enter, they are competing with two or three other upper class men who are state qualifiers, and they are almost sure to lose to the Junior or Senior. Which means they are unlikely to reach varsity until their Junior or Senior year. At that point it is too late for them to get the experience needed to sometimes place and certainly to become a state champion. This is why while Poway does very well in San Diego, and routinely send more wrestlers to State Championships than almost any other program in California, they have only had four state championships in all of their years of dominating San Diego. Most of their line up has been to State championships only once or twice. Meanwhile a program like Carlsbad, Rancho Buena Vista or La Costa have fewer qualifiers but those who qualify often do so multiple times, allowing them the experience not to just place but become state champions.
However let’s say your wrestler has paid their dues and is now a junior or senior and is able to break through. There is no guarantee that another talented freshman doesn’t move to the area for the program from New York or Orange County or even Brawley and takes their spot. So now your wrestler is a top four in San Diego, who could have placed, is stuck on the bench, again.
This isn’t hypothetical, this happens very often. For instance a brother of a state ranked wrestler who wrestled for Patrick Henry is at Poway High School right now. He has routinely placed at the toughest tournaments in California, including 3rd at Temecula Valley Battle for the Belt. He is ranked top 20 in the state. But he will not get to State Championships this year, or next year. Because he is a sophomore and the wrestler above him is ranked 12th and is a Junior.
How many other talented kids are on the bench at Poway? A deep pool of wrestlers makes Poway strong, but it also makes San Diego wrestling weak. Of course that’s not Poway’s fault since ultimately it is the parent’s decision of where to send their kids to be the best wrestlers. However parents of Juan Mora, Anthony Meza, Alex Perez, Ian Baker, Mateo Olmos, Scott Platt (before he moved to Poway), Kenny Moore, and many many others, all chose to stay at their school, in their community, and their kids became champions. They didn’t become another name on the wall, they became legends of their school. Not only that, but they also were able to get scholarships to great schools and become San Diego legends, like Bernie Truax of Rancho Buena Vista who is now a Penn State wrestler.
So if you are a parent, who wants the best for their wrestler, consider staying at Patrick Henry, or La Costa Canyon, or Granite Hills, or Hoover, or Helix.. they may do a lot better than you think, and maybe even better than they would have at Poway.
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