Patrick Henry is not Poway. It is not even Granite Hills. And although we our goal is to create champions by building middle school and youth wrestling and bringing in big names to our camps, I can say it proudly that it is our intention to never become a Poway.
Poway is a powerhouse and a magnate. Kids who wrestled from early age from all over the county and country try to find a way to go to Poway. They seek the name, they seek the future that Poway offers their wrestlers. The problem is that 2 out of 3 kids or more, will never be on varsity at Poway, and if they are, they might be on varsity for one or two years.
Meanwhile at other programs like Granite or La Costa, they are more likely to become varsity wrestlers and still get to state championships and even have a future as college wrestlers. Best example is the Rancho Buena Vista wrestler Bernie Truax who now wrestles at the number one program Penn State. I believe that we are not different as far as providing a place where talent can reach great heights. However, even that is not what makes Patrick Henry special.
Kids like Alex Adler, Francisco Saroldi, Nicholas Arambula and Gage Mote make the program special. Kids who would never be at Poway for even a season come to Patrick Henry, work hard and get to varsity and find their way into Masters. Kids who could not speak or even hold their head up, by their senior year become captains. Alex Adler hyperventilated at the end of every run as a freshman, lapped kids as a senior. Abdullah Alshami, quiet and shy as a freshman became a team captain as a sophomore, voted in by his own teammates. Nicholas Arambula who came in as a 185 pound freshman and lost most matches, shed over thirty-five pounds and placed fourth at a freshman tournament at the end of the year. Kids like Gage Mote, who didn’t win a single match in his first year, dropped forty pounds and won a dual winning match wrestling up a weight class in his second year.
Of course we do our best to take talented wrestlers like Ethan and Elijah Vinoray to their absolute potential and have them place in Masters and State Championships. And we are proud that talented kids can come to Patrick Henry and that we can cultivate that talent to reach the podium and we will continue to keep a high standard for all wrestlers. I would be lying if I didn’t say that the joy of winning Masters is a joy unmatched by any other win. But what makes the coaches most proud about our program is that we can take kids who were failing in school and inspire them to work hard and raise their grades. We are proud of the kid who lost a parent and become the shoulder for another wrestler who lost his mom to cancer. We are proud that the girls will continue to come to practice in post season just to help the one who made it to Masters and give a group hug when one of them wins their first match, something that will never happen at Poway where the first match won was long before they arrived at Poway. We are proud of seeing a wrestler like Koa who could not contain his emotions in his first year, worked hard and become a mature senior who is able to hold his emotions in check even in the midst of an imminent fight.
What I love seeing is how our wrestlers interact with other wrestlers, they become friends before they even step on the mat and after become better friends after a match. What I love hearing is admiration for our wrestlers from other coaches, referees and even other wrestlers as they shake our hand after a match.
Some programs mark their success with championships and champions on the mat. We mark our program’s success with kids who go from struggling to champions in life. We we work hard to make champions, and even harder to make good people. And isn’t that the entire point of publicly funded school sports anyway?
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