In 2020 Patrick Henry team had very old mats and a few dedicated wrestlers who wrestled only in season. Since then, there have been a lot of improvements. Last year we closed out with 35 wrestlers which included 8 girls, a freshmen, JV and Varsity team. Our girls ended up placing at several tournaments including Aubrey Lund who placed at CIF for the second year and became our first ever Female Masters Qualifier. We also had the most ever qualifying for Masters. In spite of a very tough CIF with top schools in San Diego being in our division we had 8 wrestlers place at CIF and qualify for Masters Championships
Our freshmen boys, many of whom came through our feeder program that Patrick Henry piloted and lead the effort to create the San Diego Middle School wrestling program, also did well, with two wrestlers placing at the Freshmen Counties and La Costa Canyon Freshmen Championships.
Our JV did much better last year, winning many of the duals after losing nearly every dual last year, including placing as a team and individuals at the Olympian JV Championships.
Our varsity had a good year as well. They went 9-6 with some tough competition. We had one League Champion although several were very close as well and as mentioned before, 8 qualify for Masters. This was in part thanks to our improved retention. Only two wrestlers quit during this past season, a big improvement for a sport which usually sees a very high attrition rate.
On other fronts, we brought back a tournament for the first time in over 30 years. Our alumni and kids program helped fundraise for an additional mat that allowed us to have the three mats necessary to host a tournament. The tournament had 18 teams and packed the gym. It was in honor of Patriot alumni Peter Gidlund and brought back many of his classmates as well as his parents.
Last year we upgraded our singlets, previous ones were yellow and green without any insignia. Our new singlets show our school name proudly. This year thanks to grants from PH Alumni Association and PH Foundation also received new headgear and Warm Ups, making our wrestlers represent the school.
The program expanded in other ways. The program is now a USA Wrestling Club. This allows us to wrestle year round with many wrestlers competing at various summer tournaments, including our own Beach Wrestling tournament. This tournament is always held at the conclusion of our Summer Camp where we bring in College level, Olympic and World level coaches and athletes to teach wrestlers from over 20 schools. Our camps are 100% non-profit giving out over $1000 in scholarships last year to students from all over San Diego.
Last year we also started a kids and youth program under Coach Jores. Coach Jores began a kids program and youth off season under our AAU club Kumeyaay Trails that gives homage to the native warriors that used to live in the area. The program helped get our middle school program from fourth place last year to second place with over 35 middle school wrestlers including 15 girls.
Because of the issues with retention of coaches after they graduated, we also started an adult program under the Kumeyaay trails. That program is headed by a Patriot Alumni, Division D2 NCAA wrestler and former Palomar Assistant Coach Michael Joseph. Who has been growing our adult wrestling program that we hope will allow to keep our alumni wrestlers involved and bring higher level talent to the program.
Our alumni outreach has also been going strong. When I first joined there was no alumni presence. Now we have an annual alumni dinner that this year included over 40 alumni including past coaches and our new graduating seniors. This has helped drive funding for the program that we hope will allow us to expand the program as the costs with the growth of the team go up and thus reduce the impact of increasing costs on fundraising.
My main two goals last year was to have our team pass the 3.0 threshold, which they did. Additionally I wanted our wrestlers to become next level wrestlers. Although we do not have any go on to college wrestling this year, as a Cuyamaca College adjunct, I was able to discuss a new college program starting at Grossmont and Cuyamaca college. Thanks to our adult program, we will have some of our adult program coaches start the club program at Cuyamaca, creating not only expansion of college wrestling for men and women in San Diego, but also paving a path for our own Next Level athletes.
Our club program has also become a revenue source for the program but also has allowed our program to contribute to Patriot Community with over $4000 in rental fees going to the school and the district this year so far.
Most importantly is what we have seen in impact on wrestlers and families. I have had many parents come to me and describe the positive impact of wrestling on their sons and daughters. They have told me about them becoming leaders at school, improving academically and socially.
I want to express my appreciation to administration, parents, alumni, sponsors and the community for the support for the program, we have had a lot of improvement in the past five years and we hope to have your continued support as we continue in our mission to improve the lives of our Patrick Henry students on and off the mat.
Go Patriots!
Coach Sam
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