Just a few years ago, wrestling was a dying sport.

The number of kids wrestling was decreasing and popularity was waning. So much so that the Olympic Committee planned to cut the sport from the Olympics. The sport rallied and saved itself. 

Since then, two things helped the sport grow: Women’s wrestling and growth in popularity of Jiu Jitsu due to the popularity of MMA. This increase popularity lead to CIF adopting girls wrestling as a separate sport and then added boys and girls wrestling to Middle School athletics.

This year, Patrick Henry High School wrestling has also grown as a result. The team grew to 38 wrestlers including seven girls.

The girls are lead by sophomore captain Violet Gray who is 7-7 this year with a 4.3 GPA but out due to a shoulder injury towards late season. Sophomore Aubrey Lund is 9-4 and looking to place at CIF again while freshman Maverick Garcia is 10-7 with a fourth-place at City Championships and five wins against boys, including Consolation Runner-Up at the Boys La Costa Canyon Freshman Championships.

The boys are having a great season too with a third place at City Championships, having four wrestlers in the finals including junior and State Qualifier Ethan Vinoray, currently ranked Top 10 in San Diego County. 

Also a finalist was team captain junior Abdullah Alshami and senior and team captain Reid Muscat. 

Also a finalist at City Championships was a freshman, Caleb Arenz who wrestled in the middle school program and was the middle school champion last year. Muscat and Arenz are undefeated in the league. The team produced two City Championship placers who wrestled their first year including sophomore Eli Roy, third, and senior Zakariah Safi who placed fourth.

The team this year is 9-6 in duals and in preparation for CIF Championships and States with the goal of having qualifiers and wrestlers at the state level again. That is after a rough setback for Vinoray who had an injury mid-season. 

Big Future/Kumeyaay Trails Wrestling Club

Patrick Henry also hosts a wrestling club by the name of Kumeyaay Trails to honor the Kumeyaay warriors who once lived in the area. 

This fall it opened up to kids seven and older. About 10 kids joined in fall and the club is already full with 20 kids between 7-12 signed up. The club expanded in the spring to include youth wrestlers between  ages 12-14 which is run by Coach Jores Peters.

One of the issues in wrestling is that while there are opportunities for kids, there were no opportunities for graduates of high school to wrestle. The fact that San Diego Unified does not allow volunteers under 21 meant that San Diego faced a shortage of officials and coaches. That is only a few of the wrestlers would go to wrestle in college and without other opportunities to continue to wrestle they would drop out from the sport.

For this reason, Patrick Henry decided to open up a non-profit wrestling club for those who are 18 and up. The adult program is run by Michael Joseph, a Patrick Henry alumni, who wrestled in Minnesota at Division II level and was the assistant coach at Palomar College under Brody Barrios. 

KT Wrestling can be found at KTWrestlingclub.org.

Why wrestle?

Those who wrestle find the sport to be more than a sport. 

It is a community. It offers the smallest and the largest an opportunity. It is the ultimate growth mindset as those who start as beginners have no limits on how far they can go. It is a sport that welcomes girls and boys, and there is a place for young and old. 

The new movie by Matt Damon about a college wrestler, Anthony Robles who won NCAA D1 Championships without a leg, only further exemplifies that this is a sport for everyone. 

And that’s really what Patrick Henry wrestling provides, a place for everyone.

Editor’s note: Sam Litvin is the head wrestling coach at Patrick Henry High School. 

(Courtesy images)