The spirit of resilience and the grit to perform at the top level even when doing the most physically and mentally demanding actions makes wrestling the king of combat sports.
Cal High’s varsity wrestling team has shown throughout the years how much effort they put into each meet. This year the efforts and vibes continue to stay with the team.
“This is my first year but I see how much my team is committed and how much they all want to succeed and win,” freshman Lam Ngyuen said,
The main goal remains from previous seasons which is to get into NCS and become NCS champion. But since wrestling is an individual sport, there are only a handful of people who qualify to compete in the postseason.
The league has become extremely competitive with interest growing in the sport, so naturally students have been getting better and the push to NCS has become more competitive.
Cal is 2-2 in league heading into the final week of the season. The Grizzlies placed second behind Monte Vista on Jan. 29 in the annual Battle of the Axe, which features the San Ramon Valley Unified School District’s four high schools.
Head Coach Daniel Lister is extremely confident in the group of athletes he has this year.
“We still have a few more weeks of wrestling and league championships,” Lister said last month. “But we typically send a neat full team [to NCS]”.
Even though wrestling is an individual sport the team doesn’t let that stop them from coming together and encouraging one another.
“By myself it would be really hard but since I have the team behind me I don’t want to give up,” freshman Nathan Chen said.
Over the past couple of years female interest has been growing leading to more girls joining the program as well. Historically, there have been around eight girls on the team, but with the growth of the wrestling program that number is now more than 20 girls.
Lister sees dedication in this group of girls and is proud of seeing their growth throughout the season.
“The girls have not wavered in their commitment to the sport and all seem to enjoy the competition and camaraderie which comes with the sport,” Lister said.
Each meet is filled with tension, with everyone competing to come out as the winner in their weight divisions.
“As hard as it is mentally the feeling of competing for my team and myself helps me calm the nerves and try to show my full potential.” Chen said.
Senior Connor Griffin learned how to use the people important to him as motivation on the mat.
“It can be very challenging at times and when you are struggling you should think about the other people you wrestle for whether it’s your friends, teammates, coaches, or family,” Griffin said.
Griffin said he will continue this mentality in NCS and hopes that his teammates will also think the same way, so the team won’t have any regrets for how they end the season.
With NCS coming up the team will have to put the nerves to bed and put their frustration behind them and remember the effort they have put in this season.
– Livi Jung
Men’s Soccer
After a bittersweet ending for the team last season, the boys were looking to build on the performance of last year.
“We have for sure a better season this year than we did last year,” senior captain Bradyn Biferno said. “[We had] a lot of improvement there.”
The collective goal for the team is qualifying for the NCS championships after a good season in league.
The team has an overall record of 9-6-7 and a league record of 2-5-2 placing them in seventh in the EBAL.
“We want to qualify for NCS, we’re really close to that […],” senior Ibrahim Jarada said. “We also want to place higher in EBAL.”
Meaningful players to the team include their two captains, Biferno and senior Ben Zhou.
“[Both captains are] really passionate,” senior Aryav Dusara said. “[They have] great communication skills [with the team], and they’re motivating.”
Jarada said the captains are pivotal in the team’s success and continuously encourage the players to improve on and off the field.
With the season winding down, the boys are determined to show that their hard work and dedication can lead them to new heights and hopefully a NCS run.
The team describes the player relationships and dynamics on the pitch as strong-willed and effective.
“I think the mentality for us is ‘go hard,’” Dusara said.
Jarada said that they’ve played stronger as a team this season. The team will continue to take each step together towards achieving their ultimate goal, becoming NCS champions.