Hanging in there: Wrestling team shows determination

OTHELLO — If one word can be used to sum up the girls wrestling program at Othello High School, it’s probably perseverance.

Assistant coach Lupe Perez cited the example of a wrestler who couldn’t seem to win a match. She lost every match she wrestled for a month, but she kept on coming back, working in practice, getting back out on the mat. And all her work paid off.

“She finally won her match,” Perez said, “Everybody (on the team) was hugging her, cheering her on.”

Once she had reached the goal of winning a match, she set a new goal, Perez said. That’s a lesson she can apply outside the wrestling room, he said.

Perseverance has been important. The current assistants, Perez and Mark De La Rosa, and head coach Rafael Ruiz won the Mat Classic 2020-21 coaching staff of the year award. The Lady Huskies wrestling coaches also received awards from the National Wrestling Coaches Association and the National Assistant Wrestling Coaches Association, as Washington’s “assistant coaching staff of the year.”

Ruiz nominated the assistant coaches for their work in 2019-20 and 2020-21, in what he called less than desirable circumstances.

Ruiz, Perez and De La Rosa were team assistants during the 2018-19 season, when former head coach Jacob “J.J.” Martinez resigned in mid-season following an allegation of misconduct. Martinez was not charged with any crime, with the Adams County Prosecutor’s Office citing insufficient evidence.

But the events had an effect on the wrestlers and their families, Ruiz said. And the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic brought another set of challenges.

Ruiz became head coach, with Perez and De La Rosa staying on as assistant coaches, for the 2019-20 season.

“We stuck together and we try to give our best to continue the program,” Ruiz said.

“Our main goal still was to get our girls to get better each day,” Perez said.

They wanted the girls to compete at district and regionals, go on to the Mat Classic and make the podium. Improvement, getting better, is still the goal, Ruiz said.

The 2020 Mat Classic saw one Othello wrestler winning a state title, one finishing second and another finishing fourth. The Lady Huskies finished fifth in state.

The 2020 Mat Classic will be remembered for a reason unrelated to wrestling. It was one of the last major sporting events before the coronavirus pandemic shut down sports and almost everything else.

At Othello High School, kids didn’t get back into the classroom until January 2021. All sports for the 2020-21 school year — football, wrestling, softball, whatever — were crammed into a period of about three months, from March to May. The wrestling season was about seven weeks, Perez said. District, regional and state tournaments were canceled.

“I don’t know if you could call that a season,” Ruiz said.

There is a season, of sorts, for 2021-22. But dual meets and tournaments were canceled after wrestlers were exposed to the coronavirus. Othello wrestlers were exposed and practice was shut down.

“You go three weeks, about a month without wrestling,” Perez said.

Ruiz cited the example of a match with Quincy High School.

“We had one day of practice. And then we wrestled,” he said.

Ruiz is a Spanish teacher at OHS, and the ups and downs of the season reminded him of his day job.

“It feels a lot like being in the classroom,” he said. “You have the best lesson plans and you have to change them constantly.”

It’s been a challenge, but the coaches have been impressed with their team and the way they’ve handled the adversity.

“They get excited,” Ruiz said. “They get excited to compete and they get excited to train.”

The wrestling team is mostly made up of freshmen and sophomores for 2021-22, and some of the younger girls have never wrestled before. They’ve had to learn as they go, in a season when matches and practices have been canceled on a regular basis.

But they have persevered, and in their perseverance they have demonstrated what the coaches say makes wrestling valuable to the kids who participate. They keep working, and they get better.

“It builds their confidence,” Perez sa

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A lot of the girls are shy at first, he said, and they aren’t sure what they can do. And wrestling is a challenging sport, since each wrestler is out there on the mat alone.

“It’s very difficult,” Perez said. “No one can push you except for yourself. Whether you win or lose, it’s you out there.”

But over time, with practice and experience, wrestlers improve, and see what they can do and what they have learned, Perez said.

“They’re eager to learn. They ask questions,” Ruiz said. “They’re really taking everything to heart.”

The wrestlers set a goal, reach it, and move on to the next goal, he said. And they don’t give up.

“I didn’t realize I could, until I actually tried,” Perez quoted a wrestler as saying.

Perez helped start the Othello girls wrestling program in 2015 or 2016. He was a coach for the OHS boys team, and his cousin Ruben Martinez asked him to help with a new girls program. The program is growing, despite all the challenges, Ruiz said. He has a core of wrestlers who are really dedicated.

“They work really hard and they push each other,” he said.