Wrestling season has begun and Ernie Derrera and the Holy Family Tigers are ready for a historic year. After sending five wrestlers to state last year the Tigers aim to continue to progress and hope to send at least seven wrestlers to Ball Arena this season. This Saturday will be the first test for the team when they will travel to the always competitive Roosevelt Invitational Tournament and hope to bring home some hardware.
Th wrestlers to watch for on the team this season are obviously the state qualifiers from last year in Lorenzo Avila, Camden Austin, Brayden Bach, and Abram Moore. Senior Lorenzo Avila will finally be at full health this year and hopes to make a title run after getting ACL surgery directly following the season last year. This means he is now out of his brace from last year and can wrestle and work his stuff undisturbed. Being one of the fastest wrestlers on the team his speed and ridiculous strength at his weight class should bring him far through the season.
Junior Camden Austin also has hopes to make a run at state this year despite being a part of one of the toughest weight classes in the state. Camden the single move specialist has a headlock that has previously pulled him out of many dangerous situation and scored him many crucial wins. Camden hopes that since he has continued to grow and look more and more like a true 190 wrestler he can improve and score some hardware at state.
Senior Brayden Bach is back and coming with a vengeance starting the season ranked #2 according to On The Mats preseason rankings. Bach hopes to bring home a state championship this year after falling short in the semifinals to three time state champion D’mitri Garza-Alarcon. After having one of the most drastic growths on the team he will now be wrestling 150’s up from the previous 138 pounds last year. Just like Avila his speed mixed with his ridiculous strength and Mat presence makes Bach a force to be reckoned with this season.
The exceptions I have for myself this season (you know because I’m Abram Moore) are to win a state championship. After losing in the finals last year to Drew Johnson of Salida it lit a fire under me and I am going to do everything I possibly can to bring home the title this year. I am a lot stronger than last year which is a huge advantage especially at a weight like 215 and I don’t plan on losing a single match this season.
There are also some other wrestlers that are looking very good right now such as, Kaden McCracken (106), Lorenzo Trujillo (113), Santiago Guerrero (165) and Landon Hood (285) that I all believe have a great shot at going to state this year. The tigers wrestlers could be in for a great year if all things go as planned and hopefully bring home some state championships as well as state placers to Holy Family.
