Local wrestlers working together in preparation for CIF Individuals




BILL SPARKES/Acorn Newspapers POWER- Agoura's Brady Smith takes down an opponent during practice at Thousand Oaks High. CIF Individuals are this weekend.

BILL SPARKES/Acorn Newspapers POWER- Agoura’s Brady Smith takes down an opponent during practice at Thousand Oaks High. CIF Individuals are this weekend.


This past week Thousand Oaks High seemed to be the best place to start a fight. Of course, if you weren’t one of the best high school wrestlers in the area, it may have been the worst.

With the wrestling season winding down, TOHS hosted practices that included most Marmonte League teams as well as squads from outside the league such as Camarillo and Chaminade.

The practices were held strictly for the wrestlers competing in the CIF-Southern Section Individual Championships this weekend at Chino Hills High. There were approximately 80 wrestlers in attendance, making the Thousand Oaks wrestling gym a sea of talent.

“We’re not dealing with anymore deadweights,” Simi Valley head coach Guy Greene said. “All the kids that wrestled only because of their dad, or their girlfriend thinking it was cool, or because they wanted to get an easy letter, those kids are gone now. These kids are not only at the highest level, but they have worked all year harder than anyone.”

According to many coaches and wrestlers, the practices were a good change from the normal, everyday workouts the teams had been accustomed to.

“It’s a real advantage because you get to wrestle with all the socalled ‘talent’ in the area,” Thousand Oaks head coach and practice organizer Kerry Lyne said. “We are not quite teammates, but we also aren’t rivals anymore at these practices.”

After making the Individual Championships in 2006, Westlake’s Alex Stokes was glad to be working once again with the area’s elite.

“I went last year and it really helped my whole style and my self-esteem,” Stokes said. “After the practices last year, I saw myself become faster and stronger. I’ll basically wrestle anyone here as much as I need to because I really want to learn a lot.”

Joining Stokes from Westlake this weekend will be Jason VillaVisencio (103), Arian Ghaffari (119), Kelly Postel (125), Dan Nguyen (130), Anthony Gonzales (140), Micheal Spates (160), Thomas Lang (145) and Sam Hong (215).

While Stokes didn’t mind who he wrestled at the practice, some coaches stayed away from having their grapplers match up against their rivals in fear of having them give a move away. Other coaches, like Royal High’s Rich Carrillo, said it depended on the wrestler.

“It depends on the kid whether or not he wrestles a rival or not,” Carrillo said. “The best thing to do is just find a good workout partner that will help you get better. After 12 weeks of wrestling with the same guy during the season, they don’t push you as much anymore.”

For Agoura’s Dennis Ritterbush, the practices provided an opportunity for the coach to take pride in knowing he had coached well enough to get players to this point of the season.

“From here on out there are no slouches left in the league,” Ritterbush said. “I would’ve been happy to get nine players from my team here, but 12 kids is amazing.”

Agoura’s members are Dayne Santoro (135), Austen Jesse (160), Brent Goldwater (189), Drew LaFountaine (215), Jeff Tabachnick (103), Justin Crane (112), Drew Weiss (125), Pascal CombesKnoke (171), Brady Smith (heavyweight), Casey Van Gielderen (152), Eric Yates (119) and Michael Gullick (145).

Grapplers weren’t the only ones learning during practice. Many coaches took notes, too.

“The coaches have different angles, and it’s nice to see what other coaches are doing and see if that’ll work in your own program,” WHS coach John Cuccia said. “The practices create a real camaraderie for the league.”

Calabasas has five wrestlers competing: Rusty Handler (130), Mike Shai (140), Mike Steffen (145), Alex Nelancon (215) and Julian Jazayeri (119).

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