Two-time CCS champs are young, but dangerous
On the surface, the numbers don’t look good.
The Gilroy High wrestling team, winners of back-to-back CCS championships, graduated eight seniors, including section titlists John Gurich and Mark Zabala.
This year’s senior class? It consists of one wrestler, and he’s got minimal varsity experience. The junior class? It totals all of two wrestlers.
So after qualifying seven for state, is this now a rebuilding year for Armando Gonzalez and his powerhouse program? Or is it just time to reload?
The smart bet is on the latter. In this case, the numbers do lie.
“These guys aren’t babies when it comes to mat time,” Gonzalez said. “You’d have to say we’re reloading just because we don’t know for sure what they can do yet.
“But if the first indication is any hint, I think we are definitely as good as last year.”
That first indication came last weekend at the prestigious Zinkin Classic in Fresno. Out of 48 schools, the young Mustangs finished third, behind only host Buchanan and defending state champion Bakersfield.
“We’re young, but we’re really talented,” said junior Armando Gonzalez, the coach’s son. “Nobody knows that except the teams that were in Fresno.
“They know how good we are.”
And they already know Gonzalez, of course. He won CCS at 119 pounds as a freshman and at 125 pounds as a sophomore. Now ranked third in California at 135, Gonzalez is gunning for three titles in a row.
He’ll almost certainly be joined at CCS by fellow junior Adin Dueñas, section runner-up and state qualifier for the past two seasons. At 130 pounds, he currently ranks fifth in the state.
Then there’s the sophomore class, led by 103-pounder Nicolo Naranjo. He’s not only ranked No. 1 in the section, but also No. 1 in all of California.
Several classmates – including Rudy Maldonado (119) and Andres Barragan (189) – join Naranjo as potential state qualifiers, which requires a top four finish at sections.
“We’re a young team, but we’ve all been around awhile,” Dueñas said. “We’re not just a bunch of new kids.”
In fact, most of the team members have been friends for years. Nearly all of them have competed for the Gilroy Hawks wrestling program, many since they were as young as five and six years old.
“These kids are all family … they all grew up together,” said Coach Gonzalez, who is entering his sixth season at Gilroy. “There was a lot of family unit with last year’s team. I think this group is equally as good.”
Two members of that core group – one a senior and one a freshman – exemplify both the team’s unknown factor and its budding potential.
Hunter Collins, a 14-year-old freshman man-child competing at the 160s, has been wowing his coaches and teammates for years. As an eight-grader, he won the United States Schoolboy National Championship last season and has “phenomenal” talent, Gonzalez said.
At 125 pounds, Joseph Serrano enters his final season with mostly junior varsity experience. Seemingly always landing in a weight class where the Mustangs were loaded, Serrano is now getting his chance and he’s tearing it up in the preseason.
In the season opener at Fresno, both Collins and Serrano finished third in their respective weight classes.
“We lost all those seniors, so others are probably thinking we’re not so good,” Serrano said. “But I think we’re just as solid. We’re a young team, but we’re gonna surprise some people.”
