Tag: josh weaver

Let’s start with a couple of Super Positives … First, the Gilroy High wrestling machine. We ought to have a Decade of Dominance banner downtown noting the 10 straight Central Coast Section Division team championships – and get the team a spot on a flatbed for the upcoming Memorial Day Parade. Think about what an absolutely awesome accomplishment that is. Imagine 10 football or 10 basketball or 10 CCS soccer or field hockey titles in a row. Even though the competition has become fiercer, Gilroy High has remained steadfast at the top, this despite every team gunning to take them down (pun intended). Loved reading Sports Editor Josh Weaver’s stories about the state championships online over the weekend as the drama unfolded in Bakersfield. Two GHS state champions emerged, Willie Fox and Nikko Villareal. Both are great stories – Nikko in his last-chance match beating a “shoe-in” favorite, three-time state champion Alex Cisneros from Selma, in the waning seconds of the final period and Willie, frustrated for two years at the CCS and state levels, erasing both demons  and dashing off with the state title in dominating fashion. More important than the winning is the spirit Coach Greg Varela and the supporters of GHS wrestling have developed in the young men. They displayed that collective graciousness and class at a recent school board meeting when they showed up to rally around the cause of creating a respectable wrestling practice facility at GHS. They were focused, yet humble and so appreciative. They deservedly won the hearts and minds of the trustees, performing in life as they do on the mat. At the state meet, GHS Principal Marco Sanchez, a former Olympic wrestler, was overcome with emotion. He knows what it takes – the practice time, the pain, the mental toughness to be one-on-one under the spotlight, the discipline to get it done. From the Gilroy Hawks to the state title, it just continues to be a story of triumph about a program that is the stuff of legends. Now there’s a screenplay idea ...

There is something happening at Gavilan College. What it is, is pretty clear.

Three wrestlers are two wins away from one ultimate prize. After a long, long Day 1, which began with weigh-ins at 7 a.m. and concluded with the final match of the evening after 9 p.m., Gilroy High will have three wrestlers start Day 2 in the semifinals of the California Interscholastic Federation Wrestling Championships at Raboback Arena in Bakersfield.

With about four hours left in a marathon 12-hour Day 1 at the CIF State Wrestling Championships on Friday in Bakersfield, Gilroy High’s Paul Fox (126), Nikko Villarreal and Willie Fox (145) prevailed in their Championship Round 3 matches, are all 2-0 and into the quarterfinals.

Through two championship rounds at the annual CIF State Wrestling Championships, six of the seven local wrestlers in the field won their opening matches Friday morning at Rabobank Arena in Bakersfield.

Bakersfield, here they come. Gilroy will be well represented with seven locals entered into the grueling, two-day, battle of wills that is the CIF State Wrestling Championship tournament today and Saturday at Rabobank Arena in Bakersfield.

Super Bowl XLVI is Sunday and pits the New York Giants against the New England Patriots. The Giants stunned the Patriots 17-14 in Super Bowl XLII our seasons ago. Do the Giants have the Patriots' number again? Or will Tom Brady win his fourth ring? The sports writers for the Gilroy Dispatch, Morgan Hill Times and Hollister Free Lance weight in with their predictions.

Members of the Mainstreet Media Group (Hollister Free Lance, Gilroy Dispatch, Morgan Hill Times) decided to predict the winners of Sunday's NFL conference championship games. Here are the picks:

Andrel Gaines, a freshman basketball player at Gavilan College

Andrel Gaines, a freshman basketball player at Gavilan College whose fight for life following a Nov. 6 car accident spurred thousands of prayers and ardent messages of support, died this morning at a San Francisco hospital, the Dispatch has learned.