”If you don’t take the time to teach a boy something good,
someone will take the time to teach him something bad.”
That’s been the motto of the Gilroy Hawks club wrestling team
since the youth program was established in 1969 by current City
Councilman Charlie Morales, who was a probation officer at the time
and wanted to find a positive outlet for juveniles who were on the
wrong path in life.
”If you don’t take the time to teach a boy something good, someone will take the time to teach him something bad.”
That’s been the motto of the Gilroy Hawks club wrestling team since the youth program was established in 1969 by current City Councilman Charlie Morales, who was a probation officer at the time and wanted to find a positive outlet for juveniles who were on the wrong path in life.
“It started with the emphasis of providing contact athletic sports for youngsters as a preventative for delinquency,” Morales said. “We were trying to instill citizenship, respect, sportsmanship and some courage. We were not really focusing on competition.”
Morales, who wrestled at Brownell Academy and Gilroy High School, then brought on Ezequiel “Zeke” Contreras – who wrestled at Gilroy High, two years at Gavilan College and then two years at Sonoma State – to help with coaching.
“We wanted to give kids some direction, so they would have something to go on and not to get into the streets, and we had good success with some of those kids,” said Contreras, who was the first in his family to wrestle and whose two sons were Hawks.
“I think it builds up character in the kid,” he added. “I think in life he can handle stronger situations. It’s a one-on-one sport. It shows that you can’t depend on anybody else but yourself.”
The wrestling club caught on right away, going through many transitions, and is still a major component in the Gilroy community, both in helping troubled kids get on the right track and keeping well-grounded kids on the path to success.
“Over all the years, the Gilroy Hawks has always been open to everyone,” said Armando Gonzalez, who has been with the Hawks for 13 years in addition to being the head varsity coach at Gilroy High. “We’ve had every kind of youth. We’ve had gang members. Kids who come through the Hawks, we make a difference in their lives and give them direction.”
The Gilroy Hawks became so big even in its early stages that sister wrestling clubs were formed in neighboring towns, including the Morgan Hill Toros and the Hollister Razorbacks.
At one point, there were 176 kids in the program, which was broken up into four divisions: midget for ages 5 to 7, juniors for ages 8 to 12, intermediate for junior high kids and advanced for high school as well as junior college kids.
“What was really great was the older kids, they were true models. They were modeling themselves in the sport of wrestling,” Morales said. “I respect a lot of the people who have gone through the wrestling program.”
Even Gilroy’s hometown quarterback Jeff Garcia, who recently signed a free agent contract with the Cleveland Browns after five NFL seasons with the San Francisco 49ers, was a Gilroy Hawk.
Long line of coaches and caring parents
After Morales spearheaded the Hawks from 1969 to 1974, Contreras kept the club team going with the help of the parents through the ’70s and into the ’80s along with Coach Rusty Trevino. In 1983, Contreras was trying to ease his way out, and Bert Mar willingly took over the coaching role, coaching with Contreras before he completely stepped away.
“A lot of parents did a lot of coaching – a lot of dads and a lot of moms. It took a lot of parents to keep it going,” said Jody Corona, who was a secretary and treasurer for the Hawks in the ’80s.
“They were very instrumental in keeping the Hawks going,” said Mar, who coached from 1983 to 1989. “They kept the Hawks together way before I came.”
Every member of the Corona family was involved with the Hawks. While Jody handled the paperwork and funding for tournament fees and uniforms, her husband Richard helped coach. Their three sons all wrestled for the Hawks and through junior high and high school.
“I do believe it’s a way to better our community and to guide our youth in the right direction not necessarily in sports alone, but in their everyday lives,” Jody said. “This is where we’ve met our best friends.”
The oldest son, Luke, who is now 30, started wrestling at age 8. He was a four-time freestyle state placer, taking two firsts, one second and one third, and one-time state champion in Greco Roman-style.
Before he left the Hawks, Luke also was a two-time regional freestyle placer, finishing first and third. He then went on to become a three-time state placer at Gilroy High School and then a state champion at Gavilan College under Zeke Contreras.
The two younger Coronas, Matt, now 27, and Richard, now 23, also had standout wrestling careers. Matt was a seven-time state freestyle placer and three-time Greco state placer. He also was a state placer at Gilroy High and CSU-Bakersfield. He is currently the head wrestling coach at Overfelt High School.
After watching his brothers’ successes, Richard, who began wrestling at 2 years old, became a three-time freestyle state placer with the Hawks, as well as a state placer at Gilroy High.
“I attribute the Hawks, Bert Mar and Rusty Trevino to all three of my sons being very well-rounded individuals,” Jody Corona said. “It’s a lot of discipline, life discipline. Not just something you use on the mat, but all through life.”
Mar’s arrival gave the Hawks even more direction and expertise. Mar, who was the head wrestling coach at the storied South Valley Junior High program where he has been for the past 30 years, was the perfect man to carry the Hawks through the ’80s.
“It’s kind of a Cinderella story. My son Sergio was about 8 and we went to a Hawks practice. There were 50 kids in there wrestling,” said Mar, remembering his first encounter with the club team. “Some moms were running the practice. I looked around and said, ‘who is the coach?.’ A mom looked at me and said, ‘you are.’ ”
Mar also recalled meeting up at the local donut shop and assembling a caravan of about 15 cars to head to tournaments – some even out of state.
“They’d be like here come the Hawks,” said Mar, who went to the very first organizational meeting for the Hawks with Morales, but did not coach the club until later on.
Mar’s son, Sergio, now 29, was a state champion with the Hawks, as well as a two-time Western Regional placer. He then went on to Gilroy High, where his accolades continued as a three-time state placer.
Gilroy resident Chris Delgado, 29, an assistant varsity coach at Gilroy High School, started with the Hawks when he was in eighth grade at South Valley. Mar was his junior high coach and then club coach after persuading him to join the Hawks
“He convinced us to all go out for it,” Delgado said. “From my first season at South Valley to when I finished up my first season with the Hawks, Coach Mar gave me most improved wrestler. That was pretty special.”
Delgado’s improvement resulted in a victory at the the Santa Clara County Championship at the end of his first season.
“We had a good team back then,” said Delgado, who wrestled with Sergio Mar. “There’s a shirt that they have: ‘Summer wrestling creates winter champions.’ It’s all that extra mat time. The biggest thing is it’s more or less a confidence builder.”
Delgado had a standout wrestling career at Gilroy High, making the CCS team in 1991 and 1993. After high school, he went on to wrestle two years at Gavilan College and another two years at San Francisco State University.
“One thing I attribute to wrestling more than any other sport is it’s more mentally tough on kids and it gets kids ready for the outside world,” Delgado said. “In my opinion, wrestling is the sport that builds kids into men.”
There were so many talented wrestlers to come out of the Hawks program, including Gilroy High’s lone state champion, Kordell Baker, who was a multiple state and regional placer with the club team.
“You could go to any freestyle tournament even if the Hawks weren’t there, they’re still mentioned and talked about. The Hawks are very well known,” Jody Corona said. “Fortunately, you have kids who were wrestlers that are now coaches with their kids now wrestling.”
Recent successes
After Mar’s time came to close, Mike Fredenberg, who was the head wrestling coach at Live Oak High, took over the program and then Gonzalez, the current coach, followed.
In recent years, there have been Hawks who went on to win multiple county championships at South Valley Junior High such as Nicolo Naranjo (three-time champ), Martin Gonzalez (two-time champ), Armando Gonzalez Jr. (three-time champ), and Adin Duenas (three-time champ).
“At tournaments, definitely, everyone involved with the Hawks feels real confident about themselves because we are respected by other teams,” Armando Jr. said.
Gilroy High senior John Gurich, who twice finished in the top eight at the state tournament, began with the Hawks the summer before his seventh-grade year at South Valley Junior High.
“For the most part, everybody from Gilroy and everybody in this whole town wrestling-wise was geared around the Hawks,” Gurich said.
Gurich continued to work out with the Hawks as he went through South Valley and then up to the high school. He enjoyed helping out the younger kids and teaching them the fundamentals of the sport.
“The Hawks to me, it was more of a time to help out the little kids because when I started they helped me out,” Gurich said. As a member of the Hawks, Gurich enjoyed competing in tournaments around the state and meeting other wrestlers who shared the same passion.
“With wrestling, you meet a lot of people from a lot of areas,” Gurich said. “I think it teaches you teamwork and mostly just responsibility, keeping your weight down, going to practice in the off-season and keeping in shape.”
Community embraces wrestlers
The entire community embraced the wrestling club from the beginning. Families did their part to make sure the club continued its tradition.
The craft of wrestling quickly developed into more than just an outlet for local youth. The Hawks wrestled all over the state and even stepped outside California to take on other states. It gave youngsters a sense of team, a purpose in their lives. In 1977, the Hawks won a national championship.
“I enjoyed it because we started to travel a lot for regional and state open division tournaments,” Contreras said. “In the early years, international teams would come to Gilroy. We had teams from Venezuela, Japan, Australia, New Zealand. There were some really good wrestlers.”
But in its simplest form, the Gilroy Hawks is about teaching life goals.
“Wrestling is so demanding. There are so many sacrifices. And even with all the demands and all the sacrifices, there are still no guarantees for success,” Coach Armando Gonzalez said.
“You learn to accept defeat with honor and move ahead and keep trying and trying. That’s how life is. It’s a cruel world out there, so you must keep plugging away. You must have faith that all your sacrifices and hard work will pay off.”
Another former Hawks coach agreed.
“I think wrestling shaped me completely in my life. I’m a high school teacher and if not for wrestling, I don’t know if I would be,” said Contreras, who teaches independent studies at Santa Teresa High School. “I work one-on-one with kids who are not making it in high school. It’s very rewarding.”
And the core values keep spreading.
“I hope it keeps lasting,” Contreras said. “I go down the street and people who know I was involved in it want to get their kids involved in it. I tell them to call Coach Gonzalez.”
