MIRAMONTE AND CAMPOLINDO

    With the departure of Campolindo’s wrestling coach, Athletic Director Ray Meadows was unable to find a suitable replacement so he called upon Louis Suba, Miramonte’s head wrestling coach and a former wrestling coach at Campolindo to see if he would be willing to coach both the Miramonte and Campolindo wrestling teams.

    Suba saw the positives to coaching both teams: “It’s nice to have the extra practice partners in the room. Even though we’re big rivals, our wrestlers were positive about it as were the Campolindo wrestlers. Our wrestling community is unified in wanting to grow the sport so it’s more inclusive with a nurturing attitude in getting more kids interested in wrestling.”

    The arrangement still took some adjusting for Suba and the assistant coaches: “During tournaments and other matches, we compete as two separate teams so it can be a little awkward when it’s Campolindo against Miramonte on the mat.”

    There have been zero pushbacks from the wrestlers and a lot of positive comments about the improved communication with the Campolindo parents and the administration about what is going on with the team.

MIRAMONTE

    The Miramonte program came into the season with a roster of 50 wrestlers. “Our program has been getting more popular and I’m really proud of it,” Suba said. “When I first started at Miramonte five years ago, I only had nine wrestlers on the team. There has been great word of mouth by the wrestlers that helped to grow our program.”

    The leading wrestlers for Miramonte are seniors Elliot Orr (175/165) and Brody Suba (151/144). “Elliot was our only wrestler that placed at NCS last year and has gotten stronger and faster,” Suba said. “He is very tough and absolutely loves wrestling. Brody also got bigger, stronger, and faster in the offseason.”

    Two juniors, Finn Hura (144) and Jaxon Ziehn (138/132) are both top wrestlers, though Hura is currently out with an injury. “Finn took third in a very tough tournament, going against the Nevada State champion and Fargo All-American,” Suba said. “He worked very hard in the off season. Jaxon looks very strong and recently took first place at a tournament at Vintage High School. Cael Suba is one of our lightweights at 120/115 and Oskar Orr are both showing great potential.” 

    Miramonte does not have any wrestlers to compete at 215 or 285 but are able to compete in 11 weight classes. Their two heaviest wrestlers are Owen Beidelman (180), who was an NCS qualifier last year, and Geoff White (190).

    The girls team for Miramonte is limited in numbers, Suba said. “Senior Claire Casado has been looking very good along with junior Cayleigh Farrar. Freshman Ashley Silverman, a product of Chris Herrick’s Lamorinda wrestling program, has been great, having taken first place in two novice JV tournaments.”

CAMPOLINDO

    With a roster size of 22, Campolindo is led by senior heavyweight Luke Hansen. “Luke came in a little late from football but he has been a standout and has been looking very strong in his tournaments,” Suba said. “Luke is a great athlete and we’ve been teaching him to use his athleticism to his advantage.”

    There are two other wrestlers that have come over from the football team but both are currently on the sidelines with ankle injuries – Soushians Bahramifar and Demitri Drury. Demitri wrestled at Vintage High School and after winning his first two matches, he was injured and has been out since and is looking to return toward the end of January.

    There are a group of freshmen that have been coming to practices consistently, competing in tournaments, and showing a lot of promise – Jacob Wah, Colton Kao, Andy Ostling, and Henry Hansen.
 
    The leading wrestler on the girls team has been Maya Shu. “Maya has come to practice every day and has been looking very good,” Suba said. “Charlie Somi is another young woman who has shown a lot of potential.”

    It’s been a season of adjustments for Campolindo. The team has had to organize carpools to head over to Miramonte every day for practice. Every coach has their favorite moves and special way of teaching things and running drills so the more exposure to different ways to wrestle the better, since everyone does not learn the same way and the coaches can adapt to the different ways that people wrestle. “The Campolindo wrestlers have had to adapt to a different coaching style as well as different ways of doing things and so far, things have gone very smoothly,” Suba said. “The future looks bright for Campolindo wrestling.”

ACALANES 

    Coming into his third year at Acalanes, head coach Steve Nelson once again has a really young team with only three seniors. “A number of our wrestlers opted to go with the rugby team which limited our numbers along with the tragic loss of Amin Noroozi who would have been my top wrestler,” Nelson said.

    Nelson is essentially starting from scratch: “I have a lot of new, young, first year wrestlers that have never been in a varsity match and have to get started quickly before they get thrown into a match when we start the dual season, but we should be able to fill 13 of the weight classes.”

    Leading the boys team are Marley Oh (134) and Kirian Gracie (128). “They are my two best wrestlers,” Nelson said. “They both have the potential to have good seasons depending on how much time and effort they want to put into it. Kirian can be an absolutely phenomenal wrestler but just needs to show more commitment so we’ll see how he does. Marley is also a top wrestler but is in a tough weight class, going against very strong wrestlers. Junior Ryan Crane (159) is coming off a broken collarbone suffered last year. Ryan went two and two at NCS last year so we’ve got some pretty high expectations for him this year.”

    Gabriel Van Houten (167), Jake Hammons (140), and Nova Hedlund (152) have shown potential but just need more experience and mat time.
    The girls team has doubled their numbers from last year to six, which is a step in the right direction. The girls are led by sophomore Lilah Kring (127), Gwyneth Lee (105), and Jill Pierce (140).

    “Lilah is going to become one of my best wrestlers,” Nelson said. “She has had a lot of success in the tournaments at Albany, Castro Valley, and San Leandro. She and Gwyneth put the time and effort in the camps and off-season wrestling so I’m excited to see where both of them end up this season and Jill can be a helluva wrestler for the first timer. We also have three other first-year wrestlers on the team, including Marley Oh’s sister, Isabel (102).”