The Greenwave varsity wrestling team is feeling good after a scrimmage in Reno on Tuesday according to first year head coach Trevor de Braga.
“I graduated 2008, and since then we were in the top two/three teams in the state,” de Braga said. “It was tradition, and since I’ve been back I’ve been trying to bring that tradition back, the style of the Greenwave wrestling hard nose tough morning workouts, afternoon hard workout, I’m just trying to bring that mentality back now that I’m the head coach. It’s my program, I can really put my two cents in and do what I want to do.”
Churchill County High School will be hosting the Earl Wilkens/Stockman’s Invitational Meet Saturday with more than 16 teams from various division including Yerington, which has a strong program. Wrestling begins at 9 a.m.
“I’ll put my team against any team in the state,” de Braga said when asked how he felt his boys would stack up against some of the teams this Saturday. “There’s some dang good teams out there, but we’re all about the competition. We want the best teams that we can and we want to go against them and be the best team. I’m not going to shy away from the competition. If you want to be the best, you’ve got to wrestle the best.”
De Braga attended Sioux Falls in South Dakota initially for baseball and football, but ended up wrestling in his freshman year after being noticed by the coach and recommended.
“Just like any sport in college, it’s a job,” he said, “and you’ve got to work your butt off day in and day out, go go go. On top of that you don’t have mommy and daddy cooking you good meals so you’ve got to go out and fend for yourself.”
“When I was a student I was big on 6am running,” he said when asked what he is looking to change in practices and mechanics. “I thought it made us tough and made us one of the best in the state so I’m going to bring that back and then practices in the afternoon can be shortened down so there’s more time for drilling and technique. The big thing is I show them what I want to do and I show them what I expect from them and then they have to go out and do it. With five coaches, we have a lot of eyes in the room holding the kids accountable for doing things right and not going through the motions, taking big steps, keeping their elbows in and tight on their tilts and turns.”
De Braga said that practices have been going well despite the fact that he is a little disappointed in the turnout of kids this year, though he believes the Wave is steady at 21 varsity wrestlers.
“The kids that have been there every single day, every single morning, they’ve been exceptional,” he said. “We’ve had some younger kids and JV kids coming up, they came out in Reno and wrestled amazing last night, because they’re putting in the time and the effort that it takes. I’m very excited about this year.
“Our varsity lineup has a great chance of bringing home a banner this year, and even our young guys our JV kids coming through kicked butt last night. I see big things as long as they buy into what I’m doing and as long as they don’t get tired of the morning practices or us riding them like we do but as of right now they’re working hard and it paid off last night.”
Among the returning wrestlers that had success at state are Sam Goings, Trae Workman and Jack Swisher.
Goings represented Fallon at three state championships, said de Braga, who praised Goings for his presence in practices by holding other grapplers accountable ever since he was a sophomore.
Workman won his first state victory as a sophomore, but tore his meniscus as a junior last year before returning to the varsity this year after being on the state football championship team.
Swisher is the younger of the three, a junior who took third at state last year.
Other wrestlers include the following: Seniors Tyler Kendall, Jaime Gonzalez, Bryson Abe, Aaren Rodgers and Colton Moretto; Juniors Terry White, Kendall Rodgers, Jacob Borges, Adrian Chambers, Kobe Abe, Beau Arrive, Chad Martyn and Tucker Stritenberger; Sophomores: Tallon Amezquita, Mason Smith, Blane Aicher, Leo Aicher and Mark Moyle; and Freshmen Sean McCormick and Joshua Kendall.
“We’ve had state champions,” de Braga said, “but the big thing is for example Lowry is so successful because they have the depth if they lose a match, they’re coming all the way through the loser’s bracket, wrestling more teams than in the championship bracket. They’re winning those matches, they’re placing third at state. The guys in the consolation bracket are winning, so they’re getting more matches and more points toward their record and that’s huge. We’ll have our state champions because in the end, if the guys lose some matches they’ve got to fight back, and if we can do that, we’ll come back strong for state.”