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The De La Salle wrestling team is the one dominant team that has been vastly under the radar in the last 15 years or so.
Everyone knows about the prowess of the Spartans football team, but the wrestling team has been right there, especially when it comes to the North Coast Section competitions.
In the NCS Dual and then the individual tournament team totals, the Spartans have taken 14 of the last 15 titles. (In 2021 the competition was canceled because of COVID.)
It was in 2014 that the Spartans won neither title. In the Dual meet tournament, James Logan was the winner, beating De La Salle in the finals. In the boys’ individual event, Windsor was the team winner with the Spartans finishing third, also finishing behind Logan.
But that’s it since 2009 — it’s been the Spartans hanging banner after banner.
So dominant has been De La Salle that in 2010, the East Bay Athletic League coaches voted for the Spartans to get the EBAL automatic berth to the Dual event, thus allowing teams in the EBAL to not have to wrestle against the Spartans.
The last couple years, some EBAL coaches were tired of handing the Spartans the automatic berth, but they couldn’t get the votes needed to change the policy.
This year, Amador Valley coach Travis Chubb was perhaps the most outspoken.
“I have been trying to get this changed,” Chubb said. “I wanted this dual meet.”
Chubb didn’t get the votes but did come out with a match against De La Salle on Jan. 30.
And his Dons made the most of the chance, beating the Spartans 38-33. It doesn’t change much heading into this week’s postseason, but it may give teams a good feeling that the dual title is wide open.
“I think so,” Chubb said about multiple teams having a shot at NCS. “I am not going to predict the duals, but I think Liberty, De La Salle, Granada and Amador have a shot. If you’re healthy, you have a shot.”
The duals take place this Saturday (Feb. 8) at Liberty, and it is a one-day event. Amador will be the No. 3 EBAL team behind De La Salle and Granada since the Dons fell to the Matadors. Granada and De La Salle have not wrestled this year.
The three teams should be in the top seeds with Liberty, but never assume anything when it comes to NCS seeding.
So, what happened last Thursday when the Dons rocked the boat.
Wrestling coaches meticulously handicap dual meets, to get an idea how things will play out. It’s amazing how good and accurate the coaches can be.
“I had it 37-37 with each team winning seven matches,” Chubb said. “It was going to come down to kids exceeding their expectations, like not getting pinned and losing points.”
Well, it ended with each team winning seven matches, and it was the Dons getting the bigger performances when they needed it.
There were several Amador wrestlers that turned in big performances. Jayden Wood, a senior that normally wrestles at 215, bumped up to heavyweight (275 pounds) in the first match.
Wood threw his opponent and got a pin to start the ball rolling for Amador.
Roman Moore at 120 pounds, dropped a close match, avoiding a pin, giving valuable points back to the Dons.
The two sides went back-and-forth with the Spartans taking a 33-30 lead into the final two matches.
The first match Noah Awad wrestled at 190 for the Dons and got a four-point win, making it 34-33 Amador.
It all came down to sophomore Santino Sevier’s match. Normally he wrestles at 190 but jumped up to 215 for the Dons. Sevier came out with a 10-2 win and the Dons had the 38-33 win.
“It was a great night,” Chubb said. “Now let’s see what happens in the postseason.”
Editor’s note: Dennis Miller is a contributing sports writer for the Pleasanton Weekly. This column originally appeared in Tri-Valley Preps Playbook, a weekly sports e-newsletter published by Embarcadero Media Foundation.
