By Ed Piper
Joshua Jasso and Isaiah Torres, big physically at 197 and 222 pounds, respectively, but also big as far as their leadership role on La Jolla's wrestling team, battled into the consolation round of the prestigious 56th Annual Holtville Rotary Tournament Friday and Saturday, Jan. 25-26.
The tournament in Imperial Valley, drawing 390 wrestlers from 46 schools--the largest number ever, according to host coach C.J. Johnston--challenged Jasso and Torres, and afforded five other wrestlers from Coach Kellen Delaney's Vikings an opportunity for extended experience under competitive conditions on the mat.
Sophomore returners Keegan Leonard and Chase Maisel, carrying 134 and 140 pounds, as well as a trio of freshmen--Zeke Pearl, Buzzy Bomberger, and Alex Von Mueller--picked up additional rounds and coaching in the so-called "Hard Luck Bracket" after departing from the championship bracket on day one of the two-day event.
Bomberger, son of new Viking assistant coach Mike Bomberger, who made the 260-mile round trip as well, is a compact wrestler at 115 pounds. His close friend and mutual shadow, Pearl, competes at 122, while Von Mueller, brand new to the sport and who wanted to try it out this year, slots in at 128 pounds.
"We knew this year's athletes would be here and doing well," said Delaney, in his 11th year with the La Jolla program. "Buzzy and Zeke were in our La Jolla Youth Wrestling Program." All of the others except Von Mueller are returners.
A major feature of the Holtville event, in which not only the high school but also community members in the rural, 5,000-resident town take part, was the seven Viking student-athletes being hosted overnight in the home of Elisa Strahm and her husband.
Mrs. Strahm, a third grade teacher and mother of four middle school and elementary children, spoke about each visiting wrestler by name with a reporter after having just met them and fed them at dinner Friday night. Jasso, Leonard, and the freshmen presented their host mom with a plant as a thank-you gift, with assistant Walter Fairley's support.
A humorous aspect of the overnight stay, during which the hungry wrestlers who have been eliminated from the championship bracket usually eat hefty amounts of chicken, beef, rice and beans and other dishes prepared by their hosts, was that Buzzy, for one, related, "I ate a salad."
When a correspondent inquired why only the salad, Bomberger said the wrestlers had been told they had to limit their weight in preparation for weigh-in at 7 a.m. Saturday morning. Meanwhile, Pearl, his buddy, "ate six lasagnas (portions), instead of eating seven."
It turned out, though, that the younger Bomberger could have eaten all he wanted, because he was facing the Hard Luck Bracket in day 2. But Delaney said the coaches had been told Friday evening their Hard Luck wrestlers, as well as those still in the championship and consolation brackets, would have to meet the weight limits. When everyone arrived for the early weigh-in the next day, meet officials told them there was no weigh-in for Hard-Luckers.
Asked who told him to not eat more lasagna, Pearl said, "The captain." (It was Joshua Jasso.) Jasso defended himself: "He had to make weight (we thought)." Everyone had a chuckle over the non-weigh-in.
Elisa Strahm confirmed she had a lot of food left over from the La Jolla wrestlers' stay that she had expected them to gobble up. In any case, she and her husband enjoyed serving as one of 28 host families. She is the sister-in-law of Holtville High head coach C.J. Johnston, the host of the giant annual Rotary tournament.
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