LJ wrestling: 'Load up your bags'

The central park in rural Holtville. (Photo Ed Piper)

By Ed Piper

Stella Chavez, the mother of a wrestler herself, welcomed her five visiting La Jolla High wrestlers with open arms. Knowing how her son Jimmy Zarate, the heavyweight (285 pounds) wrestler for Holtville High, eats, the continuation school teacher also provided a horn o' plenty of snacks and told them to load up their bags for the following day.

"You don't need to be spending money at the snack bar," she told the quintet. "They're for us?" they asked of the outlay of baked chips, granola bars, fruit and veggies before them. "Yes, take as much as you want."

The occasion was the Holtville Wrestling Tournament, a two-day event, and the date of the five's overnight stay at the Chavez-Zarate household was Fri., Jan. 29.

The tradition during the long-running tourney--in its 53rd edition this year--is that families of Holtville High team members put up out-of-town wrestlers for the night and feed them.

"They were the funniest people," said Elliot Austin, 115-pound wrestler, one of the five, Saturday morning of the Chavez-Zarate family. "They were the nicest people. They live on a ranch. They have chickens." He was gushing over and a little wide-eyed at the experience.

"They cooked us a roast." He said it with his British accent in a way that let you know it tasted good.

Five days later, on lunch break during her teaching position, Chavez could still name from memory the five La Jollans who bunked with her family: Anthony Pace, Chris Abarca, Christophe Naviaux, and Jake Harvey, besides Austin.

"They were such good kids," she said. "I texted the coach Monday morning and told him what a great wrestling program they have."

While it is true that the Chavez-Zarates have chickens, Chavez said she has "simplified" to "just have goats and my black Lab" at this point. "We used to have, like, chickens and doves and pigeons and feeder calves and goats."

Her ranch is half an acre. "It was so cute," she smiled, remembering the visit. "We live near a river bottom. They (the visitors) could hear the coyotes howling. My ranch is surrounded by a six-foot fence."

"Our little town of Holtville, we love to have our wrestlers host visitors. I got into this hosting two years ago. My son is a wrestler. Many of them are seniors. It's their only chance to have an opportunity like this."

After the sumptuous dinner of rotisserie chicken, roast, and veggies the first night of the tournament, two of the Viking wrestlers slept on the sofa sectional in the living room, one on an air mattress, and two on beds in Stella's daughter's bedroom. "I could have put more wrestlers up," she said.

Speaking as the knowledgeable mother of a wrestler, she said, "Two of the wrestlers had to make weight the next day, Jake and Anthony. So they held up a little (on eating). The others didn't have to."

"Most of them are seniors," the host mother said. "It's their last year in high school. The world is such a cruel place, so for them to have this opportunity is great."