By Ed Piper
"Is your last name Valeria or Valeriano?" I asked Jesus.
We were standing with Joshua Jasso, another La Jolla wrestler, outside the fence around the stadium track. It was late Thursday afternoon, Feb. 6.
"Va-le-ri-a-no," the good-natured sophomore said.
"I have a hard time saying it in English," he volunteered. "I'm used to saying it in Spanish."
I had asked Jesus if he was well, after being sick a week ago for the final dual meet against Madison and unable to participate.
"No, because he's not tough," joked Jasso, the senior, pulling the full upperclassman-to-lowerclassman schtick. He apparently likes to do that.
I asked Va-le-ri-a-no if he was going to wrestle at the City Conference Championships La Jolla High was hosting Sat., Feb. 8.
"No, because he's not tough," continued Jasso, with a straight face, keeping up his routine.
I said, "Wait, I'm asking you, Jesus. Are you going to wrestle?"
Valeriano tried to get a word in edge-wise. Jasso, the 197-pound league champ again this season, said, "Yes," looking away to think. "Chaise (Maisel) isn't going, so you are." The elder student, a team captain, carries the full current team lineup around in his head.
I asked, "What's wrong with Chase?" I had just covered the Vikings wrestlers at the two-day tournament at Holtville, near El Centro, last weekend, Fri.-Sat., Jan. 31-Feb. 1. Maisel competes there.
"He's out injured," they said. Too bad. He's a good wrestler.
I said, "Pepe Pecas pica papas con un pico." (Freckled Pepe pokes potatoes with a stick.) That's a trabalenguas, a tongue-twister, in Spanish.
Valeriano tried it. Jasso didn't.
"You speak Spanish, right?" I asked Joshua, who I have covered now for four years in La Jolla wrestling. I recently wrote a feature on him for the La Jolla Village News.
"Yeah, but I don't speak Spanish-Spanish," he answered. "I don't speak it a lot."
He pronounces his last name, Jasso, in English, "Ja-so." He's going to Stanford in the fall.
"I had another tongue-twister on the wall in my classroom," said I, a retired classroom teacher. "Parangaricutirimicuaro. It took me three years to learn it."
Jesus tried it. He got it mostly.
"Say that again," one of them asked me.
"Pa-ran-ga-ri-cu-ti-ri-mi-cua-ro," I repeated, but slowly this time. "It's a town in the Mexican state of Michoacan."
I added, "There is a volcano right next to the town named Paricutin. There is a song about the whole thing. It's really funny."
"I messed up my ankles," Josh offered.
"Did you sprain both your ankles?" I asked him. I was present at the recent dual meet in which one of his ankles gave a loud "pop" during a match. He continued and pinned his opponent.
"Yes," Jasso replied, a bit wearily.
The first sprain came in practice the day before a dual meet. He still pinned his opponent. It took a little longer, with his ankle taped and his usual bag of tricks limited a bit due to the injury.
The "pop" came in the opposite ankle, the second sprain.
Sometimes when you favor one body part, another one suffers.
Sometimes one joint sustains an injury, then the opposite joint (in his case, the other ankle) goes down.
"What are your rides home?" I asked them as we watched the Vikings girls varsity soccer game, the hour just after 6 p.m.
"I'm riding the bus at 6:30," said Valeriano.
"I have my car," Jasso said, fingering his car keys.
"Good luck, see you Saturday," I might have said as someone asked where Matt Bridges, the school's athletic trainer, was.
Jasso is doing an internship in athletic training with Matt.
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