By Ed Piper
Senior veterans Chase Maisel and Keegan Leonard led a truncated crew of seven La Jolla High wrestlers, including a trio of ninth-graders brand new to the team, through the usual round-and-round warm-up on the mat of side-to-side shuffles and dives before they broke up into pairs to shadow-wrestle Wednesday afternoon, April 14 at Hoover High.
The familiarity of Maisel (at 152 pounds) and the long-haired Leonard's (145) routine almost made one forget the impending meet, hosted by the Cardinals, had never been expected to happen back at the peak of the COVID pandemic--relegated to the "no way" scrapheap of sports with water polo that nobody thought would be allowed to hold even an abbreviated season before the dismal 2020-2021 school year of distance learning shut down.
But there they were, with muscular senior Ricardo Correa (182), a returnee from Mira Mesa who had competed for LJHS coaches Kellen Delaney and Ryan Lindenblatt as a freshman, and underclassmen Sebastian Rivera (113), Kieran Sternberg (115), and Brandon Tseng present and accounted for. Returnee Brendan Glenister (195) was also intact and in apparent fine fettle on this day, as he juggles swimming with wrestling in a multi-sport adventure afforded by CIF this year only due to the fluid and unpredictable situation dictated by COVID.
Leonard got off to a fast start in his exhibition, necessitated by the low number of entrants for both teams, to the point where Delaney, sitting in a chair off the mat, called out, "Keegan, slow down." Delaney knows his wrestlers pretty well. Even to the untrained eye, it seemed that the senior, waiting for word from the U.S. Naval Academy on an appointment next year, was burning a lot of nervous energy in his first competitive wrestling in over a year. Normally, he, Maisel, and others would have gone through the annual Holtville Tournament the last weekend of January after numerous other tourneys in December, and dual meets with league and non-league schools before completing their season in late February/early March. Here it was the middle of April. Wow.
After his bout, the personable student-athlete allowed as how "I'm out of shape. We only had two weeks advance notice before meets started" (due to the COVID-induced herky-jerky restart of athletics). The team has made new quarters on campus by laying down mats in the Old Gym, the wrestling room a seeming deathtrap of germs with its tight quarters and small windows defying ventilation efforts.
Leonard, trying to moderate his efforts, dominated his unofficial opponent--the exhibition didn't count for team points--and was leading 15-0 with 1:25 left in the third period before the match was called. The CIF mercy rule dictates that a 15-point lead is enough to call it quits. Keegan tried a scissor hold. He had his opponent on his back with his own back facing down as well, to try to pin the foe's shoulders to the mat. All of these efforts were worthy, but not quite enough to take him out.
He said his goals were different. "I could have (just pinned him)," Leonard said, "but that wouldn't have been very beneficial." He was trying other holds to try to speed up his re-entry into the sport, which will only last for four more outings (all dual meets against other schools) in the next four weeks.
An observer commented on his longer blonde locks. His response: "I haven't cut my hair since (a specified date). People aren't cutting their hair now. That guy was forced to cut his hair at a meet last year." (Drew Johnson, a wrestler in New Jersey, was told by a referee to either cut his dreadlocks or forfeit his match on December 19, 2019.)
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