Twist. Over. Under. Pin. One second, two seconds. Victory. Junior and girls varsity wrestler Isabella Guzman sits up on the wrestling mat, sweaty yet triumphant. This proud moment, during this year’s Central Coast Section Masters tournament, is just one among the wrestling team’s many victories this season.
“This season, I felt very successful to have a winning record and make it to Masters,” Guzman said.
Despite the team’s successes, the wrestling team’s season did not start as smoothly as they had hoped. One week into their season, girls assistant coach Greg Crane was suddenly fired. Lynbrook administration was contacted and declined to comment on the subject.
“It felt like we lost an important mentor,” junior and varsity wrestler Ryan Chen said. “He was always working with us, so losing him was a really disheartening thing.”
Crane had been a new addition to the coaching team the prior season, teaching alongside head coach Steve Weng and assistant coach David Reyes, and working with all three teams: varsity girls, boys and JV. His novel coaching style led to improvement among many team members. He increased the difficulty of practices and narrowed the focus on technique while also coordinating meetings off-season and during weekends. Opening the door to students from both Lynbrook and Miller Middle School, Crane held an unpaid open gym during the summer on the Lynbrook campus.
“He worked with all the kids, no matter who they were,” Weng said. “He’s a former state champion and wrestled in college at a very high level. He has the accolades and the knowledge. We had one of our best seasons.”
During the last season with Crane, the team achieved previously unforeseen goals, sending two wrestlers — senior and boys varsity captain Aidan Phattanaphibul and sophomore and girls varsity wrestler Mia Gonzales — to the California Interscholastic Federation State Wrestling Championships, the second and third to do so in the past 25 years. Summer training and conditioning especially boosted their skill sets and morale, leaving them looking forward to the season to come.
“A lot of wrestlers grew as people last year,” Mia Gonzales said. “They learned what they really wanted to do, and I think this year it showed.”
Following the loss of a coach this season, the team found itself adjusting to a new norm. Evening practices remained the same, yet morning practices focused on individualized training, halted completely. Advanced technical training decreased. With one less coach, it became hard to divide attention between all three wrestling teams, especially when girls and boys tournaments occurred in different locations. This placed more pressure and responsibility on existing coaches, who needed to put in extra time, especially over tournament weekends.
The loss of variety in wrestling style presented further challenges. Each coach is knowledgeable about different styles of wrestling as the sport evolves constantly, with new moves and styles gaining popularity over time and old moves and styles quickly growing outdated. Crane’s versatile knowledge and experience, along with his ability to work one-on-one with wrestlers’ specific needs for improvement, allowed wrestlers to expand their skill set on the home mat. During his absence, the team instead focused on basic training.
“With Coach Crane gone, if wrestlers couldn’t learn anything new, they had to go back to the basics,” junior and girls varsity wrestler Natalie Tan said. “At some point, the basics will stop working. Wrestling is getting funkier, and you can’t win with the basics.”
Despite these setbacks, the team was not left completely stranded: several volunteers, including Sergio Gonzales and volunteer coach Boyl Fowler, assisted during practices and matches. Tan, who had sustained an injury and could not compete for a portion of the season, offered technical guidance as well, along with pre- and post-match encouragement for wrestlers. With the increase in freshmen on the team this season, experienced upperclassmen served as a crucial source of mentoring.
While many of the experienced wrestlers were happy to help out the team, the smaller number of coaches made this a necessity, taking away time for those wrestlers to practice and grow their own skills. Tan explained how she and others would need to take up the position of a coach during the match, shouting suggestions and moves at their teammates as they wrestled.
“We’re all young, and I can’t be everything they need when coaching,” Tan said. “It was really stressful going to coach, then going to my matches, back to back, just running around all over the place.”
In the end, the wrestling team received excellent results at the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League Finals and the CCS Sectionals tournaments. Three wrestlers subsequently scored among the top six. Two wrestlers, Mia Gonzales and Phattanphibul, advanced to CIF State Wrestling Championships.
“As a team, we are closer than we were last year,” Phattanaphibul said. “Because it was my last season, I had a lot more experience, which made it a lot more fun for me. I think our team performed a lot better. As individuals, everyone performed better.”
Coming out of their season, many wrestlers are now taking a break, while others continue to train with clubs outside of school. Without the advanced training and extra off-season practices that Crane provided, many invested wrestlers have resorted to practicing at Miller or off-campus clubs, sometimes driving multiple hours and spending hundreds of dollars a month to practice off-season.
Despite many challenges, the wrestlers’ rankings and numbers will most likely continue to climb. The Lynbrook wrestling program is a recipient of wrestlers from the extremely large and successful Miller Middle School wrestling program, where wrestlers consistently place high in tournaments and gain a love for the sport. With adequate support, wrestlers coming from Miller to Lynbrook have the potential to flourish.
“There isn’t a shortage of kids that are capable and want to wrestle,” Sergio Gonzales said. “You do need to motivate them. You do need to support them. You do need to make sure that it’s a program that they feel connected to and want to be a part of. If you had that, Lynbrook could be top three in our league, top six in CCS every year, easily.”
The team hopes that next year they will be able to increase training and build a culture of persistence. However, many of the wrestlers do not think this will be possible without a strong and dedicated full-coaching staff to run practices and supervise at tournaments and matches.
The team remains optimistic that they will continue to have success and grow the program further within the strong community they’ve built.
“Everyone has different goals,” Phattanaphibul said. “Some people just want to make CCS. Some people just want to have fun with the team. Whatever it is, it’s fine. I just hope they can all accomplish their goals.”
Aidan Phattanaphibul:
“I started wrestling my freshman year, and making States is the goal for everyone, so making it this season was really fulfilling. I felt like I finally accomplished my goal. It’s the last thing I wanted to do, and I’m glad I was able to do it this season.”
Mia Gonzales:
“The most memorable moment was making States, because that’s all I’ve thought about all year. After a long season, I was pretty tired, but making States was like a new burst of energy for me. Watching our team succeed was really nice.”
