Photo by Rebecca Holt

A season is hardly ever defined in moments but, this past weekend, the CHSAA State Wrestling Tournament was a tournament built on moments. Moments of awe, upsets, close-calls, and absolute obliterations. This year’s tourney held high hopes for senior Cody DeLaBarre, and those hopes were dashed by a cruel twist of fate. After successfully pinning his first opponent, DeLaBarre suffered a concussion and was forced to withdraw from tournament play permanently after only the second round. “He took a shot, collided with the kid’s knee, and didn’t really tell us anything was wrong right away. It was not until afterward when he laid down on the mat, and I knew something was wrong when he was not singing and being his typical happy self,” Assistant Coach Logan Vargas said.

Even though it is a shame DeLabarre could not continue on in the tournament, Head Coach Mike Laurita still beams about his stellar season. “He had a great season, and with forty victories he tied the school record. Just like he did last season, he helped the team a tremendous amount, and grew in the process as well. He had a great season, it was just a shame it had to end this way.”

Heading on to bigger things, Cody looks to work further into the future, possibly wrestling along the way. “We will see what happens. I am just excited I got the chance to wrestle here during this time. It definitely was an experience that I will carry with me into the future.”

Photo by Rebecca Holt

High school sports have always provided a mix of desire, camaraderie, passion, and more than anyone’s fair share of ups and downs. Rarely do we find someone smiling his way completely through the season, but this is not the case for Spartan Wrestler Kenny Paredes, who cheers on his teammates with a smile from the sidelines and smiles all the way to victory on the mat.

Why did Kenny wrestle this year? Simple: “I wrestled this year because I like to win!” Kenny exclaimed. When asked about his favorite part of being on the team Kenny responded, “Sometimes when I get to wrestle somebody else, it really helps me.” Relating this back to his favorite memory of the season so far, Kenny said, “I love winning my matches, because I have wrestled hard.” Wrestling in the heavyweight class for junior varsity, Kenny has developed a strong bond with several of the team’s wrestlers. “I wrestle a lot with my friends. Thomas Currington is teaching me how to wrestle. And, Spencer Ladd takes me down, and teaches me a lot of moves through experience.”

Currington reflected on Kenny’s presence this year: “He listens a lot and follows directions very well. He is really a great contribution to the team. Every time he is out on the mat, he gives it his all, for the entire match. And during practice, he adds quite the sense of humor while taking his drive to a new level every time.” Thomas, having worked with Kenny in Unified Sports over the past year has noticed a change in Kenny this year. “I work with him in Unified and I think he has built a lot of confidence because of wrestling this year. I have also noticed a sort of respect that he has gained towards everyone after getting on the mat.”

Thomas says that the most important thing about Kenny is his team support, “Even in loss Kenny finds a way to be optimistic. He comes straight off of the mat to cheer the rest of his teammates on like normal. He never even thinks to miss a beat.”

Taking first place in this previous weekend’s tournament and winning his match versus Fairview last week, it would seem Kenny has a lot to smile about. “Seeing him out there on the mat in practice and during a competition I feel has really brought the team together this year. Rather than arguing a lot like we have in the past, we unite knowing we need to all help Kenny out so he can get even better than he is now,” Senior Wrestler Peter Taylor said.

Planning on continuing his high school wrestling career through the next few years, Kenny plans on honing his technique even further. “When I am wrestling the kid out there, all I think about is that he is going to lose and I will win,” Kenny said. Encouraging the team with his optimistic nature, Kenny has been – and will certainly remain – a strong asset to the TJ Spartan Wrestling team.

Photo by Rebecca Holt

In the world of individual sports athletes are either good, bad, or something in the very small in-between. Senior Alec Groditski, in only his fourth year of wrestling, still finds himself in the top rung of the talent level.

“In the suburban schools you will find kids that have 5 to 8 years of prior experience before wrestling in high school. We are never so lucky as to get that,” Head Coach Mike Laurita said. Alec, on the other hand, is only in his fourth year of wrestling. “He has had to overcome several injuries, but Alec has grown into a very reliable all-around wrestler over these years,” Laurita shared.

Having wrestled For TJ over all four years, Alec has developed many opinions about the sport itself. “There is no other feeling than when I get out on the mat, and it is only me and my opponent. He could, any other day, be a friend of mine, an enemy, or a passerby, but on this mat, as I drown the crowd out, all he is, is a challenge that needs to be passed.” Having been out the past month with a shoulder injury, Groditski is seriously itching to get back on to the mat. “It has been nice to not have to worry about weight as much; that is definitely the worst part about competing. And even in my month off, I still found myself needing to monitor my weight.”

A previous state-tournament wrestler, wrestling the 125 weight class his first year at state, Groditski is looking to come back strong and still ride the bus to the state tournament. “Wrestling in the state tournament for the first time was like nothing I had ever imagined. Even though I did not leave with a medal, the experience was absolutely worth it,” Alec said. This year Alec hopes to once again, and for the last time, attend the Colorado High School State Wrestling Tournament.  With a 17-6 record up to this point in the season, Alec reflects on what the future holds. “It should be tough. As usual, several kids I have competed against in the past have gotten a lot better. There will be many challenges that I will have to face in such a short period of time. All I can hope for and strive for is placing in the top four.”  After coming back strong from his injury, the rest of the league better watch out; this aspiring state-placer is back and ready to wrestle.

Photo by Rebecca Holt

The formerly indomitable spirit of the TJ Spartan wrestling team has been partially subdued by physical injuries. Seniors Alec Groditski and Thomas Currington are both expected to be absent from the mat at this weekend’s league tournament. Groditski is out indefinitely with a separated collar-bone and a torn shoulder muscle, and whether he wrestles or not, surgery is in the future for wrestling star Groditski.

Currington, with a set of bruised ribs and some torn ligaments, is out for the league tournament, but is looking to heal up quickly. “As always, it depends on what the doctor has to say, but I plan on doing everything I can to wrestle at regionals.” If he makes it to regionals, Thomas had this to say about his potential success: “I am confident that I would place at regionals and qualify for state. Whether or not I would be successful at state depends on how my ribs feel after regionals.  That will be the deciding factor there.”

With an anticipated six freshmen looking to headline the varsity weight classes this weekend, it will certainly be a true test of strength. Junior Guillermo Estrada, being the youngest experienced member of varsity, reflects on how young the varsity squad will be heading into this weekend. “So far we have been struggling in the higher weight classes. It is never, and never will be, a question of whether we are tough enough or not, but our skills have generally been lacking in key moments. That is where the rookie mistakes come in, and I can’t blame them…we all do it, as long as we learn from them that is all I can ask for.” With the end of the season looming, Estrada also gave his prediction for how TJ would finish off. “I think we will close out the season relatively well. We just have to learn to take practice much more seriously and honestly, and we need to drill our technique a whole lot more.”

Dealing with injuries and inconsistent line-ups that result in inconsistent wrestling is a lot for any coach to handle. Head Coach Mike Laurita, though, is prepared to end the season on a high note.  He says he is tired of just flexing muscles, and longs for the league tournament this weekend to show teams the work that has been done. “Our expectations, for the league tournament, are to go in there and absolutely dominate the other team and bring home the title again this year.” Beyond bringing home the league championship, every wrestling team looks to send some wrestlers to the state tournament. “If we wrestle well at regionals and refuse to make mistakes, injuries permitting, we can qualify anywhere from three to five kids, easy.”

With the end of the season around the corner, the Spartan wrestling team looks to meet it head on, as they tackle another league championship and another competitive regionals tournament.

Photo by Rebecca Holt

A tournament studded with state placers, returning state champs, and a team of Spartans brought out incredible efforts from some of TJ’s wrestlers, fielding a 1st place finish from Senior Cody DeLaBarre, a 3rd place finish from Senior Peter Taylor, and a 4th place finish from Junior Guillermo Estrada.

The Colt Classic really did not yield as many victories for the Spartan squad as expected, but the individual standards were certainly set quite high. “I think as a team, not doing well, is the result of not practicing long or hard enough,” Estrada said.  “My individual performance was alright at best. I need to stop going to my back; that always leads to a pin. I need to start taking more points than I am giving out.”

The two seniors, DeLaBarre and Taylor, placed highly (Cody 1st and Peter 3rd) as that is the tone they set for their season. Both looking to head to the state tournament, Senior Alec Groditski, a previous state qualifier himself, commented on both performances. “As a team, I think we wrestled our best. We are still a very young and inexperienced team; pitting freshman wrestlers against seniors, there will always be initial amounts of difficulty. Cody, well what really needs to be said? He is one of the best wrestlers in state hands down. And his recent performance proves that, and more,” said Alec, who commented further on Peter’s performance. “Peter has improved incredibly, far beyond anything I expected of him. I watched him the entire tournament, and the way he wrestled, the passion, he has become much more of a respectable wrestler of late. I see him going far this season.”

Alec Groditski, a top wrestler on the team himself, watched intently from the sidelines, as he healed from a recent shoulder injury. Alec expects to be back on the mat sometime within the next week.

The next match-up pits the Spartan wrestling squad against Valor Christian’s Eagles. “If we come out to wrestle, Valor Christian does not stand a chance. With all of our wrestlers, we are far more fully loaded than anything Valor Christian can throw at us,” Groditski said. During a long hard season, defined by moments, our Spartan boys are thus far striving to capitalize on those moments.

file photo by Kevin Fleming

The TJ Spartans wrestlers opened up the season ready to rumble towards another league title, and a possible few state placers. Beginning the long seasonal haul with a 5th place out of 11 teams this past weekend at Mountain Vista’s Survivor Series, the team – as a whole – has seen better days. Though, for the opening duals tournaments, the Spartan’s looked even stronger on an individual level, coming home with five individual top three finishes: Thomas Currington with a devastating sweep brought home first place honors, Cody DeLaBarre last season’s state placer took second, Peter Taylor took second, Alec Groditski took second, and Guillermo Estrada brought back third place honors.

The team motto for the 2009-2010 season, “No Place to Hide,” serves as a warning to any opponent looking to face the Spartans: there will be nowhere for them to run, there will be no escape from this year’s wrestling squad. Head Coach Mike Laurita had only this to say, “We are expecting to be league champs like we do every year. On an individual level, I expect every match to be one of two things: a hard-fought battle that goes to the last second, or an absolute blow-out for our side.”

Senior varsity wrestler Peter Taylor shared his opinion on the tourney: “We should have wrestled much better, but for having a very young team right now I know that we all did our best.” Having only five returning varsity wrestlers on the team this year, this will truly be a season defined by learning experiences. “We thought we would be better than we actually were, but we just have a lot to learn and this season will provide enough for that,” Taylor predicts.

The team we saw last year was hungry, but the team we look at this year is ravenous. Looking to not only be competitive at regional’s, every member of varsity looks to make the drive to state and, furthermore, place at state. With state-placers briefly gracing our halls in the past, this could be the year when Thomas Jefferson High School really makes a run at state.

The senior leadership on the team is looked at as being one of the main driving forces towards achieving that goal.  “With the amount of senior leadership we have returning this year I am hoping they can mentor the younger wrestlers. Enough, at least, so that we can have a strong program heading into the future,” Laurita said. The season is only beginning, but the Spartan wrestling is certainly in it to win it.

TJ Wrestling has come to an end in 2009, but the future looks bright for the Spartans. photo by Kevin Fleming

For only the second time in its history, the TJ Wrestling Squad brought home a city championship, and capped off its 2009 campaign with some tough matches, but held their own at Colorado’s highest level.

“Boris (Tubic) and Matt (Francis) had some pretty tough draws. Both of them faced some kids that are in the top five of the state, regardless of the classification. Both did well, I was proud of them. Chris (Salazar) fought hard but it just wasn’t his day in the end, and Cody (DeLaBarre) wrestled the exact way we taught him. That’s why he placed, and that’s why he should have a good chance going into next year,” said Head Coach Mike Laurita on his quartet of state qualifiers.

“It’s a different atmosphere at State; the lights are brighter and the fans are louder.  Some kids freeze up and some kids rise to the occasion. As a team I am kind of disappointed we didn’t send more kids to state, but it is what it is. The season in general was OK. We met one of three of our big team goals. We did win city, which was a nice accomplishment. However we did want to send more kids to State than last year, but instead we went down from seven to four, so that was a bit disappointing. The final one was that we wanted to be in the top ten of the state. We finished 17th at the end of the state finals, out of 51 teams. We fell short but we did go up from last year when we placed 21st,” said Laurita. Although he is disappointed, Laurita’s team competed in one of the toughest regions in the state.

Tubic, who leaves TJ as third all time in career wins with 91 since his freshman year, went 2-2 at state, falling just one match short of placing in his weight class. “I was disappointed but I just lost some matches I should have won. Wrestling was just a lot of fun and I’m glad I did it,” said the senior, who also retires as the all-time program leader in take downs.

“Boris was a kid who came in and knew nothing about wrestling; he was dedicated and he deserves his spot among our program’s top wrestlers,” said his now former coach Laurita.

Francis, now the fifth in career wins at 85, drew some of the toughest competitors in recent memory. Winning his first round match, he then took on the number one seed who was undefeated and placed third at state. “Matt was another kid who never really wrestled coming into high school, but did what he had to do to compete. He was a leader and progressed a lot in his time with us. I know he was disappointed not placing because his junior year he got sixth in state. But this year he faced much tougher competition, so he has no reason to hang his head down,” commented Laurita.

DeLaBarre, in his first year with the TJ Wrestling team, had a memorable year. With a record of 23-4 he stepped up in a tough weight class and did well at State. “There’s not much I can say about Cody other than that he did what he had to do to win. He wrestled the way we taught him and fought hard. We were in a tough region, so for him to make it to State in his first year of varsity wrestling was a good accomplishment on his part,” said Laurita.

Salazar, the fourth wrestler who made it to State, went into the Pepsi Center with some high hopes, but ones that never materialized. “He had a tough bracket as well, but things just weren’t happening for him. He wasn’t able to produce points and that’s what got him in trouble,” stated Laurita. Although Salazar fell short at the state level he was able to accomplish quite a feat in his time at TJ. Salazar was able to amass a total of 99 career victories on the varsity squad, putting him as number one on the all time wins list at TJ, five above previous record holder Michael Hawkins.

With 18 wrestlers having some form of varsity experience returning next year, the team looks strong and poised for another DPL crown. As a team that posted a record of 14-5 and a 17th place finish in 4A, the TJ wrestlers seem to be on the verge of a top-tier finish among the state’s elite wrestling programs.

At the beginning of the season Head Coach Mike Laurita selected the team’s motto: “The Hunger For more,” based of the team’s desire to repeat as the Denver Public League wrestling champions, and on Saturday, they left no doubt on which team ruled the city.

With a decisive 1^st place finish and a total of 245 points, the Spartans had someone place in all 14-weight classes. With Thomas Currington, Cody DeLaBarre, Guillermo Estrada, Matt Francis, Alec Groditski, Robert McMacken, Chris Salazar, Peter Taylor, and Boris Tubic all wining their classification, Anthony Choy taking second, and the third place finishers Leeon Baskerville, Victor Gomez, and Marcus Hoffman finishing strong with a solid performance from Tra Holcomb placing fourth, the team very nearly met a lofty goal set by their coach at the beginning of the day.

“Laurita set a goal for the team to have more points than all the other DPSteams combined. The whole team took that goal seriously and went out and wrestled our best. We didn’t quite reach that goal, but by having everyone place in the top four it was still a fun accomplishment as a team,” said Senior Joey Scarlett.

With East in second place with 115 points, the Spartans easily doubled the nearest opposition’s score. “We wanted to win back to back league titles pretty bad. These guys have worked hard, all season and it’s starting to pay off. We have had ups and downs like any other team, but in the end this is a goal met so we re pretty happy, especially with how the team did as a whole. Everyone did what they had to do. This is also big for the seniors; I am glad we can send them out on this note,” stated Laurita.

With regionals this weekend, many Spartans will be looking for an encore performance in order to make it to the state finals at the Pepsi Center next week. In their way are teams like Pueblo West, Roosevelt and other Western Slope teams that are known for their wrestling pedigree. The Spartans will have to be at their best all weekend, and such a complete team effort like this past weekend’s DPL tournament is a promising step forward toward the impending matches at Montrose.

]]> http://www.tjjournal.com/2009/02/10/return-to-dominance-wrestling-makes-it-back-to-back/feed/ 0 http://www.tjjournal.com/2009/02/04/tj-wrestling-hits-stride-nearing-regionals/ http://www.tjjournal.com/2009/02/04/tj-wrestling-hits-stride-nearing-regionals/#comments Wed, 04 Feb 2009 15:26:54 +0000 Vince Crespin http://www.tjjournal.com/?p=3363 TJ enjoys “home mat” advantage as they host matches two consecutive nights and impress in both against tough competition.

photo by Kevin Fleming

On Thursday January 30, TJ played host to the Heritage Eagles of Littleton and won convincingly 44-32 in a pre-cursor of more to come the following day. Among the nights winners were Cody DeLabarre, Chris Salazar, Justin Hoffman, Joey Scarlett, Guillermo Estrada, Peter Taylor, Evan Duran and Leon Baskerville. “It was a fun match as a coach. Our guys went out there and just wrestled hard. Even the matches we lost our kids fought and did well. This could be the best as a team we have done all year. Heritage is a pretty solid team, and for us to go out there and win like that was fun to watch,” said Head Coach Mike Laurita.

The next day TJ started off where they had finished the previous night with individuals wrestling strong, and winning many of the team duals. The wrestling squad fought their way to 3^rd place out of 16 total teams ranging from 1A to 5A in state classification. The Spartans dominated early but ran into some trouble later on, dropping the match to Pueblo South, the 1^st place finisher of the tournament, and losing to Wiggins, ranked number two in the state for 2A in the final match. “It will always be disappointing to lose in the final match. We missed second place by 5 ½ points to Wiggins. One match would have made the difference. However we did well overall and I think we are progressing nicely,” said Laurita. TJ had four second place finishers in DeLabarre, Hoffman, Salazar and Boris Tubic. They also picked up points from fourth place wrestlers Duran, Taylor, Anthony Choy, and Matt Francis.

This coming weekend will be the Denver Prep League Meet, which means one thing: a rematch with East High School, the team TJ beat in the final match of their dual last year to win the DPL crown, the first time in TJ’s history. “We should do well on Saturday; we have seen most of these teams and have done well against them in the past. East should be interesting from the stand point that we beat them in a close match last year and they want to return the favor. If our kids do what they’re capable of, I am confident we can wrestle with any team in the state,” stated Laurita.

The DPL Meet will take place on Saturday, February 7th, at 8:30 am at TJ.