No. 1 team proves worth vs. top competition
Villa Park is unanimously Orange County's No. 1 wrestling team in the county coaches' poll.
The Spartans are willing to prove they deserve that top ranking by taking on top competition pretty much every week of the season.
They beat preseason No. 1 Laguna Hills, 40-22, in a season-opening dual match Nov. 30.
Villa Park won the Villa Park Weenie Roast Tournament earlier this month, as junior Nick Vega went 4-0 at 106 pounds. (The event got its name from the "Weenies on the Hill" semi-good natured commentary that long has been part of the Canyon-Villa Park rivalry in every sport).
At the El Dorado Tournament, the Spartans finished third, the highest of any Orange Count team, behind perennial power Poway and Victor Valley.
At the Reno Tournament of Champions, which drew competitors from 12 states and also was won by Poway, Villa Park finished a very respectable 25th.
Next week, Villa Park is in the Shark Tank Tournament at Santiago of Corona. The Spartans will be in the Doc Buchanan Invitational Jan. 6-7. The monstrous Five Counties at Fountain Valley is Jan. 13-14.
"We're trying to compete with the best teams we can," Spartans sixth-year coach Aaron Cross said.
The Doc Buchanan, an all-California event, is an interesting one. A team can only enter wrestlers who have previously qualified for the CIF State Championships or whom the team's coach is certain has a real chance of qualifying for the state tournament this coming March.
"Well take five there," Cross said. "We think we could actually bring more than five, but it would seem out of line to say we'll bring more than five guys in the state tournament. It might be out of line to say we'll bring five."
Team captain Daniel Flores said the Spartans relish the competition, and not just from opposing teams.
"Everyone on our team pushes each other to work harder," Flores said. "Most of our guys have been together for four years now. We're getting tighter."
Villa Park's stable of wrestlers is led by Matt Brislawn, who finished seventh at 152 pounds at Reno and is the county's top-ranked wrestler at that weight class. "He's a very athletic kid, a good, hard-working kid," Cross said.
Then there is Vega, and senior heavyweight David Trujillo, a returning CIF-Southern Section champion. Rex Osterkamp is No. 5 in the county at 132 pounds, Anthony Edery is No. 3 at 160, Spencer Thiessen is No. 4 at 182, Brandon Spiers is No. 4 at 195.
Flores is No. 3 in the county at 120 pounds.
"Daniel's a self-made wrestler," Cross said. "He's not as athletic as Brislawn or Vega, but he works so hard and shows so much heart, and that's why the kids on the team voted him team captain."
Flores is the captain of a ship that has embarked on a challenging voyage. We'll see where that ship docks in March.
Taking a look around Orange County high school sports:
• The celebration of Santa Margarita football's state championship is just getting started. The team was recognized Wednesday night at the Christmas Community Service by nationally known pastor Rick Warren at Saddleback Church. Next: California state senator Mimi Walters will deliver an official state proclamation of some sort early next month, a huge congratulatory assembly at Santa Margarita is coming, too, and the Rancho Santa Margarita city council will honor the team at a council session in a couple of weeks.
• They might not get much business out of doing so, but the people at Ford and Farmers Insurance at least deserve some applause for being leading sponsors of CIF-Southern Section athletics, and CIF-SS marketing director John Costello deserves recognition, too, for securing the sponsorships. The funding these companies provide helps make CIF-SS championships first-class events. Local businesses also pitch in here and there, too, like the financial support JCtees.com provides every year to the Orange County North-South Challenge boys basketball event at El Toro.
• Ocean View's Kendall Small might be the best freshman in county boys basketball. Small, a 5-foot-10 guard, does everything right and does so with a quiet confidence that one rarely sees with a freshman playing in a superior program like Ocean View's. And Small is not one of those held-back 16-year-old freshmen; he still is 14.
• Brethren Christian 7-foot-5 junior boys basketball player Mamadou Ndiaye has plenty of work to do to become a top college prospect, of course, like remembering to keep the ball up high, getting his footwork correct, etc. People who see him play should remember that 7-4 Westminster alumnus Mark Eaton had to be talked into taking up basketball at Cypress College, played only a few minutes at UCLA and did not develop into a good player until he got to the NBA. Ndiaye, a constantly smiling guy who seems to really enjoy his teammates and scored 19 points in Brethren's one-point loss to Saddleback Valley Christian on Wednesday, said he has not received much college recruiting yet – but you know it's coming.
