Building any high school athletic program from scratch is a daunting task, but MacDonald Condors Wrestling Head Coach Eric Rivera has his program making itself known despite being in just year three of the school’s history.
“I don’t know how many schools have this ideal situation, but we are kind of blessed here, we have three campuses all in one,” remarked Rivera on how MacDonald is right next door to Huerta Middle School and Agnew Elementary. “I want to take advantage of it. Kids will come here in three or four years, and hopefully, they will have a lot of knowledge about wrestling, and it will be easier to transition the kids.”
While the future wrestling pipeline will perhaps be easier to develop than for other schools, the kids already wrestling at MacDonald have been impressive.
“We had five first-place finishers in league last year,” noted Rivera. “At the JV level, we had three and at the varsity level, we had two and one second place finisher in league.”
Junior Dominic Ortega finished first in league for the JV wrestling squad last year at his 113 weight class, beating his younger brother Josh Ortega.
“That was exciting, but they said they would do it once and never again,” chuckled Rivera. “It was exciting and this year Dom will be on varsity. He’s a really good wrestler, probably overall our strongest wrestler. He’s our team captain.”
Ortega is eagerly anticipating the start to his third year of high school wrestling and first year wrestling on varsity.
“I feel like there are still some things I need to work on,” admitted Ortega. “But this will be my first varsity meet, so I’m excited.”
A couple of Ortega’s teammates this season are Aariyah Quinonez and Abd Rehman. Quinonez is one of a handful of girls on the team looking to make a big impression in her sophomore year. Rehman is in his junior year and both shared their enthusiasm for being trailblazers for a brand new program.
“Honestly, I think about that a lot,” chimed Quinonez when asked if she’s thought about potentially being one of the first student-athletes in school history to accomplish various feats. “I want to hopefully do some good things here and so I can be remembered as one of the firsts to do it.”
“Yes, I have definitely had that thought before,” echoed Rehman when asked the same question. “And that would be absolutely amazing if I could end up being one of those athletes.”
The challenge to be one of the firsts in school history for MacDonald wrestling becomes tougher and tougher each year due to the fact the program is growing more and more each year.
Two seasons ago, Coach Rivera started out with just five wrestlers when the school only had a freshman class. If the numbers stayed flat, then with three classes, the program would have 15 wrestlers. However, this year, Rivera has over 20 wrestlers on the team. It is likely that come next season, the first senior class for MacDonald will have a wrestling team with over 30 members.
Lots of internal competition, though, is certainly welcomed for such a young program; it means the word is getting out. Wrestling is the place to be.
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