Only five months ago, new Hollister resident Kelly St. John was in an unexpected situation.
Growing up around the wrestling mat and coaching the North Monterey County Condors for 17 years, St. John wanted — and expected — to find a Hollister-based wrestling club for his 10-year-old son Leo easily.
But that didn’t happen until a fateful visit to Nob Hill. There, he discovered the small, eight-person team called the Hollister Warriors.
“I couldn’t find anything,” St. John said. “I couldn’t believe there was no wrestling action in this town. Then I finally found this.”
St. John was invited to take part in the Warriors, a small wrestling team that competed in national and state tournaments.
Five months later, the team isn’t small anymore thanks to the involvement of St. John, who now acts as the team’s head coach.
The growth was nearly five years in the making.
The Warriors were created by parents David San Miguel and Juan Gutierrez in San Miguel’s garage in 2007. It was a collection of the best young wrestlers aiming to compete in state and national tournaments.
In the next four years, the club never grew but never went away, as the team bounced from tournament to tournament.
“They went really hard after it,” St. John said.
Eventually they needed to change their home, and that’s when St. John made his impact. After moving for the third time in less than a few month, the Warriors settled at Marguerite Maze Middle School. Since starting there at the end of January, the team has grown from eight to more than 35 athletes ranging five to 14 years old.
“If we could get to a 100 kids, I’d be happy,” St. John added.
And with the growth has come increased success in tournaments around the country, including the club’s first state championship winner earlier in March.
During the California USA Kids Folkstyle State Championships from March 16-18, seven-year-old Khader Yasin took home the main prize in the 70-pound weight class. A week later, the Warriors grabbed six winners who placed at the top of their weight class at the State of California Wrestling Association Youth K-8 State Championships.
The club’s success won’t end with those championships, St. John said.
“It is really, really competitive out there when you start talking about the state level,” he said. “Here, we are trying to get our kids ready to be medal winners at those state championships and hope they are ready to do a good job for Brian (DeCarli at San Benito High). We want to get as many kids as we can here. We want to build a really super, competitive club that competes nine months out the year.”
In five months, the Warriors are well on their way to doing that.
In less than half a year, original member Gutierrez has seen an improbable growth, he said. Gutierrez, and his 13-year-old son Juan, have been involved with the program since its infancy in the San Miguel garage.
“It’s good. I like it,” he said. “I just hope we can keep it going. We have such great parents and great support. It helps a lot.”
The Warriors also create a good and fun learning experience for the athletes big and small.
Michael Zaragoza, 12, has been with the team since its beginning, and is amazed by its growth.
“It’s great, because we get to see all these little guys,” he said. “Look at all these little guys we have. We have a ton of little guys and they are going to be good when they get older. They are going to be better than I am now because right now, some of these kids are already getting first place in tournaments here and there.”
One of those young wrestlers, Yasin, has wrestled for only a year and is enjoying success — mostly because he enjoys doing it.
It’s fun because “you get to throw people on the ground,” he said.
Getting to young children and teaching them the sport is the key to getting them ready for high school competition, St. John said.
“It is so competitive out there now — if you don’t have something like this it’s not going to happen for you,” St. John said. “To build a successful high school program, you have to pump good kids into the program every year.”
Without the wrestling programs at the middle schools, club programs such as the Warriors — and the Hollister Razorbacks — are important.
“It helps because we get an early start so when we get to high school we already know what they are teaching us,” Zaragoza said. “We don’t have to know how.”
The Warriors season runs from November to July every year. The team competes in tournaments nearly every week.
The competitive, traveling nature of the squad is the biggest difference from the Razorbacks, which were established nearly 30 years ago.
“We go all year and we like to compete,” Gutierrez said. “We take our kids down south and up north. We are a more competitive team. It’s still open to anyone. If you don’t want to compete, still come. We give the kids an opportunity to come out and compete.”
If the success keeps on building, St. John will reach his goal of reinvigorating the San Benito wrestling community, he said.
“I know Hollister is a wrestling community,” he said. “We want to get it back there.”
