Brothers continue wrestling legacy at San Benito High
When it comes to wrestling at San Benito High School, the name
Lucatero is about as commonplace as the school’s colors and the
mats they wrestle on.
In fact, there has been a Lucatero at San Benito High since
George Bush Sr. was President.
Brothers continue wrestling legacy at San Benito High
When it comes to wrestling at San Benito High School, the name Lucatero is about as commonplace as the school’s colors and the mats they wrestle on.
In fact, there has been a Lucatero at San Benito High since George Bush Sr. was President.
This year, Fernando and Enrique Lucatero, the youngest brothers in a family that includes seven boys and two girls are each having solid season. Fernando will graduate in four months while Enrique won’t graduate until May 2009.
When Enrique grabs his diploma, San Benito High will lose a surname that has left an indelible mark on the Baler wrestling program.
“The Lucateros are the epitome of what wrestling in this town is in a sense,” San Benito High wrestling Coach Matt Olejnik said. “They were born and raised with it. They have all grown up wrestling and that’s what they eat, drink and sleep.”
Although their father Santiago never wrestled, wrestling came to the forefront when Jose, the oldest brother, opted to wrestle his freshman year at the high school. By the time he was a junior Jose had finished in second place in the Central Coast Section championships and from that point on, each brother focused on outperforming the previous one, in a friendly family rivalry.
This year, Fernando is a favorite to win a Central Coast Section title next month in the 160-pound division. So far this season he hasn’t lost a single match, which includes wins in the Coast Classic tournament, El Cajon Invitational and the Silicon Valley Challenge.
A year ago Fernando was the favorite heading into the Section meet where he was ranked No. 1. Unfortunately, he broke his arm in the finals and had to stop the match. This year he is ranked eighth in the state.
“He should make a run at the Section title and possibly the state meet,” Olejnik said.
While Fernando has enjoyed success in the 160-pound division Enrique is doing well in the 152-pound division after moving down from 160. He too was first in the Coast Classic and went 4-2 in the Silicon Valley Challenge.
“He is a tough on top wrestler,” said Olejnik in an earlier interview. “He just needs to stay focused all the time. He lost some of his matches this year because he broke his focus.”
The Lucatero legacy at San Benito High began in 1991. Since then the Lucatero’s have arguably had more overall success on the mat than any family in the Central Coast Section or even the state for that matter.
“Wrestling is a one-on-one sport. You can’t blame other people for losing and when you win, you get all the credit,” said Eddie Lucatero, who graduated from San Benito High in 1999, in an earlier interview. “It’s the kind of sport where you can never train enough, and you only need to depend on yourself.”
In 1995, Jose became the first Lucatero to graduate from San Benito High and the next one, Saul, wasn’t far behind him.
Saul joined the team roughly about the same time Olejnik took the program over from former head coach Marty Dillon. He graduated in 1998.
As the Lucateros moved up the wrestling ranks, so did the school’s wrestling program. Before long, winning on the mat would become tradition at San Benito High, and the Lucateros were a major part of that winning equation.
In the last 11 years, the Balers have won six league titles, three CCS championships and have a dozen individual section champs as well as a number of state placers.
As the Olejnik era was getting under way, Saul was the first Lucatero to really help jump-start much of that success.
As a freshman Saul would finish sixth at CCS. The following year he won it, took third his junior year and was second his senior year.
That same year in 1998, Saul took fourth in the state championships. And while his older brother Jose opted to get into construction after graduation, Saul became the first of the brothers to attend college after he was heavily recruited by Moorpark Junior College coach Paul Keysaw, who saw the potential in him.
At Moorpark, which is near Los Angeles, Saul continued to shine on the wrestling mat. In his first season there, he finished third in the state junior college championships and took first the following year before transferring to Menlo College for his final two years.
At Menlo, Saul excelled to the point that he wound up finishing second as a junior and first as a senior in the NAIA national championships.
And just like Jose had set the initial bar by competing in high school, Saul had now moved it a notch higher, paving way for the younger brothers to take it another step further and compete at the college level too.
Eddie was the next Lucatero to follow suit. He also shined in the 140-pound weight class.
Since all of the Lucateros are between 5-foot-6 and 5-foot-9 all competed anywhere from 135 to 160 during their high school careers.
During his high school years, Eddie finished second in the section his junior year and won a CCS title his senior year – the same year that he finished fifth in the high school state championship.
And just like Saul before him Eddie went on to compete at Moorpark Junior College before wrapping up his career at Menlo.
Eddie’s career at Moorpark mirrored that of his older brother. He finished third his freshman year in the state tournament and won it his sophomore season.
At Menlo, Eddie wasn’t as successful as his older brother, however, but still did well enough to finish fifth his junior year and seventh his senior year at the NAIA nationals.
The last Lucatero brother to graduate from high school was Octavio. Competing in the 140-pound class his junior and senior years, Octavio finished third at CCS as a junior and took second his senior year before advancing to the state tournament where he took fifth.
As a freshman at Moorpark in 2006, he finished fourth in the state tournament.
“All of us have been pretty good at wrestling,” Eddie said. “We all looked up to Jose, and I think we all tried to be better than the guy before. I think we were also good athletes and we were blessed with good genes. Our dad and mom are strong, and we were lucky to find a sport that we were all good at.”
In addition to wrestling, Eddie played strong safety on the Baler football team his freshman year before focusing solely on wrestling. Saul was a running back at San Benito High all four of his high school years. Eventually, both of them decided to dedicate most of their time to wrestling because of their small stature.
“Our bodies are kind of small,” Eddie said. “I realized that I just wasn’t going to waste my time playing football. We’re just not the right size for football.”
Clearly all of the Lucatero brothers are the right size for wrestling. One look at the CCS and state record books show that.
