After spending the past year practicing out of the Maze Middle School gym, the Hollister Warriors youth wrestling program – and its 35 wrestlers – will open a permanent home later this month – possibly alongside the San Benito High wrestling program.
The proposed partnership will bring the Balers out of their small practice rooms on the school’s campus to an open 6,500 square-foot facility on Tres Pinos Road dedicated to only wrestling. The high school’s wrestling program’s move hasn’t been officially approved, but its too good of an opportunity, head coach Brian DeCarli said.
“I’m really hopefully everything gets worked out,” DeCarli said. “It’s a great opportunity. It’s too good of a situation to pass up.”
For the Warriors, the move is expected to continue an upward growth trajectory that it has built over the past year. In the past year, the club has grown to more than 35 participants and has built multiple championship-level competitors. That should only go up.
“We are hoping this means a lot for us,” Warriors coach Kelly St. John said. “This will be a good thing for wrestling throughout Hollister.”
The facility, located at 351 Tres Pinos Road near the YMCA, will be only dedicated to wrestling, St. John said. That’s a far cry from renting the gym at Maze.
“Taking nothing away that place was decent, but it wasn’t a permanent home,” St. John said. “It subject to school events. We can call this place home.”
St. John and DeCarli hope the facility will reinvigorate wrestling in Hollister after the middle schools were forced to cut the sport due to budget issues a couple of years ago. The wrestling-only facility will give more people the opportunity to wrestle and help build a new championship caliber wrestling tradition in Hollister, St. John said.
The club’s goal is to create a “wrestling hub” that allows Hollister to “uphold the dominance associated with the Hollister wrestling tradition,” according to a press release from the club.
“The wrestling history in the city of Hollister is rich and there is a veritable abundance of people in the community who have been influence directory and/or indirectly by the sport over the years,” according to the release.
For DeCarli, it’s a chance for younger wrestlers to see what the high school program represents.
“They will get to learn form the older kids,” he said. “It would really be a great thing for the community.”
The facility opens Oct. 22 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. for open house. Registration will be open at that time.
For more information contact St. John at 831-809-9118 or rd*****@ch*****.net.
