The wrestling team, now coached by Andres Uyeda, took third this year in the Tri-City Athletic League and again produced strong individual performances. That success has been steady in recent years.

This year at the TCAL Tournament Stagg placed behind West High, who took second, and McNair, who took first. This enabled the team to advance to the Divisional Championship at Lincoln. 

This year the team didn’t face the difficulty of not making their weight class, as was the case last year.

“Nick had a problem with this last year and it unfotunately ended his season early last year,” Uyeda said.

This year the team was led by a group of talented veteran seniors: Christopher Augmon, Jonathan Avina, Nick Contreras, Jose Gloria, and Paul Rebultan

Four of them went on to the Masters Tournament where, Uyeda said, “They all battled, but fell just short of their goal.” All four had wrestled three matches that day ending the team’s season.

Though they didn’t fulfill their goal of making state, these seniors will have an opportunity to be inducted into the Stagg wrestling wall of fame. 

This is a tradition that was started by a former coach, John Hittle, who wanted to recognize  the legacy of the program.

The wall is also considered an inspiration to the new wrestlers of the program. 

Uyeda said some wrestlers might not be able to reach their goals or become a league champ.

“For those who don’t have those goals (they) want nothing more than to have their face on that wall.” 

The wrestlers who make it to the wall have either had great achievements or combination of accomplishments in years involved in the program. 

Though Hittle started this tradition, he was not able to carry it on.

“Coach Hittle stepped down this year and that was a tremendous loss to our program,” Uyeda said. “He was an excellent coach.” 

During the year the wrestlers had a major loss but also a gain.  

Though Hittle was a huge loss to the team, a new teacher, Harold Brown, picked up the team’s spirits, becoming a great asset to the coaching staff. 

“He brings a different personality to the wrestling room,” Avina said. 

Brown hopes to benefit the team, offering skills gained from coaching experience in the past. 

This year’s coaching has been slightly different and the number of wrestlers were unusually high, starting with 80 and ending with 50. 

For this particular team it seems that each year is a basic routine. “We had a pretty good year,” said Uyeda. “We came together as a team and challenged ourselves like we do every year.”