Coach: Wrestling Like Fishing, You Need Luck : Bay Leage Champions West Torrance Will Try to Get a Grip on 3-A Title Today

Torrance High wrestling Coach Mike Leibig would much rather talk about his fishing trip last weekend than his team’s chance today in the CIF 3-A Division tournament.

“There are just too many variables in the tournament to predict how we’ll do,” said Leibig, coach for two years. “Both wrestling and fishing rely on luck--but I have much more control when I’m fishing.”

Leibig realized this lack of control last year when his team finished a disappointing sixth in the CIF and placed only one wrestler in the finals.

But this year the Tartars have fought back. They won the Bay League championship and are 27--0 in dual meets.

“I don’t think we could have wrestled any better than in the Bay League championship,” Leibig said. “We are as ready as we can be.”

The team, composed of nine seniors, three juniors and a sophomore, is not laden with exceptional talent but wins with consistency in all 13 weight classes. Each senior has wrestled for four years.

“A lot of teams may have three or four kids who’ll be in the finals in big tournaments, but they aren’t consistent (throughout the weight classes),” Leibig said. “They may beat us there, but we’ll get them in the other seven or eight weights.”

But not having a few outstanding wrestlers could hurt Torrance in the CIF tournament where emphasis is on how many wrestlers make it to the finals.

“They are balanced, but it could take a little more than that to do well in the CIF,” said Jeff Roberts, coach at Capistrano Valley, ranked No. 1 in 3-A. “It will be hard for Torrance because the division is just so strong this year, but if they can pull some upsets they may surprise everybody.”

Alhambra Coach Mike Williams, whose team lost twice to the Tartars this year, said Torrance’s tournament chances can’t be overlooked.

“They don’t have the strong nuggets they had a few years ago, but they have 13 tough guys,” Williams said. “When you get to the finals, you all get nervous. Everybody thinks they have a great team and anything can happen.”

Leibig said he is cautiously optimistic about his team’s chances.

“We have some maybes. We might be able to get three kids into the finals,” he said.

Leibig’s main “maybe” is senior Jeff Clemens, who said his success is due in part to Leibig’s ability to motivate the team.

“He makes you reach down deep in yourself to do well,” said Clemens, 17, who wrestles in the 115--pound class. “It’s kind of like when your mother makes you clean your room--you do it after she gets on you for a while.”

But Leibig said he doesn’t need to be hard on his team to inspire them.

“There are no discipline problems with this group,” Leibig said. “I haven’t had to pull out my hair dealing with suspensions or grades.”

Leibig has never had to worry about the off-mat performance of junior Greg White. White, 16, who has a 3.4 grade-point average, said his experience wrestling in Korea last summer on a cultural exchange program helped him beat Lupe Beltran of Rio Mesa High in Oxnard. Beltran, last year’s CIF 105-pound champion, lost to White in the Torrance 10-Way Tournament.

“Greg’s a chain--wrestler,” said Leibig. “He goes from one move to another and doesn’t stall up. A lot of wrestlers stay with a move and die with it.”

Senior Brandon Shimizu learned most of his wrestling moves on the judo mat. Shimizu, 17, who was the 1986 high school 110-pound-and-under United States Judo Inc. champion, said most of his teammates are out to rectify last year’s dismal showing.

“It just seemed like we were all tired of wrestling last year. We were all so depressed,” Shimizu said. “But this year we’re tournament tough.”

Leibig said he’d rather his wrestlers focus on winning their first match than concentrating on winning it all.

“I tell my kids it’s one match at a time,” Leibig said. “You have to have your eye on a goal, but you can’t look so far ahead that you miss what’s in front of you.”