Santa Monica Wrestler’s Hardest Bouts Were at Home

It was a rivalry just like any other. Periodically, the two opponents would take their corners and rethink strategy minutes before they clashed. It was a show with intensity almost equal to a match-up of Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant.

But there weren’t 10,000 yelling customers in the stands. There was no media coverage.

The battles between wrestlers Greg and Laurence Jackson, ages 17 and 19, took place throughout their youth. All they needed for their “tournaments,” as Laurence put it, was their hardwood living-room floor and their father to keep score and declare the victor.

“We would wrestle for ‘King of the House,’ who would rule the house that day,” Laurence said.

“It was for bragging rights,” Greg said.

That helped prepare them for the bruising sport, for that hardwood floor inflicted more pain than some of their matches.

Those battles are rare now. Aaron Jackson, the oldest brother, is coaching at Cal State Chico after competing at Channel Islands High in the ‘70s. Laurence, a star at Santa Monica High, took his 142-pound frame to Oklahoma State after many tournament victories.

Now Greg is left to continue the legacy at Santa Monica High where he is a junior.

A nationally ranked wrestler, Greg has a record of 44-2 after competing in the state finals March 5 at the University of the Pacific in Stockton. He’s come a long way since when, as a 35-pound 5-year-old, he stepped onto a wrestling mat for the first time against a 55-pound opponent and lost.

This season he has done the following:

- Placed third in the state tournament in the 142-pound class.

- Placed third in the Master’s tournament at Fountain Valley High, advancing to the state finals.

- Become the No. 1 wrestler in 2-A.

- Won the El Camino, Alemany, Westlake and Edgewood tournaments

- Won the outstanding wrestler award in the El Camino and Alemany tournaments

And last year, while losing only four matches, he placed second in the Master’s, second in the California Interscholastic Federation and fifth in state and won the Alemany, Westlake and Edgewood tournaments.

But that is not significant to many students at Santa Monica High. Those awards don’t have the impact of scoring 35 points in a basketball game, hitting homers or scoring touchdowns. Wrestling is not a popular sport at Santa Monica or many other schools in Southern California.

Assistant Coach Mark Black said Jackson frequently wrestled in front of crowds of only a hundred.

“He’s a well-liked kid but most people here have no idea how good he is,” Black said. “Most friends probably don’t know how much effort he’s put into this sport. He’s eaten, drunk and slept wrestling for a long time. Most of his peers don’t understand what that means. He’s a nationally ranked wrestler.”

Black said few fans and notice the technique involved. Therefore, many of Jackson’s accomplishments are unappreciated.

“You might teach 10 or 15 positions for a blocking lineman or running back,” Black said. “But in wrestling, you’re teaching 100 positions.”

At the Master’s, a near-capacity crowd appreciated accomplishments such as Jackson’s. While Jackson was resting and sipping a soft drink after one of his matches, one of the bigger wrestlers asked him for advice on a particular move.

And one would think Jackson would get hurt when constantly putting his body on the mat in practices and meets, especially when several teammates took turns against him in practice the day before the state finals. But the only major injury he has suffered was a broken collarbone while playing football in the 10th grade.

Jackson said some of his friends, who always encourage him before matches, tried out for the wrestling team and didn’t realize how much work and technique were involved.

But for Jackson, those who do understand--his coaches, teammates, his father (who at one time was his coach and later founded the Malibu Wrestling Club) and his brothers--are what count in terms of his success.

“Wrestling is so hard because it’s individual,” Jackson said. “You can’t rely on someone like you can in football. I have nobody to really help me besides my coach, and I have to discipline myself and push myself every day just to train and stay on top.”

And a lot of that discipline is part of his mental preparation just before matches. Black said that Jackson isolates himself from the wrestlers and the crowd.

“It’s a very quiet, intense internalization, kind of a mental tightness,” Black said, adding that Jackson usually tries to rethink his strategy.

Jackson had a lot to think about in one of his matches in the Master’s. He was to face Antonio McKee, a two-time Master’s champion from Long Beach Poly who beat him last year.

“Greg wants to wrestle him tomorrow,” Black said at practice the day before the Master’s. “He knows his moves. He’ll figure out the style of that wrestler and he’ll counter that style.”

But he lost.

“On that day, McKee was just a better wrestler,” Santa Monica Coach Norm Lacy said. “A couple of more breaks and it could have been a different outcome.”

Jackson said he’s used to the otherwise small crowds at most of his meets, though he does have ideas on how to make wrestling more popular on the West Coast: “Publicity. We’ve got to get more of the public into it.”

Perhaps Jackson would receive notoriety if he followed Laurence’s footsteps to Oklahoma State. The elder Jackson said some of the dual meets at Oklahoma State and other schools in the Midwest draw 6,000 to 10,000.

Greg said his goals are to win state, get into a good college and to make the 1992 Olympic team. But his main goal is merely to compete.

“He has the potential to be (better than I), but as far as going out there and doing it, that’s up to him,” Laurence said.

And unlike Laurence, Greg has competed in three weight classes. In his three years at Santa Monica, Black said, Laurence competed in the same weight.

Anyway, Greg can take on the bigger wrestlers.

“The higher you get up (in weight classes), the slower they get, but the stronger they are,” Greg said. “It’s like a guy who is strong, the only way you can beat him is with speed. You have to be consistent with your technique.”

Black said Jackson has all of that, and more.

“He’s an excellent technician,” Black said. “What has made him so good is that he has been in the sport 10 years. He’s been on the wrestling mat a thousand times. He’s very quick for his size. In most matches he usually gets a takedown in the first 15 seconds, even against the best people.”

Black said his and Lacy’s goal for Jackson is to mentally break his opponent, to break the opponent’s will to compete against him, which may have happened in several instances.

“I think he’s pushed some wrestlers into a lower weight class because they don’t want to wrestle him,” Black said. “He has a lot of respect from other wrestlers.

“He has beaten kids with better records than his. He’ll face some kids who have records like 42-2 and he’ll tear them up. I’ve been in wrestling for more than 20 years; I wrestle with him every day and he’s starting to beat me up. I’ve had to go home and lick my wounds.”

Perhaps that is what happened when Black--who outweighs Greg by 20 pounds--and the three Jackson brothers got together for a match on Christmas.

“To see those brothers beat each other up was something,” Black said.

But that perhaps has been the case for all those years, when they started horsing around with Greg when he was 5, to prepare the younger Jackson for what he would face on the mat. As years progressed, Greg and Laurence would try to outdo each other as they wrestled for “King of the House.”

And did Greg get excited about beating his brother?

“All the time,” Laurence said. “I’d be mad if he got a takedown because he’d make a big deal off of that.”

“It was really competitive between me and Lawrence because we started at the same time,” Greg said. “We always tried to outdo each other.”

As Black was talking about Laurence’s many accomplishments, he opened the door to a small closet in the gym. The closet contained just some of Laurence’s many awards, including plaques, and two tall trophies from KABC-TV designating Laurence Jackson as its athlete of the week for Feb. 3-9, 1985, and Feb. 17-23, 1986.