Warrior Wrestler Wants to Pin Down Crown

At 10, when most boys spend much of their time watching super hero cartoons and playing with toy guns, Don Garriott was doing serious tussling in his hometown in Oregon.

At 12 he won the Oregon state wrestling championship as a 98-pound eighth-grader after winning league and district championships.

Then his family moved to California and his talent belonged to the South Bay.

At Redondo High Garriott competed on the varsity wrestling team for three years and was named MVP his junior year. He transferred to West Torrance High for his senior year and won the CIF title and placed fourth in the state finals. He also broke a school record for winning more than 50 matches in a season.

“Donny was very good,” said West Torrance Coach Kent Wyatt, who is also an assistant wrestling coach at El Camino. “In the last couple of years he’s put in so much effort and dedication. In high school lots of kids wrestle, play football and do lots of other things, but Donny, he just wrestles.”

On Saturday the 20-year-old El Camino sophomore will compete for the junior college state title at El Camino as the state’s third-ranked wrestler (31-7) in the 126-pound division.

He qualified for Saturday’s event by defeating Fred Mora of Rancho Santiago, 15-3, in the final of last week’s regional meet at Cerritos College.

“He’s a pretty good mat wrestler,” said Rancho Santiago Coach Gary DeBeaubien. “When he gets on top, he’s real good. I can tell he’s really matured and as a result he’s coming on real strong.”

Although an 8-4 (3-4 in the South Coast Conference) record prevented the Warriors from qualifying for the state meet as a team, El Camino will be well represented by Garriott and freshmen Carl Pierce and Ralph Rebaya.

Pierce placed second in the regionals and will compete in the 167-pound division. Rebaya placed third at 118 pounds.

Pierce and Rebaya are strong contenders, but Garriott represents the Warriors’ best chance for a state title because of his experience, maturity and confidence.

Besides an extra year of maturing (Garriott redshirted last year due to a knee injury), he has gone back to competing in his strongest weight division.

As a freshman at El Camino in 1986 he was an All-American and placed fourth in the state with a 30-8 record in the 126-pound division.

But for most of this season Garriott competed in the 134-pound class because he felt skilled and strong enough to do so. After 25 matches, however, he found that it was too tough despite compiling a 21-4 record and earning all-conference honors.

“In tournaments,” Garriott said, “I’d get put out before the finals. I could beat the average guys, but when I got to the final rounds I lost to the tough guys. Their size was wearing me down.

“Now I’m not as tired and worn out at the end of tournaments. I can deal with people’s strength better. I’m also better conditioned because I really had to work to lose the weight.”

Losing the 8 pounds was harder than pinning his toughest opponent. Sean Yokoe, the only other sophomore on the team, helped Garriott get through that period.

“It was really hard for him,” Yokoe said, “because Don has never been nutritionally aware. He just eats and suddenly he had to start counting calories. It really takes a lot of willpower. Your family sits down to eat dinner and you can’t.”

The sacrifice is paying off, according to El Camino Coach Tom Hazell, who wrestled at the school in 1971 then at powerful Oklahoma State. Hazell says that as a 126-pounder, Garriott is the big guy in his division, whereas before he was the little guy.