West High’s Wrestlers Hungry to Win It All

It’s been a strange year for Coach Kent Wyatt and the West Torrance High wrestling team. Started out that way and just got weirder. Initially, Wyatt figured on a senior-dominated squad, long on experience and hungry to improve last season’s mark. In 1987-88, the Warriors, without a senior, scored a second-place finish in Bay League competition and placed ninth in the final Southern Section 3-A poll.

Wyatt slathered at the possibilities that 1988-89 held.

But injuries and ineligibility temporarily decimated the team and forced him to manipulate the new lineup, hoping to replace the recently departed.

So, instead of fielding a team with nine seniors, West’s squad consisted of four seniors, a junior, four sophomores and one freshman. That gave Wyatt quite a bit to work with but also caused concern.

“Our weakness would definitely be our depth,” Wyatt said. “(And) our sophomores have done the job for us. But you have to remember that in our system, the sophomores have wrestled only since they were freshman, so they are very young sophomores.” (The school system does not have junior high wrestling. Boys start wrestling when they enter high school.)

But the worrying and head scratching seem unfounded because of West High’s emergence as the wrestling power in the South Bay. The Warriors carry a 9-2 record into this weekend’s California Invitational at Morro Bay and have claimed a slew of tournament prizes.

They scored a first-place prize in the 22-team Santa Fe tournament and finished third at Rosemead (12 teams) and El Rancho (29 teams). They finished fourth in the 50-team El Camino meet and fifth in a second Rosemead competition, which featured 29 teams.

The successes have not gone unnoticed. This week they’re ranked No. 2 in the CIF 3-A poll. Victor Valley is No. 1 and Dos Pueblos No. 3. They collide this weekend at Morro Bay.

“It feels good to be doing so well,” said senior Mike Ramirez. “We’re No. 2, but after this weekend we could be ranked higher.”

The Warriors have won with a solid mix of veterans who are willing to impart their experience to hungry underclassmen who are anxious to carry on the West High wrestling tradition.

Ramirez, at 165 pounds, leads the seniors with a 28-2 record, backed by 126-pound Kelly Yokoe with a 27-2 mark. Henry Lee, 23-3 in the 145-pound division, and 154-pound Jerry Decker, who is 24-6, round out the nucleus of the team.

Junior Steve Lee, at 98 pounds, has given West a boost with his 25-8-1 record while sophomores David Ishii (112), Damien Botero (138), Don Aicroft (175) and Don Chaney (195) have shown promise. Freshman Rusty Ritenour (105) also gives Wyatt reason for optimism.

But West is missing 145-pound Jerry Decker, last year’s Bay League champion, Keith Kauffman, 26-8 in 1987-88, Dean Reynolds, who had 30 wins last season, and heavyweight Tracy Taylor due to injuries or academic problems.

“In the past when someone was injured, we’d just replace him with another senior,” Wyatt said. “But this year we’ve had to call on the sophomores to do the job. This class of sophomores could be one of the best ever, but you hate to keep looking down the road. If you’re always looking ahead, you’re never going to win the championship.”

Still, Wyatt has a few aces in the hole.

Last year Ramirez went 53-2 and was the CIF champion in his weight class but lost in the first match of the Masters competition. The 1987 and 1988 Bay League champ has claimed four first-place tournament prizes this year to go along with six tournament crowns in 1987.

He was named outstanding wrestler in the Santa Fe competition and avenged one of his 1988-89 losses in the West Coast Classic when he defeated Rosemead’s Valic Krivitsky, 10-0. Ramirez’s only other loss was to Oklahoma state champion Jason Leonard in the finals of the Tournament of Champions two weeks ago at El Camino.

Yokoe has beaten last year’s CIF and Masters champion and has placed in every one of his tournaments in the last three years.

“They are right up there with the best of them,” Wyatt said of Ramirez and Yokoe. They’re both tough and hard-nosed guys.”

Ramirez and Yokoe say that if West is to achieve its goal of a CIF championship, the focus must be on teamwork. The wrestlers have come to know each other quite well and are interested in the advancement of the team as a whole.

But neither Ramirez nor Yokoe has to look far for personal motivation.

Ramirez dreamed of a rematch with Krivitsky and made the most of it when they met.

“I psyched myself up so much that I just knew I could beat him,” he said.

And Yokoe, who lost in the first round of the CIF finals last year, said that particular match has been on his mind for some time.

“I really want another chance to get back there this year because I sort of choked in the first match,” he said. “I lost one and I was out, and I had a lot of time to think about that over the summer.”

Wyatt, 42, wrestled at Mira Costa, El Camino and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo before coming to West High 19 years ago.

His 1974 squad did well, and in 1976 the Warriors finished second in the CIF and third in the state.

And, according to Wyatt, those teams were successful not because the Warriors depended on a couple of wrestlers but because the entire squad was involved in the team’s goal.

“Let me give you an example,” he said. “Mike Ramirez lost in the first round of the Masters last year, and he was the only West wrestler that got that far.

“If we qualify three or four guys, we work out the whole team and everybody pushes each other. Now, when you step out there for the match, there are 13 or 14 guys pushing you and yelling for you, and that makes a big difference.

“We have always approached wrestling as a team sport and always point to team goals like winning league, the CIF, the state championship.”

The West wrestlers point to the CIF championship as the penultimate goal, with the state finals as the prize plum.

“Most of us have been on the varsity together since we were sophomores and it gets to be kind of like a family,” Ramirez said. “We all hope to make it to CIF and the state finals. It will be hard for us, but not impossible, because we have a lot of good wrestlers.”

Said Henry Lee: “Our goal is to get to the CIF. Right now we’re ranked second, but I feel we can take first if we stick to our training. I feel pretty confident about this team.”

A number of intangibles contribute to this attitude. Ramirez said the team has become like family, and when they travel to tournaments it’s like a family outing. Yokoe points to being together for three years, and Lee said the team has matured.

Yet other factors contribute. The wrestlers grapple with each other in practice drills. They encourage one another to keep on pushing and working harder. And they provide support when one of their own is struggling to make weight.

And that just doesn’t go unnoticed.

“They hang together and they are dedicated to their work ethic,” Wyatt said. “They starve together, and when you suffer like that, it kind of bonds you to each other.”