Now, They’re Twin Champions, Too : Wrestling: After some sidetracks, Valhalla’s Jeremy Hendrick has begun to match the success of brother Jason.

Jason Hendrick, Valhalla’s 154-pound wrestler, had been asked the question more than once. So had Glen Takahashi, his coach.

“Jason has a brother?” people ask.

In fact, he has a twin , Jeremy, who has been wrestling as long as Jason. But because of two years of academic ineligibility, not many people knew about him until this season, when Jeremy stepped into Valhalla’s lineup at 145 pounds.

Now, a lot of people are aware of the two Hendricks. Last Saturday, both won 2-A section titles. They will try for Masters championships this Saturday at Mira Mesa.

“It felt good when all of a sudden everybody was saying, ‘Oh, he has a twin brother,’ ” Jeremy said. “People would see my last name and get scared. At first they think it’s Jason. Then they find out it’s Jeremy, and there’s a little bit of relief.”

Jason (30-4 this season) has always been the more consistent. As a sophomore at 138 pounds, Jason won the section and Masters and placed fifth at the state meet. During the summer, he placed third at the Cadet national tournament in Missouri and made the junior national Greco team.

Jeremy, on the other hand, was in and out of the wrestling room last year and didn’t even compete over the summer.

“I wasn’t getting along with my parents last year,” said Jeremy, who has a 25-6-1 record. “Now everything is fine with my parents, and my grades are fine, and now wrestling (is going well). It’s a 360-degree turn. I came back this year and said, ‘No more, no more bad boy for me.’ ”

Said Takahashi: “He’s just catching up now and finally coming into his own. He’s starting to believe in himself. We’re starting to see some really good wrestling from Jeremy.”

At the start of the season, Takahashi asked his wrestlers to write down goals on a piece of paper. The Hendricks took it one step further, putting them on a sheet of poster board and hanging it in their room:

“Take first in league. Take first in CIF. Take first in Masters.”

Said Jeremy: “Jason and I wrote it real big so we can look at it every morning and put it in our head.”

Jason won his second section title Saturday by pinning Carlsbad’s David Harris in four minutes 39 seconds after building a 10-2 lead. Jeremy defeated Aaron Welk of Vista, 13-5, in his final.

Jason won last year’s Masters title by upsetting Monte Vista senior Dusty Harless, who later placed second at the state meet. This year, Jason is confident but taking a cautious approach.

“Last year, Dusty Harless said it was going to be a cake walk, and I beat him, so I don’t want to eat my words,” Jason said. “It should be pretty easy, but you have to be mentally prepared and wrestle these guys like they’re state champions.”

Jason, seeded first at 154, thinks his toughest competition will be No. 2 Colby Helper of Oceanside. Jason defeated Helper, 12-2, in the championship match at the El Cajon tournament.

Jeremy is seeded ninth at 145 but has defeated some of the higher-seeded competition, including No. 1-seeded Welk twice. Welk (25-8) will meet Jeremy in the quarterfinals if both win their first-round matches.

“I feel like I’m at the peak of my career right now,” Jeremy said.

Each brother agrees that having the other in the lineup helps.

“We always talk before matches,” Jeremy said. “And now I’m wrestling people he’s wrestled before because I’ve gone up in weight so much (he weighed 119 last year). He tells me what their moves are and how they wrestle. He’s a helpful tool for me.”

And because Jason wrestles right after Jeremy, he is affected by the outcome of his brother’s match.

“It helps me a lot seeing him win, and if he loses I get angry and I go out and really wrestle the guy,” Jason said.

The brothers often talk with their father, John, about upcoming matches.

“Both of our parents are real supportive,” Jeremy said.

The Hendricks started in wrestling through a program in Jamul. They and their older brother, J.R., received a flyer about the Jamul Slammers at school.

“We brought home the paper and hung it on the refrigerator and asked Dad about it,” Jeremy said.

After a year of wrestling, Jeremy was a passenger on a three-wheel all-terrain vehicle when it was involved in a hit-and-run accident with a car. Jeremy suffered a fractured skull, and injuries to his back and ribs. He couldn’t participate in any physical activity for a year.

“At one point, he was better than me, but after his accident, I went a couple steps ahead of him and kept excelling,” Jason said.

John Hendrick coached them for two years before the club fizzled. The Hendricks then went from club to club, gaining experience.

“Teams just took us in,” Jason said. “We always wrestled pretty good.”

Jeremy Hendrick began the season with the idea that he would be overlooked at first. He set goals, but as his confidence has grown, they have changed. At the start of the season, for example, he wanted to qualify for the state meet. Now he wants to place.

The turning point was at the Five Counties tournament early in the season.

“I wrestled bad and didn’t place,” Jeremy said. “Coach talked to me and said, ‘This is where you’ve got to turn around.’ I started wrestling hard from there.”

He injured his ankle while defeating Welk, 7-3, in the second round at the El Cajon tournament and defaulted his quarterfinal. But after recovering, Jeremy began winning.

He defeated Shawn Bankes of El Cajon Valley, 3-0, in a dual meet. “Bankes is a good wrestler,” Jeremy said. “That really boosted my confidence.” And he followed with tournament victories at Holtville, the Grossmont League meet and the section.

Now, Jeremy’s goals aren’t limited to his high school career. Last summer, he had nothing to do with wrestling.

This summer, he hopes to make the junior national freestyle team.