Calvary Chapel Takes Names, Wins State Meet

The Church Boyz ruled Saturday.

The nickname wasn’t meant to be flattering, but it stuck, and Calvary Chapel’s wrestling team gladly took it as their own. After all, it was a fitting description for the wrestlers from the small Christian school on the southern edge of Santa Ana.

As the story goes, a Calvary Chapel wrestler overheard two opponents talking during a tournament early last season. “Hey, who do you wrestle next?” asked one. “Some church boy,” came the response.

Little did he know what would come next.

Saturday, with all of four seasons of tradition behind the Church Boyz, Calvary Chapel knocked off California’s most successful wrestling powers and won the CIF State meet team title.

It was only the third team title by a Southern Section team and the second by an Orange County team since the tournament began in 1973. El Dorado, in 1982, and West Covina, in 1981, won the others.

And in the end, it wasn’t close. Led by twins Dane and Shane Valdez, the Eagles ended Clovis’ streak of consecutive championships at three. Calvary Chapel had 79 points to 72 for Shingle Springs Ponderosa. Clovis, winner of three consecutive titles and a record six overall, was third.

“To come up here as an underdog, as a small school no one knows, and win, it’s awesome,” said Dane Valdez, who defeated Todd Wong of Sacramento Johnson, 12-7, to win the 119-pound title. “My main thing was to win the State (individual) title. My focus was as an individual, but the team thing is a bonus.”

A junior, Dane Valdez finished with a 44-0 record, which included victories in the Southern Section Division III and the Masters meet finals.

Shane Valdez, a 112-pound junior, finished second for the second consecutive season, losing to Sean Kim of Schurr, 3-1.

Of the six Eagles who qualified for the State meet, four finished in the top eight. Joey Coughran placed third at 130 pounds, and Ed Mosley was sixth at 145.

Five county wrestlers advanced to the championship round with Dane Valdez and Zac Tapia of San Clemente, at 135 pounds, winning titles. At 125 pounds, Teak Sato of Savanna lost to Eric Guerrero of San Jose Independence, 6-5, and heavyweight Wali Sibrie of Buena Park didn’t go quietly, but he lost to Chad Mast of Clovis, 4-2. Mast, who was sixth at last year’s meet, finished with a 48-0 record.

When Tapia finished seventh last season at 130, he predicted that he would make the final this season.

“I remember watching the finals and thinking, ‘If I work a little harder, maybe next year I can take this thing,” he said.

His 5-2 victory over Craig Welk of Vista made his dream a reality. In winning, Tapia had to overcome Welk’s superior upper body strength in the pivotal third period.

“I don’t know if I got nervous or what, but he was a hell of a rider,” said Tapia (53-1). “I know I should be jumping for joy, but I’m still a little upset with that penalty point for stalling at the end.”

Suffice to say, Coach John Azevedo isn’t about to let Calvary Chapel rest on Saturday’s victory. After all, the program has come so far in only four seasons. He figures it’s only going to get stronger in the coming years.

“That first year was hard,” said Azevedo, who was named the coach of the year by tournament officials. “But it got better with the twins coming that second year. I think the program is really going to take off. Even more kids are going to come. People like a winner, I guess.”

Asked whether he entertained any thoughts of seeking an NCAA Division I coaching position, Azevedo, a former assistant at Wisconsin and Notre Dame and a member of the 1980 Olympic team, shrugged.

“I could be here another four years,” he said. “There’s a lot of support. It’s a great place to be.”

Meet Notes

The CIF State meet will remain at the University of the Pacific’s Spanos Center through 1996, officials said Saturday. The State meet has been held at Stockton since 1988. ... Loc Pham of Irvine, who had placed in every major meet he’d competed in his four-year career, finished seventh at 112 pounds with a 12-6 victory over Aldo Broussard of San Diego Patrick Henry. . . . Jeff Rodrigues of Savanna finished seventh and David Wells of El Modena eighth at 140. . . . Hyuson Kim of University was eighth at 171. . . . Tito Ortiz of Huntington Beach was sixth at 189.