Pham Goes to the Mat for This Sport : Wrestling: Small size keeps him out of basketball, but Loara senior is dynamo in 105-pound class.

When Anthony Pham started his freshman year at Loara High, he didn’t have a clue about wrestling. Instead, Pham had his heart set on playing basketball.

And while Pham gave it a shot--he played on the freshman-sophomore team--he came to realize his lack of size (5 feet 4) was his curse and soon left his dreams on the court at the end of the season.

But for a freshman, dreams have a way of making way for new dreams, and in his sophomore year, wrestling took the place of basketball.

“I didn’t even know what wrestling was in my freshman year,” Pham said. “But it was in math, when Coach Steffel talked to me about the sport that I decided to give it a try.”

His first year wrestling, Pham competed in only two matches on the varsity as a fill-in. And though he was frustrated, he realized he had found his dream sport and made the commitment.

Now the senior is one of the state’s top 105-pounders, has won the championship in his weight class at the Division II Southern Section finals, took seventh at the Masters meet, which qualifies him for State, and is now up to his neck in a sport that a few years ago, was alien to him.

“Anthony has a lot of natural talent,” Loara Coach Ted Steffel said. “I saw Anthony play basketball, and even though he was small, you could see that the kid was a good athlete.”

A late bloomer, Pham wishes he’d hit the mat long before, as most of the athletes he has faced the last few seasons.

“That does come to mind,” said Steffel, regarding Pham’s late start. “In fact, Esperanza Coach Steve Stewart just the other day said the very same thing. You just got to wonder how good Anthony could have been if he started earlier.”

While Pham, 18, regrets his late start, he doesn’t dwell on it, instead focusing on each upcoming match and what he needs to do to win.

“I have really tried to study the sport,” Pham said. “There is so much to learn about wrestling. I still don’t know that much. But I’m always watching, looking at other wrestlers, looking for things and listening to the coach and what other wrestlers say when they talk to me about moves and things.”

One thing that has helped Pham immensely has been his participation in freestyle wrestling during the off-season. In addition, he started to lift weights last summer and attended some wrestling camps.

“If you want to get better, you have to do all those other things,” Pham said. “I think freestyle really helped me. It gave me a different outlook on the sport and taught me things that helped me during the season.”

One of Pham’s teammates, Richard Meza, who also took first at Southern Section and qualified for the State meet by winning the 147-pound class at the Masters, has been one of Pham’s biggest critics and mentors. Meza is always offering Pham advice on moves he could have made or should try.

Pham’s favorite move is his angle pick, which he uses frequently. But he also has great endurance and perseverance, which is one of the big reasons he was able to win his championship match at Southern Section.

After suffering two injuries against Kalani Robolledo of Fontana Miller, Pham found himself down by one point late in the third period. All Robolledo had to do to win was ride Pham for the remaining seconds. But Pham was able to escape with eight seconds left to win, 6-5.

“I think a lot of guys would have given up, but Anthony has a lot of guts and drive, which is why he does well in competition. He looks forward to the tough matches.”

Ranked No. 1 in the county since preseason, Pham said he doesn’t pay any mind to the polls. “I never think about it,” he said. “I care more about how we are doing as a team than how me as a person is doing.”

Pham hopes to go to college, and if possible, would like to continue to wrestle. Cal State Bakersfield has shown an interest in him.

“I would like to keep on wrestling in college,” said Pham, noting his current grade-point average of 3.3 is the highest of his academic career. “I love wrestling. And if I can, I would like to see just how good I can get in the sport.”