Fraternity Pin : Wrestling Has a Hold on Sibling Coaches and 6 Pairs of Brothers at Ventura

A hug or a headlock is never far away as long as a guy has a brother around.

For some, either exchange virtually defines brotherhood. For wrestlers, such gestures mean a bit more.

All of which has not escaped Coach Paul Clementi and the wrestlers of Ventura High, where sibling rivalry is nourishing a team already big on brotherly love.

Six pairs of brothers compete in the program, including varsity members Bernie and Cristobal Gonzalez, and Dustin and Trevor Clocherty. Teammates Rory Locke, Jerom Gaitan and Joe Martinez all have brothers wrestling for the junior varsity, which also counts sophomore twins Carl and Matt Saracini.

None of the aforementioned are seniors. And Clementi, in his 19th season, says this team ultimately may prove superior to the 1992 squad that won Southern Section individual and dual-meet championships and included two wrestlers who advanced to the championship round of the state finals.

Ventura (12-0, 2-0 in league meets) is within grasp of its sixth Channel League championship in the past seven years entering Tuesday night’s league showdown at rival Rio Mesa. The Cougars placed first at the Newbury Park, Rosemead and Torrance tournaments and have overpowered league opponents Oxnard, 58-18, and Buena, 71-6.

“It’s the most balanced team we’ve had from top to bottom,” Clementi said. “If we keep all these guys until they’re seniors, you’ll see the best Ventura team you’ve ever seen.”

And the closest. Brothers in arms, Clementi said, are the glue that holds the Cougars together.

Who better than a sibling in a singlet to help boost your morale and deposit you on your back.

“It’s a good thing,” said Cristobal Gonzalez, a 171-pound sophomore. “There’s a lot of closeness. Everybody trusts each other.”

Bernie Gonzalez, a 140-pound junior, considers Cristobal a coach as well as a sparring partner.

“He pushes me farther than anyone, especially since he’s bigger than me now,” Bernie said. “You get rougher and tougher wrestling against your brother.”

Clementi, 42, grasped that fact early in life as the second-oldest of eight children in Milwaukee.

Of six Clementi brothers, all but one wrestled competitively, including Paul, who earned a partial scholarship to Marquette University, where his father wrestled.

Four years ago, Clementi recruited younger brother Steve as junior varsity coach, and the program’s staff of 10 coaches, the coach said, have long been as close as kin.

“The best recruiting you can do is to go out and get siblings,” Clementi said. “It ensures that if you have a junior, and his brother is a freshman, it gets them both in the wrestling room and establishes a tradition. ‘Hey, my brother is league champ at Ventura High.’ The little brother wants to emulate the big brother. And his big brother becomes his teacher.”

Big Brother might make an appropriate handle for Clementi, except that he stands only 5 feet 2. Steve Clementi, 37, also is 5-2. And, like his brother, he ain’t heavy.

Both competed in the 120- to 130-pound range. Paul began wrestling at Messmer High, a parochial school in Milwaukee, and developed his skills at Marquette.

Clementi’s highlight came when he tossed a teammate and three-time state high school champion on his back during practice at Marquette, knocking the wind out of him for several minutes.

“Right then, I knew I had their respect,” he said.

A year after graduation in 1977, Clementi moved to Southern California and took a job as a speech therapist for the Ventura Unified School District and wrestling coach at Ventura--positions he has retained since.

Steve Clementi, who moved with his parents to Santa Barbara in 1973, was more successful as a wrestler, recording 17 consecutive pins as a senior at Dos Pueblos High in 1977, still a Channel League record. Steve, a groundskeeper for the district, has led the junior varsity to a league title every year he has coached.

“I thought I was good at football, but I was just too small,” said Steve, who weighs 118 pounds. “So, me and my brothers used to wrestle a lot.”

John and Peter Clementi also wrestled for Dos Pueblos. Frank Clementi, 41, who wrestled at Messmer, is varsity wrestling coach at Turlock High in Northern California.

“I never told them, ‘You gotta wrestle,’ ” said Steve Clementi Sr., also 5-2. “It was just something they wanted to do.”

So much, in fact, Steve often found himself grappling with his children the moment he arrived home from work.

“Three of us would jump him in the den,” Paul said. “This is just fooling around, but it would get [intense]. My mom would have to say, ‘Quit wrestling in there.’ Then one of us would start to cry and she would chew my dad out.”

Wrestling was enjoyable, but young Paul preferred football and he spent his Saturdays slamming his small frame into bigger kids during neighborhood games, trying to prove his tenacity. However, Clementi underwent surgery at age 6 to remove a defective kidney and doctors told the Clementis their son would risk death if he continued to play football.

“I really felt left out,” Clementi said. “I would sneak away and play sandlot football against high school guys who were bigger than me. And I would be like a kamikaze. I didn’t care. But my dad would drive by in the car and he would get mad at me.

“I knew if I was going to play any type of sport, it would have to be wrestling.”

Clementi was instrumental in persuading his high school to launch a wrestling program but never benefited from quality coaching.

“I wrestled just one year in high school,” he said. “I was so far behind by the time I got to college, they unmercifully beat the [heck] out of me every day in practice.”

During practice at Ventura, some brothers wrestle against each other, some don’t.

The Clochertys--Dustin a sophomore, Trevor a freshman--choose to channel their energies against other opponents rather than wrestle each other. But sometimes they can’t resist.

“You feel like you owe him something because he’s your brother,” Dustin said. “I know I wrestle my hardest against him.”

Sometimes, sparks fly when siblings square off.

“We’ve gotten into a couple of fights a while back,” Bernie Gonzalez said. “You can get your brother mad easier because you know how to get him mad.”

Clementi recalls pitting a pair of brothers against each other in practice during his first season, despite warnings that the siblings’ rivalry was very intense.

“Within 30 seconds it was just a fistfight,” Clementi said. “It wasn’t a good idea. But in other situations, they can really help each other out.”

To each their own, as far as brothers wrestling brothers is concerned.

As for the Clementis, they too have been asked to take it to the mat during practice.

“All of our brothers here, they say, ‘Coach, let’s see you two wrestle,’ ” Steve said. “And we always say, ‘Nah!’

“I don’t think it would be a good idea. There’s something about wanting to be dominant with all brothers.”

Who would win?

“Paul, probably,” Steve said.

Then, after a pause, Steve added, “But I might be able to beat him.”