In a Few Years, Highland High Has Become the... : Wrestling Mecca of the Desert

The tiny wrestling room at Highland High sparkles with the school colors of cardinal and gold, a spick-and-span nook in an immaculate 8-year-old campus.

Yet, its walls already are steeped in tradition.

The 50 Win Club.

The 30 Pin Club.

Top 20 wins. Top 20 pins.

Organized charts detailing the career record of every Highland wrestler adorn a wall. Another wall displays four Golden League championship plaques, with a space reserved for a recently earned fifth.

Mike Young, the only wrestling coach in school history, tours the perimeter, pausing to absorb the heap of tradition crammed into only a few years.

“I’ve always just kept these,” Young says. “It gives the kids something to shoot for. Even if a kid doesn’t earn a letter but attends 95% of the practices, he gets a special patch for his jacket. And every kid who completes the season is going to get a Golden League [championship] patch.”

Highland, in its fifth season in the league, already has sewn up its fifth consecutive title entering the league finals today at Antelope Valley. The Bulldogs (33-4) are rapidly progressing into a Southern Section power.

Highland is 23-0 in league dual meets since entering the league in 1992 and 216-44-1 since Young launched the program with a handful of freshmen in 1989. The Bulldogs have lost only one dual meet in each of the past three seasons, all three to Norwalk Glenn, including twice in the Southern Section final.

Indeed, dressing for success is a big deal at Highland. The majority of sweat-soaked clothes in the standing-room-only wrestling room already bear at least one form of tribute to the program.

“I know when I walk through school that people see me and know me as captain of the wrestling team,” senior Roland Aldabert said. “That’s who I am around here. They call out. People see us as a winning team.”

Aldabert, a two-time league champion and 47-4 this season at 119 pounds, doesn’t need to be informed of his place in Highland history, but he would like others to be.

Aldabert points out, almost by way of introduction, that his name resides atop the career-victories list with 177, and that “this will be my third league championship.”

Three other Highland wrestlers enter the league tournament as a defending champion, including junior Stuart Young, the coach’s son, who is 50-5 at 145 pounds.

“It’s like a really popular club here,” Young said. “I’ve always wanted to wrestle for my dad. And now I get to hear everyone tell me what a good coach he is. Apparently, he is.”

Young’s coaching credentials include 10 league championships and four City Section titles at Franklin from 1974 to 1985.

After a three-year stint as an assistant at Palmdale, Young was hired at Highland as an advanced placement English teacher and wrestling coach.

Since then, the wrestlers and league championships have kept coming.

“We started out with 14 kids,” Young said. “It about doubled the second year. The more successful we are, the more people want to be involved. A lot of younger kids see our wrestlers walking around with the jackets and the patches and they want to be a part of it.”

League rivals Quartz Hill, Palmdale and Antelope Valley each year typically have no more than half as many wrestlers as Highland. Young began the season with 70 and attrition has accounted for the loss of only 10.

Palmdale Coach Gary Dickerson said his 35 wrestlers this season is an exceptional total.

“They get a lot of young kids out every year and they keep filling their spots,” Dickerson said of Highland.

No one’s progress escapes Young, who meticulously notes every wrestler’s move--from Aldabert’s 171 victories to Henry Rios’ two junior varsity pins.

In Stuart’s case, such jotting s almost unnecessary. And Young doesn’t need much prodding to discuss his son’s progress.

“He was 1-8 his freshman year,” Young said. “But something happened and he started winning matches and he really turned it around. He’s really blossomed.”

Around Highland, he’s not the only one.