Highland’s Wrestling Title Turned Into a Close Shave

Highland High wrestling coach Mike Young’s bleach-blond hair is gone. Same goes for assistants Alan Chronister and Dan Morrow.

A public shearing of the Highland wrestling coaches took place Wednesday, when wrestlers Roland Aldabert, Stuart Young, Corey King and Adam Wooten formed a barbershop quartet and began hacking at the coaches’ hair.

Mike Young said he planned to sell $1 tickets to the spectacle: “We figured as long as we have to do this, we might as well make some money at it. Hopefully, it’ll pay for our [championship] patches.”

It was all part of fulfilling a promise Young made to his wrestlers a few weeks ago.

After the Bulldogs won the Southern Section Division IV dual-meet title Feb. 15, Young and his staff made good on a pledge to dye their hair. Then, after winning the Division IV individual title Saturday at Santiago High, Highland’s heads of state went cue ball on Wednesday.

The Bulldogs are entitled to a bit of grandstanding. After three consecutive seasons of finishing runner-up to Glenn in both the dual meet and individual finals, Young said it feels good to finally get the monkey off his back. No word about the hair off his head.

On the rebound: Jason Collins’ 25 rebounds against Compton Centennial on Tuesday left the Harvard-Westlake senior 77 rebounds shy of the Southern Section career record.

In order to reach the record, Collins must average 12.83 rebounds over six games--the most remaining should the Wolverines reach the state final.

Quick exit: The Golden League’s six soccer teams in the Southern Section playoffs all lost last week, either in wild-card or first-round matches. The three boys’ and three girls’ teams won one of seven matches and were outscored, 26-5.