Going to the Mat

Villa Park wrestler Matt Mahoney no longer has to wait for success. It has arrived.

Mahoney, a senior, has risen to the top of the county’s 189-pound division using a combination of talent, technique and hard work. But his biggest advantage is his patience.

“I’m not the strongest or quickest guy,” Mahoney said. “I try to stay in good position and capitalize on mistakes. . . . I wait for opportunities and take what is given.”

Learning to be patient while your opponent is trying to pull, twist or pin you was the final factor, Mahoney said, that turned him from an average high school wrestler into one who has lost only once in 36 matches this season.

He is a favorite to win the title in his weight class at today’s Century League finals at El Modena, and should contend at the Southern Section individual championships, Feb. 19-20.

Villa Park Coach Steve Stewart said Mahoney’s improvement can be traced to him attending summer wrestling camps and working with the Spartans’ assistant coaches at becoming a more physical wrestler.

“One thing that helps is that some of my assistants are his size or bigger,” Stewart said. “He’s working out with men who have college experience. He gets pushed in practice extremely hard.”

Others have noticed Mahoney’s improvement too.

“He has adapted to a style that fits him,” El Modena Coach Alan Clinton said after watching Mahoney pin Jimmy Juarez during last week’s dual meet between the league rivals.

“Every year there’s somebody who blossoms and makes you go, ‘Wow.’ Matt is that guy this year,” Clinton said.

Mahoney’s wrestling career has taken awhile to reach this point, in part because he has never solely concentrated on the sport.

He has played football at Villa Park for three years and was named a first-team all-league selection at offensive line last season. Once the football season ended, Mahoney said it took two to three weeks to get into shape for wrestling.

“Wrestling requires more stamina,” he said. “In football you run hard a few seconds then you rest 20 seconds. In wrestling you go at it a straight six to eight minutes.”

Mahoney participated in club wrestling when he was in third grade, but was big for his age. “There weren’t too many other wrestlers my size at that time,” Mahoney said, “so I started playing basketball.”

Mahoney played on area youth basketball teams until he reached high school, but returned to wrestling at Villa Park partly because his older brother, Sean wrestled for the Spartans. “As younger kids we were always rolling around on the floor, trying holds,” Mahoney said.

As a freshman, Mahoney learned there was much more to wrestling, including the strategy of setting up your opponent for the move that works best for you.

“I probably won about 40% of the time,” Mahoney said of his first year. His sophomore season was delayed by arthroscopic surgery to repair torn cartilage in his right knee, but he recovered to win the league title at 189 pounds.

Mahoney continued to improve as a junior, finishing sixth at the section championships at 189 pounds. But at the Masters--from which the top eight qualifiers advance to the state meet--Mahoney lost in the first round. Again, he said he hurt himself with “bad mistakes.”

But the notion of how to reverse his fortunes was already taking form in his mind.

“I took fourth place at the El Cajon tournament last year,” Mahoney said. “I wrestled a senior from [San Diego] Mt. Carmel. He was good, finished third. He beat me twice, but he only tried to take me down once in both matches. And he was able to take me down. Otherwise, he would counter my moves and wait for a mistake.

“I was wondering how he was winning when it didn’t seem he was doing anything. But he had more patience than anyone he wrestled and let them get frustrated first.”

Mahoney’s only loss this season has been to Long Beach Millikan’s Michael McDougall at the La Quinta tournament, but Mahoney avenged the loss two weeks later at the San Clemente tournament.

“I thought the best thing to happen to him was that loss,” Stewart said. “It really motivated him to work hard for Five Counties.”

Mahoney said he made it his goal to finish among the top five at the Five Counties tournament at Fountain Valley High. But he surprised everyone--including himself--by winning the 189-pound division, scoring a 3-1 decision against El Monte’s Noel Delgado in the final.

“It’s by far the biggest tournament I’ve ever won,” Mahoney said. “I was wrestling a strong guy, but I felt if I got a lead, it would be tough for him to take me down.”