New Saint Hopes to Also Be a Winner

Wyatt Howard excelled on and off the mat last season at Irvine High.

Wrestling at 160 pounds, Howard took second in the Southern Section Division II individual finals, finished sixth at Masters and qualified for the state finals. A Sea View League champion, he helped Irvine to a second-place finish at the division finals.

Howard also had a 4.0 grade-point average and was involved in community groups and student activities on campus.

However, Howard had wrestling goals he didn’t believe he could reach if he stayed at Irvine, so he transferred to Santa Ana High. A senior, he will be a key contributor for the Saints at 189 pounds.

“It was a very tough decision to make,” Howard said. “I have a lot of friends at Irvine, but my parents and I felt [my wrestling] wasn’t headed in the right direction.”

The Howards believe Scott Glabb is the coach who can solve that problem. After all, three of his wrestlers have been runners-up for state titles, and his Saint teams have won three division titles and eight league championships.

But Glabb has developed his program with neighborhood athletes, building from the inside rather than looking to reload every season with transfer students. So he was apprehensive when he was approached by Howard and his father about a transfer.

“I don’t like it when kids transfer,” Glabb said. “And you don’t get many kids who want to transfer to Santa Ana. But he really wanted to come here. I called John [Phillips, Irvine’s coach] to let him know.”

Philips wasn’t surprised.

“Wyatt is a great kid,” he said. “He was a hard worker and never gave me any problems. . . . But I knew that Wyatt’s dad wasn’t happy with my program, especially not providing what he thought was a good workout partner for Wyatt. My program didn’t fit the agenda he had for Wyatt.”

Marshall Howard, Wyatt’s father, said he has tremendous respect for Phillips, and his son’s transfer was not a statement about Phillips’ abilities as a coach.

“It was hard to leave. We live across the street from Irvine High,” he said. “But we thought it best for Wyatt to go to Santa Ana. We know wrestlers and parents from there and we have friends there . . . The program Scott runs is more beneficial to Wyatt.”

Glabb expects good things from his newest wrestler. “He puts in extra work and he’s a hard worker and a great competitor. I think he’ll do a lot for us this season.” Glabb said Howard initially told him he had worried about fitting in at Santa Ana, but has adapted.

“I had a lot of expectations about the school that turned out to be wrong,” Howard said. “Santa And is a great school. The teachers are great and I’ve made some good friends here. The wrestling team is a tight group and they have accepted me. I’m happy.”

SAINTS SECOND

Second-ranked Santa Ana took second in last weekend’s El Dorado tournament, scoring 230 points in the 42-team event. Poway, ranked fourth in the state, was first with 272 points. The Saints had three champions: Hugo Guzman (103 pounds), Ozzy Avalos (160) and Howard (189 pounds). El Dorado finished a surprising fifth with 127 points as P.J. Montano won a title at 215 pounds. Other champions included Doug Yadon (125) of Villa Park and Danny Cadawallader (135) of Brethren Christian.

LOOKING AHEAD

A couple of key three-way matches highlight this week’s schedule with fourth-ranked Villa Park hosting Temecula Valley and No. 8 Loara today at 4 p.m. . . . El Modena, ranked fifth, hosts Santa Ana and No. 6 Dana Hills on Wednesday at 6 p.m. . . . The Andrew Pena memorial tournament, formerly known as the Vaquero Classic, is Saturday at Irvine High. Among the 18 participating teams are Corona Centennial, Chino, Villa Park, El Dorado, Manhattan Beach Mira Costa, Simi Valley, University and Katella.

Defending state champion Calvary Chapel will be on the road for the two-day, 18-team Clovis West Shoot-Out at Clovis West High starting Friday.

Coach John Azevedo said this is a good way to kick off the season for his top-ranked Eagles: “Our guys will get in a lot of good wrestling since we’ll be wrestling in 10 duals. It will get us ready for Bakersfield next week [Dec. 15], which is ranked second behind us in state.”

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