Wrestling

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I started high school at Oceana. It was the school that was closest to me; I hadn't even considered Terra Nova, because it was across town. After two months of not being challenged mentally at oceana, I went to Terra Nova (The Jock School). I was able to choose more challenging classes at Terra Nova.




I hadn't been too interested in sports growing up, but I always loved wrestling. I assumed that since I didn't hear anything about a wrestling team during my Freshman year, that I had missed the season when I transfered in late. My Sophomore year I asked one of my PE teachers about it and she said that there hadn't been a wrestling team at Terra Nova since the eighties. I was shocked. I asked if there were other schools in the area with wrestling teams. When she said that there were, I asked if I could practice with one of them. She asked the head of athletics and he told me that it was possible, I just had to get past some insurance issues and get a coach to accept me. I called El Camino's coach first and he said that he couldn't do it, because of insurance reasons. Next, I called South San Francisco's Coach, Carl Pastore and he said he would be happy to have me. And so my wrestling/sports career began...




I took two buses to get to school in the morning, then three buses to get to wrestling practice, then two more to get home. My bus pass came in really handy that year. That first season I practiced with the SSF team and wore an old Terra Nova singlet to the tournaments. Everyone on the team accepted me as one of their own (after they determined that I didn't play football). I had a lot of fun that year, I even got a full page in the yearbook. When the season was over coach Grey (a wrestling legend) called a meeting to see if there was any interest in a team at Terra Nova. Plenty of guys showed up and with a lot of pushing and fund raising from some spirited parents, we found a coach and we had our first wrestling team in almost twenty years.




My Junior year was the first year we had a real team. We were Junior Varsity and we took first in the league. My Senior year we had a Varsity team and tied for second place. Since I've graduated the team has dominated the league and taken first in Varsity and Junior Varsity for the last two years. I've heard rumors that our coach is leaving Terra Nova and Coach Crowley will be replacing him, but the magnificent thing is, Coach Grey will be taking over as assistant coach. Those incoming Freshman don't know how lucky they are.

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Email: zeek191@yahoo.com