2005-06 Bonita Vista High School Wrestling Team award-winners


2005-06 Bonita Vista High School awards banquet
Wrestling odyssey comes full circle for father, son
By Phillip Brents

CHULA VISTA, March 13, 2006 -- There was a moment during Monday’s Bonita Vista High School wrestling awards banquet that head coach Gabe Ruz found himself facing an awkward moment. The moment in question concerned the award for this season’s Most Valuable Wresttler.

A two-time Olympian during his younger days, Ruz found himself facing a loss for words.

“This young man found himself under a lot of pressure and expectation this season and he dealt with that pressure and expectation,” Ruz started out.

By the time he finished, he handed the award to his son, Gabe.

The award was more than deserved.

Monday’s awards banquet, held in the community room of the new Bonita Library, brought full circle an odyssey begun four years ago.

The elder Ruz served as the wrestling coach at Montgomery High School for 18 years. As a youngster, the younger Ruz watched his father coach many of those Aztec teams — but it was strictly from the sideline as he himself grew up playing soccer and basketball, not wrestling.

That it appeared the son would not follow in the footsteps of the father was just fine with the father.

Then the elder Ruz was greeted by a bombshell: his son wanted to wrestle as a freshman in high school.

“Most people probably think that I spent a lot of time with Gabe in wrestling. The fact is I did not he mainly played soccer and basketball growing up. I really did not want him to wrestle. I never pushed him. As a matter of fact, when Gabe told me he went out for the wrestling team at Bonita Vista High School his freshman year, I sent him back to soccer,” the elder Ruz said.

Gabe Ruz, the coach, had taken three years off from actively coaching. As it turned out, there was an opening for a head coach at BVHS at the time.

“We had a father-son talk and he had made up his mind that he wanted to wrestle. That's when I decided to coach at Bonita Vista,” the elder Ruz said.

Back in the saddle, the father found himself coaching a relatively young and inexperienced team. Much could be said for the younger Ruz.

The father referred to his son as “a regular freshman with very little wrestling behind him.”

But one could tell that Gabe, the student-athlete, appeared to have an affinity for the sport. That began to show as a sophomore and finally came into full focus as a senior.

A team MVP season the younger Ruz definitely put together in 2005-06. His regular season tournament finishes included second place at 32-team the La Costa Canyon duals, fifth place finish at the 35-team El Cajon/San Ysidro Invitational, sixth place at the 32-team Londos/Orange Glen Invitational, third place at the 47-team Scripps Ranch Invitational and first place at 24-team the San Ysidro Invitational.

He finished as the 145-pound champion at the Metro Conference finals, recording two pins and a 14-4 major decision before going on to place third in his weight class at the San Diego Section Division II championships.

The younger Ruz was one of two Bonita Vista wrestlers to qualify for this year’s San Diego Masters state qualifying tournament Feb. 24-25 at Otay Ranch High School. He drew the 10th-seeded position, dropping his first match 13-10 to La Costa Canyon’s John Strom (the third-place finisher at the Division I finals) and then winning two matches in the single-elimination consolation wrestle-backs to advance to the second day of competition in the two-day tournament.

The Baron senior was the only wrestler to represent the school in the second day of competition. He lost an 8-5 match to Mira Mesa’s Mark DerGiso (the Division II champion) to drop out of the tournament, finishing with an overall 34-7 record.

No one else on the BVHS team recorded 20 wins this season.

“I think that is what made it special to watch him progress the way he did. He had to sit out his junior year because of a knee injury (in football), so on top of everything, I am very proud of him for what he achieved in three years,” the elder Ruz said. “I never wanted to be the dad that pushed his son so hard in wrestling that later the kid would hate the sport as I have seen happen to other former wrestlers and their kids.”

There was one small regret the elder Ruz hinted at while looking back on just how much was achieved over those four years. “Now that his high school wrestling is behind him, I wish I had pushed a little harder because now I know he has what it takes to be a champion at a higher level,” the Baron coach said.



2005-06 MVP Gabe Ruz
Photo/James Brammer

Season in review
The Barons finished second in Mesa League dual competition with a 4-1 league record, 7-3 in dual competition overall and third in the team standings at the conference finals behind team champion Hilltop (South Bay League champions) and runner-up Eastlake (Mesa League champions).

In regular season tournaments, Bonita Vista finished eight at the season-opening Mar Vista Battle by the Beach, 18th at both the El Cajon/San Ysidro and Londos/Orange Glen tournaments, 20th at the Scripps Ranch Invitational, fourth at the San Ysidro Invitational and fifth at the Monte Vista junior varsity tournament.

Top individual records (based on most wins) included junior Matthew Periola (19-9), junior Marttin Periola (17-6), sophomore Cesar Sandoval (16-6), senior Josh Kober (15-9), senior Moaaz Deiranieh (14-6), senior Jeremy Casas (13-6), sophomore Ed Bell (12-9), senior Marc Villaflor (11-9), junior Demart Denaro (10-9), sophomore Henny Harrington (10-9), senior Alex Samdoval (10-11), senior Craig Araki (6-3), freshman Ethan Wheeler (5-6) and sophomore Zack Hernandez (3-3).

Fastest pins this season were recorded by Deiranieh (29 seconds), Ruz (33 seconds), Cesar Sandoval (35 seconds), Harrington (35 seconds), Casas (38 seconds) and Araki (55 seconds).

Besides Ruz, the team’s graduating seniors include Deiranieh (third at the LCC duals),Villaflor, Araki, Kober (third at the LCC duals), Alex Sandoval, Casas (second at the LCC duals). Kober, Sandoval and Casas are all four-year wrestlers while Deirranieh, Villaflor and Ruz all competed three years.

Award-winners
Most dedicated: Matthew and Marttin Periola.
Most promising freshman: Ethan Wheeler.
Turnaround Wrestler of the Year: Ed Bell.
Outstanding JV Wrestler of the Year: Curtis Smith.
Most Valuable Wrestler of the Year: Gabe Ruz.
Team captains: Josh Kober, Gabe Ruz.
Outstanding sophomore: Henny Harrington.
Best match performance: Moaaz Deiranieh.
Scholarship winners: Alex Sandoval, Moaaz Deiranieh and Josh Kober.

Baron gala
Three $300 scholarship awards were presented at Monday’s awards banquet courtesy of the Baron Wrestling Booster Club. The scholarships are made possible through funds generated by the Baron Gala fundraiser. Last year’s event netted $4,500 — money that went to help buy supplies for the team as well as pay for tournament entry fees.

This year’s fundraiser is scheduled May 19 at the Bonita Golf Club, starting at 6:30 p.m., and will feature professional entertainment, dinner, dancing and a silent auction. Call (619) 954-9092 for more information.