Grabbing Hold of Life October 2006

by J. Mannion
Image by POD Design
Provided by Retail West Inc.

David Rios, a sophmore at Liberty High School, has spent most of his life on the wrestling mat. Read about his past victories and what the future holds for this talented athlete.

I grew up playing basketball with a group of budding athletes. We would crash into each other while fighting for rebounds or we would leap into the bleachers to save errant passes. We collected some amazing floor burns while diving for loose balls. The high school basketball season is played during the winter months when the world has turned from golden brown to blue and gray, and sports fans can hunker down in the gymnasium nursing nacho boats and scarfing hot dogs from the snack bar while cheering the local basketball team on to victory – or at least encouraging them towards mitigated defeat.

Wrestling was the other sport played during the winter months. Basketball players have an unspoken respect for wrestlers. Those guys always seemed to arrive at practice earlier and stay later than we ever did. Also, we noticed how they stared at us with red, swollen faces, while sweating through their warm-ups. They would glance our way as though staring through us, perhaps nodding their heads in a cool manner in our direction, only to dismiss us from their thoughts while they returned to grappling one another and slamming each other to the mat.

As I looked at those guys working in their feverishly disciplined manner, undeterred by the pain they were inflicting upon each other, I always believed that those guys were tough in a way that went beyond my basketball buddies and me. These guys never had to show anyone about how tough they were. Their grueling exercise had built into them a core toughness that they never demonstrated except on the mat.

Those youthful memories came flashing back to me when I sat down next to Liberty sophomore David Rios because he flashed me the same cool understated look I recalled seeing in the faces of those wrestling guys at my school.

The humble fifteen year-old has been wrestling since the age of five and a half and, although he’s still only in his second year of high school, David has already competed in more than 620 matches. He began wrestling nine years ago as a member of Brentwood’s Delta Wrestling Club and last year, after completing his first season on the Liberty wrestling squad, he traveled across the country competing in a variety of wrestling events including Greco-Roman, Freestyle, and Folkstyle.

His father, Roy, doesn’t simply sit in the bleachers cheering on his son’s matches since he has been the wrestling coach at Liberty High for the past 23 years.

Parents of a Nascent Champion
David’s parents, Roy and Barbara Rios, are life-long East County residents. David is following in his father’s shoes. Roy was inducted into the Liberty Hall of Fame following a distinguished high school wrestling and football career that stretched from 1967 to 1971. Before 1991, when David was born, Roy had been pursuing a career of teaching young wrestlers. Roy watched David grow up participating in other sports such as swimming and soccer, but always had a hunch that he would finally concentrate on wrestling. It was only a matter of time before David gravitated to his father’s lifelong passion.

“David’s first steps as a child came on the wrestling mat,” Roy said.

Although David cannot quite remember those initial steps, he has interesting memories of his earliest wrestling matches.

“I remember losing a lot,” David said with a smile and shrug, thinking back to those early days of competition.

“David always has a smile on his face,” Barbara said, laughing. After learning just how much success David has had in his beloved sport, I could see that there had been plenty to smile about. Since 2002 David has competed in various weight classes and styles compiling a record of 381 wins compared to only 62 losses. The list of victories include numerous first place finishes in tournaments held throughout the United States including Denver, Las Vegas, Atlanta, and Midwestern wrestling hot spots like Iowa.

Throughout the years David has been advancing in weight classes, and participating in three wrestling styles:

• Greco-Roman – wrestlers are not able to tackle or trip below the waist.
• Freestyle – wrestlers are permitted holds both above and below the belt using a point system.
• Folkstyle (David’s favorite) – used throughout the United States on the collegiate and high school level.

David’s most prestigious accomplishment came last year. Following a very successful youth wrestling season, David was awarded the National Dominator Ultimate Challenge Belt. This is a trophy given to the top three youth wrestlers in each age group. The award requires a lot of hard work, long hours of training, and many victories on the mat. David is the only youth wrestler from the state of California to ever receive this honor.

Through learning from the Rios Family about the various tournaments David has participated in over the years, and reading about his successes in national wrestling magazines, I developed an idea of how much the 15-year-old has accomplished. But while his exploits were described David simply sat quietly and smiled. He carried himself with humility, like someone who understands how far he’s come, but knows worlds to conquer still lie in front of him.

Moving Forward and Upward
By participating in so many matches during the course of a year, both on the national level in the spring and at the high school level in the winter, it’s inevitable that David would experience some losses. But David maintained his even-keeled demeanor in the face of both victory and defeat. Roy said that win or lose, David always acts like a gentleman.

David’s placid temperament during competition is sometimes interrupted by mirth. Roy and David traveled together to a tournament in Iowa. If David were to perform well there, he was to be awarded with the Dominator Trophy. The meet happened to fall on April first of 2005, so David called his mom on the telephone and told her he did not meet the proper weight requirements for competition and was not going to be able to wrestle. Barbara was shocked.

“I just couldn’t believe that he would travel all that way, and not make weight,” Barbara said, since she had walked right into David’s April Fool’s prank.

With all his success as a youth wrestler on the Delta wrestling team, David was looking forward to putting his talents to the test in 2005 as a member of the Liberty High School wrestling team. Before the winter sport got underway, David decided to play football and playing against Freedom High in the first quarter of the last game of the season David broke his hand in two places. Ignoring the pain of his injury, David pulled on a football glove and played the rest of the game with his broken hand.

After the game David got medical attention and spent the next five weeks with his hand in a cast. The injury put a damper on the start of David’s 2005 wrestling season since the cast was an obstacle to normal conditioning and weight training.

“The first week or so wasn’t too bad, since football had just ended,” David said, “but after awhile, I just wanted to get back on the mat.”

When his hand healed, it didn’t take David long to get back in the action. He joined his teammates in wrestling drills the day after his cast was removed and prepared himself for his first high school match, which was a wrestling meet against Freedom High. David wasted no time testing his recently healed broken hand, pinning his opponent in the first round. Even with the late start to the season, David managed to place in the Top Ten at four tournaments that the team traveled to throughout the state.

By the time David headed into the North Coast Section Championships, he had racked up an impressive 31-10 record, and went on to place third at the Sectionals. That qualified him to advance to the High School State Championship meet in Bakersfield.

Cool Hand in Action
It’s natural for most athletes to feel some sort of anxiousness prior to the beginning of a game or match. Before the kick-off of a football game, or about the time two opponents shake hands at the center of a wrestling mat, the “butterflies” inside will begin to flutter from the apprehension and excitement. Some athletes are able to block these out and not get too worked up about the test that lies ahead. Even fewer are able to enter action with no butterflies at all, and can focus completely on completing their goal.

David seems to be one of these cool-headed athletes. He says that he doesn’t get nervous before a match begins as he squares off with his opponent. With as many matches under his belt as David has, a competition mat has almost become like a second home. David participated at the State Championship meet in his freshman year and didn’t place. David says that he learned from the experience and knows what changes he will make the next time he goes there.

David is not playing football this year in order to focus on wrestling. He is looking forward to the high school season that will get underway this winter. Naturally, he already has his sights set on some lofty goals.

“Last year I was glad to make it to the State Championship,” David said, “but this year I want to place.”

I look forward to checking out a Liberty High wrestling meet when the season gets underway. It will bring me back to my high school days when I was a basketball player quietly revering my wrestling buddies and impressed with the toughness they displayed when they were alone together facing each other in the ring.

I’m going to see David stand there – and I know that he will be smiling inside.°