By MARIO AGUIRRE | STAFF WRITER
MISSION — The lack of a true feeder system at the middle school level allows for these types of moments, when Edgar Delgado is thrusted into the circle, with only two weeks of practicing under his belt.
As a freshman, the La Joya Juarez-Lincoln wrestler stared at his opponent in his first match and panicked, wondering why he had joined the sport at his friend’s urging.
But by the third round, Delgado had conquered the Grulla wrestler, at least three years his senior, leaving coach Armando Resendez fumbling for words.
“He was impressed,” Delgado remembers. “He really couldn’t say anything. He said just ‘good job’ and to keep trying and trying.”
Delgado’s story isn’t entirely unique, if only because most wrestlers in the Valley seem to enter high school without much formal training. But Juarez-Lincoln has managed to build one of the more steady programs around despite the circumstances, securing four of the past seven district titles, though never once in succession.
That’s the goal now for last year’s district champs, who will look to Delgado and fellow senior Esequiel Rodriguez to help guide them there.
“For us to do that,” Delgado said, “that would be the best.”
Juarez-Lincoln is off to a 5-0 start, with Delgado and Rodriguez undefeated through eight sets.
Like Delgado, Rodriguez also got into the sport at a friend’s prodding. As a sophomore, he placed second in district and sixth at regionals, falling short of qualifying as a state alternate. Then last year, he won district but was kept out of regionals after undergoing surgery for his cauliflower ear.
Rodriguez tried to wrestle, anyway, before Resendez checked with his doctor, who denied him clearance to compete. Though it was “very disappointing” to sit out, Rodriguez said, it’s providing plenty of ammunition for him to return there.
Resendez encourages those personals goals, understanding individual accomplishments ultimately benefit the team. And it helps everyone across the board feel as though they’re part of something special.
“They’ve just been after it,” Resendez said. “During the summers, they’re coming out and doing they could do. That’s what’s getting them there. Hitting the weight room. Flipping tires. Ropes. Strength and conditioning. Hitting tires with a sledgehammer. They just want to get to that next level.”
In a sport in which some say the “real season” doesn’t begin until district, Delgado and Rodriguez hardly lack in drive.
So far, they have 8-0 individual marks, which they hope to protect within the next two dozen matches or so. As a team, they were the runner-ups recently in the McAllen Rowe Tournament, and they have a couple more meets coming up in which they hope to keep adding to the Huskies’ trophy case.
“Right now, they just look really focused,” Resendez said. “We tell them to take control of the match until the whistle blows. Set the tempo. And that’s what’s motivating them, and that’s what’s motivating the younger kids to come out and just get after it.”
As Delgado sees it, the sport requires plenty of sacrifice. He stopped competing in football last season to give himself a head-start for wrestling. He enjoys “the adrenaline of beating someone else,” even if “it hurts the next day, it’s all worth it.”
“There’s no other sport that’s as committed as us because who else would start themselves to make weight and sacrifice food,” said Delgado, who is in the 220-pound class. “Who else would do that but us?”
Delgado said he does his best to maintain weight. He’s at about 204-205 pounds and has considered bulking up, but his mobility against wrestlers provides a considerable advantage.
Rodriguez has made his share of sacrifices, as well, juggling two sports with football. He said initially joined wrestling as a means to stay in shape. But more than anything now, it’s giving him an opportunity to leave his mark on a program striving for its fifth district title, and perhaps one last shot of competing in state, along with Delgado.
“Even though it’s an individual sport,” Rodriguez said, “we need each other to win. We just have to keep pushing each other harder and harder.”