NATHANIEL MATA | THE MONITOR
MISSION — Diego Serna was wrestling 8 pounds under his weight class as a freshman and 3 pounds underweight as a sophomore. He’s finally reached the goal weight of 106 pounds this season, but more than just muscle mass has contributed to his 37-4 junior campaign.
Serna has been stacking up team and individual awards as his career progresses, and he reflected on his growth when he came across a time capsule — an old cell phone with video footage of his early matches.
“I was actually looking at my old phone not too long ago, and I’ve gotten a lot better. My technique has gotten a lot sharper,” Serna said. “I wasn’t that strong my freshman year, and the desire to win got my head on the right path. I just kept shooting for it.”
Serna defeated Javier Chapa from Victoria West in a 9-6 decision to secure his second regional championship in two years and a most outstanding wrestler honor last weekend at the Delco Center in Austin.
The Diamondbacks boys wrestling team won its first district championship in 2017, but this year the group took more leaps forward. Pioneer will send nine wrestlers to state — five boys and four girls — compared to just four in total last season.
Pioneer traveled to Corpus Christi and El Paso for dual meets, but the biggest impact on the season might have been made by the Texas Outlaw tournament in Allen — one of the state’s wrestling hotbeds. The girls spent the same weekend in Bryan for the Doc Hess Classic.
Coach Richard Eckley credited those tournaments with opening his team’s eyes to the way the sport’s elite grapplers work.
“It was awesome, because our kids got to see what the final goal should look like for our program down here,” Eckley said. “The speed and the mat awareness that the kids have, how quickly they take advantage of even your smallest mistake.”
Serna and Dominique Rodriguez (182) took fifth place, while Brandon Pritchard (145) and Emmanuel Huerta (195) finished in sixth place. Those four, plus 170 wrestler Manuel Almanza, will be competing at state.
Even as the No. 1 in his class, Serna will need to be sharp, because he knows the top competition has a unique skill set.
“You learn a lot from your losses, because people use different techniques,” Serna said. “Up there (in Allen), they have a different style, and I really got to get a look at how they do things up there. I know what to expect. It’s a lot more of a fast pace.”
Eckley says that awareness is the biggest improvement in Serna, next to maturing physically.
“He’s got more mat time, so he feels things,” Eckley said. “He’s seen so much on the mat, even in these three years, that he recognizes situations incredibly quick and can take advantage of when an opponent makes a mistake, or create that mistake in an opponent.”
Pioneer’s girls team is led by a young core. Sophomore Mia Padilla earned regional silver at 138 pounds, and Alejandra Briere-Segovia won a 102-pound regional bronze medal during her first season of high school wrestling.
Briere-Segovia is a rare first-year wrestler who joins the sport with a mountain of experience. Her brother wrestled, while her father is still involved as a coach. She’s competed since she was 9.
Even with the guidance of her wrestling-inclined family, she’s grown under the direction of Eckley, who wrestled at Iowa Wesleyan.
He’s hard to miss at any tournament. He can be heard no matter the size of the venue. His yelling and intensity draw glares from other spectators, but the Diamondbacks don’t take the shouting personally.
“I really like the way he connects to us. He can tell us anything, and we’ll do it right away,” Briere-Segovia, who faces Brianna Mancillas of Fort Worth Chisholm Trail in round one, said. “There’s a certain respect with a coach, and with him, it’s just more than any coach I’ve ever had. I feel like I’ve really got more mature and learned new technique. With that, I’m really skyrocketing and feeling more confident in my moves and what I’m doing.”
Eckley knows how he can come off to the outside and is gracious for the support around his program.
“They see the relationship I’ve built with them,” Eckley said. “They know that, on match day, it’s about being intense, and they expect them to be intense and be different people than you see right here. We have a great group of kids that are willing to take coaching. We have a group of parents that are willing to let me coach their kids.”
The UIL state wrestling tournaments for Classes 5A and 6A get underway today in Cypress at the Berry Center and conclude with medal matches on Saturday.