By Stefan Modrich | Staff Writer
Three years ago today, the Los Fresnos Falcons hired Patrick Brown as head football coach and athletic director. Just four months later, Kevin Nguyen’s life changed when he was hired to be the second head wrestling coach in the program’s brief history.
“ When I took (the job), I kind of knew that (the program) didn’t have much of a background,” Nguyen said. “I used that to my advantage because I knew that they were starting fresh. Most of the kids I got were in their first or second year wrestling.”
Originally expecting to follow Brown – his mentor and football coach at Franklin High School in El Paso – to Los Fresnos as an assistant, Nguyen seized the opportunity to take his first head coaching position for a program that had just completed its first season. He didn’t waste any time implementing his vision.
“ (Nguyen) talked about practice being fun or hard,” said senior Eddie Castellanos, who placed eighth in the Region IV-6A meet at 113 pounds. “In reality, if you make it fun, you’re not going to win. Winning isn’t fun. When you make it hard, and then you win, that’s fun. It’s really just about how much effort you put into the practice.”
The 25-year-old embraced the challenge of building a program from the ground up, and is sending three Lady Falcons to compete at state, including Katherine Castro (12-7), who placed second individually at 119 pounds, and alternates Mayeli Chaidez-Torres and Itzel Paredes. All three are seniors who have been with the program since its inception in 2016.
Chaidez-Torres and Paredes were good friends long before they would join the sport that they say brought them closer together. It helped them form a bond with the other girls, particularly with Castro and the three other regional qualifiers – Sofia De Leon, Danielle Ramirez, and Zoe Arriaga.
“ We started wrestling three years ago,” Paredes said. “I made (Chaidez-Torres) join with me, and it’s been an amazing experience ever since then. We became family.”
Both Chaidez-Torres and Paredes said they made a marked improvement under Nguyen in his first season, with Chaidez placing fourth at regionals and advancing to state in 2018. As a team, the Lady Falcons placed eighth out of 35 schools in Region IV-6A, and the Falcons finished 22nd in a field of 37 schools.
“ We improved from not doing anything in district, to, in my second year, placing first in district, “ Chaidez-Torres said. “I went to regionals and then I went to state, and this year I’m doing the same thing.”
Aware that girls have plenty of other conventional, if not more popular options for athletic participation at Los Fresnos, that hasn’t stopped Paredes from recruiting other classmates. At the top of her list is her younger sister, a freshman.
“ I told her to join,” Paredes said. “She said she was going to do it next year – if she likes it – the way I love training and doing all these moves.”
An atmosphere of inclusivity has been the key to the growth of the program. Nguyen said Brown actively promotes athletes to try other sports, leading to participation beyond the traditional influx of football players (which he said comprise almost half of his boys roster) looking for a new challenge in the offseason. Some go on to compete in track or baseball in the spring.
Nguyen’s pitch to prospective new wrestlers is relatively simple, and runs counter to the increasingly common school of thought that puts specialization first in youth and high school sports.
“ You have to try many things to figure out what you’re good at,” Nguyen said. “If you stick to one thing all the time, you never know what you can do and what possibilities you have.”
The Falcons won District 16-6A meet, led by junior Roman Rodriguez, who finished first in the 120-pound division and placed fifth at regionals, earning him a trip to state as an alternate.
Rodriguez, a native of South Bend, Ind. with family ties to the Rio Grande Valley, moved to Los Fresnos to begin his high school career. There was just one problem.
“ When I came here, they didn’t have a wrestling program,” Rodriguez said. “Later in the year, they did. I got super lucky. I was like, ‘wow, I can’t believe it. It must be a gift, you know?’”
Rodriguez said that the team did well adapting to a different style of wrestling in San Antonio tournaments, experiences that he said helped him and his teammates prepare for district and regional competition.
The Falcons believe the legacy of the classes of 2019 and 2020, which includes Rodriguez, as one of the first four-year seniors of the program, will be the foundation they built under Nguyen’s guidance.
“ We started a new, hard-working program that is going to continue to grow,” Rodriguez said. “I’m glad that we helped make that happen, as the founding members of this team. We promoted it, helped it grow, and skill-wise, we made it better – way better, in just a span of three years. It’s amazing how much we’ve changed, it’s crazy.”