TACOMA — It’s a jarring sight, to be sure: former Port Angeles wrestling coach Erik Gonzalez clad in a purple shirt at the state wrestling tournament, the color of the Roughriders’ most heated rival, Sequim.
But make no mistake, Gonzalez, who now teaches history and coaches wrestling and freshman football at Class 4A Heritage High School in
Vancouver, Wash., still bleeds green and white for his former grapplers.
At the state meet Friday, Gonzalez was cheering from beyond the gates that surround the mats for the three Port Angeles wrestlers.
Witness his reaction to Tyler Gale’s thrilling 113-pound quarterfinal victory.
Gale had a commanding 10-0 lead on Othello’s Jeremy Mendez to open the third period when disaster nearly struck.
Mendez shot out and caught Gale, sending him sprawling on his back and open for a pin. But Gale worked to get his arm across and his hip turned at the very last second to avert calamity and seal his fourth state placement in four trips to the Mat Classic.
“I couldn’t watch,” Gonzalez said. “That was slick, the kid [Mendez] was going for broke.
“It was so tight, I couldn’t watch. My heart stopped and I looked away.”
“Then I heard everybody scream, ‘Oh,’ and then I turned back around and, yes, he had found a way, thank God.”
Gonzalez’s move to Vancouver, undertaken to provide more extracurricular activities for his children and a desire to cut down on travel to their events, is going splendidly.
“It’s been great. Great for my family, just like we expected, actually, probably better than we expected,” he said.
Gonzalez is wrapping up his first year of rebuilding of the Heritage program, a state title winner in 2003 that fell on hard times in recent seasons.
He saw one Heritage wrestler, 152-pounder Neithan Stanley, through to the Mat Classic this season.
“As far as the wrestling program, we got our numbers up,” Gonzalez said.
“Last year they had 13, and we got 45 out for the team this season. We increased the numbers.”
Many of those athletes were new to the sport.
“The problem was our kids just don’t know how to wrestle yet,” Gonzalez said.
“We have some scrappy kids, they are eager to learn and coachable, but they just don’t know how to wrestle yet. We spent most of the year just working basics, teaching basics.”
Gonzalez feels it’s only a matter of time until his new school starts fielding larger state contingents.
“We started up a youth program at the school and we compete in dual meets in the city and [Clark] County,” Gonzalez said.
“The best of our best kids are involved and wrestling all year long. We have some really good buy-in with the youth club, about 38 kids active. The building blocks are there.
“The future looks bright, we definitely saw improvement this year, but when you get to the postseason, the kids who have put in the time are the ones who shine.
“We’ll get there. We just need more time.”
The state tournament wasn’t the first time Gonzalez had seen his former grapplers this season.
“I saw them in Bellingham at the Graham Morin. That was cool, but we were competing against each other up there. Now I can just be a fan and support these kids.”
He even walked 138-pounder Morgan Mower through some moves with Stanley.
“Oh, I don’t know if I’d say that,” Gonzalez said.
“I was talking to him a little bit. Morgan is having some of the same problems as my kid so I was helping him out.
“I still love these kids. It’s hard to walk away.”
________
Sports reporter Michael Carman can be contacted at 360-452-2345, ext. 57050 or at mcarman@peninsuladailynews.com.
