Elliot Austin, with his elegant British accent, will have a bit of tea with his crumpets, thank you. That’s with the pinkie raised and curled up as he holds his cup. The La Jolla High School wrestler is also very fastidious about the proportion of milk in his tea and which ingredient gets poured first. “I have a whole ritual,” says the sophomore, the likely varsity 112-pounder this season. “I’ve always drunk my tea with two lumps – tablespoons now – of sugar.” “If you pour the milk in first,” he says, “the teabag gets soggy. It doesn’t make it as strong or as caffeinated.” In this latter respect, he allows, “My tolerance for caffeine after drinking tea my whole life is through the roof.” Austin, 15, has intentionally preserved his Britishness after four years living stateside with his family due to his father Lee’s work. As an older child, he has chosen this route of being the international, despite the differentness it means from his mates at La Jolla High, while his younger brother Henry, a freshman, “has almost completely lost his British accent. My father is totally British.” During an interview, more than one word or phrase had to be Americanized for a Yankee reporter: “Call of Duty,” the video game Austin thrives on, came out in a Briton’s accent as undecipherable. There were other blips in the course of the conversation. The wrestler, who was forced to give up soccer last year by an injury to his right hamstring (which still hasn’t fully healed) seems to relish his role among his classmates. “My friend Luke Brown (a fellow sophomore) says it a lot – ‘Have you had your tea and crumpets today?’ I get it at least once a day,” he says with a grin. The tear in his hamstring led him to embrace the brotherhood of the Viking wrestling program, which after a downturn two years ago has rebuilt a varsity lineup across most of the 14 weight classes to be competitive again under coach Kellen Delaney. Austin is aware of the “golden era” of La Jolla grappling three years ago, and he looks forward to his first full season after switching sports in midseason his freshman year. In today’s world in which the popularity of mixed martial arts has exploded among the younger generation – combining elements of boxing, wrestling, judo, karate, and other skills – Austin comes out of a 12-year background in karate. It undoubtedly contributes to his speed and poise on the mat. There is an inner life to the martial art. “It gives me peace of mind,” he relates. “It’s somewhere I go. If I’ve had a rough day, it all disappears. It’s as if it’s (karate) the only thing that matters. “It’s just focusing on what I’m doing at that moment. If I have projects due the next morning at school and I’m stressing… if I do my forms, it calms me down. “I always tell my parents,” he says, “there’s no feeling like coming out of karate. I can be the grumpiest teenager going in and come out (contented). I was 4 when I first stepped in a dojo. I loving doing (karate). I wouldn’t do it for 12 years if I didn’t. It helps me be confident, not cocky.” Austin would like to be a corporate lawyer and “make enough money to be happy, not tons of money.” His father Lee has counseled him that there’s no shortcut to hard work. The Austins first lived in Boston when they moved to the U.S. four years ago, but it was too cold for them. They looked to the warmer climes of Southern California as a result. Austin’s mother is Amanda. Besides his brother Henry, he also has a sister, Liv, who is in the fifth grade. Having lived on both sides of the Atlantic, adapting to new lifestyles, he says his approach is, “Deal with life as it comes to me.”