\u201cI\u2019m very shy,\u201d says Lexi Holguin, 17, one of four captains of University City\u2019s wrestling team. But when she gets on the mat in her 106-pound weight division, there\u2019s something that happens. \u201cBeing part of this team is like another family to me. We have common goals.\u201d<\/p>\n
During a teaching demo-and-practice of a cross-body hold led by head coach Eddie Hernandez, varsity girls and boys worked in pairs alongside one another, while JV wrestlers worked out under walk-on assistant James Farley, also walk-on assistant Mark DeGiso when he arrived.<\/p>\n
Holguin, a senior whose sister Kyle (pronounced ky-lee) is a junior on the team, placed fourth at 106 at the Lady Bearcat Tournament at Laguna Hills at the start of Thanksgiving break. The Centurions, Patrick Henry, and Mira Mesa vie for the top spots in the Western League every year, things slowly moving back toward a steady state after what Hernandez calls a \u201ccomeback year\u201d in 2021-2022 coming out of COVID.<\/p>\n
Lexi, the captain, said she\u2019s \u201ctaking care of my body more\u201d because of wrestling. \u201cIn school, with my daily life, I\u2019m learning how my mind and body are connected, dealing with stress.\u201d<\/p>\n
During an afternoon of practice, 10 pairs of wrestlers carried out Hernandez\u2019s instructions on the cross-body hold, in which the aggressor starts with her leg looped inside her opponent\u2019s legs, twists, and turns the foe over in a tight back-on-the-mat movement that leaves the opponent helpless and unable to escape when done right.<\/p>\n
Wrestlers including Alex Linn, a junior 145-pounder who placed fourth at the South Torrance tourney before Thanksgiving break, and Brian Portales, 114, a senior, sixth in the same competition, were given remedies if their opponent reacts with different moves. In moving repeatedly from demo to practice in pairs, back to further demo with Hernandez fine-tuning errors he was seeing, student-athletes responded to Hernandez\u2019s command \u201cBreak\u201d with two claps.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do this in (teaching AP U.S. History) class,\u201d he said when asked about it. \u201cI want to know who is listening, who is engaged.\u201d Everybody is, in this lesson. It was a master class, planned out, organized, and taut with clap responses any teaching methods professor would be proud of.<\/p>\n
Sophie Mia, 126, a senior, placed third in CIF last year, now among the top six in the region. Lexi was a runner-up in CIF, the top five in the county.<\/p>\n
Christian Legler, 114, a junior, placed third in the county, and fourth at South Torrance.<\/p>\n
M.J. Andres, a senior girl trying wrestling for the first time, said: \u201cLexi and Kyle were wrestling before. Our families are pretty close. They really wanted me to join last year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked how it\u2019s going, she said, \u201cIt\u2019s been a challenge to lose weight. I weighed 147, I\u2019m at 130 right now.\u201d M.J. added, \u201cI feel like I\u2019m getting better and getting stronger. I\u2019ve been going to the gym. I\u2019ve cut out a lot of junk food.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cI\u2019m very shy,\u201d says Lexi Holguin, 17, one of four captains of University City\u2019s wrestling team. But when she gets on the mat in her 106-pound weight division, there\u2019s something that happens. \u201cBeing part of this team is like another family to me. We have common goals.\u201d During a teaching demo-and-practice of a cross-body hold […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1484,"featured_media":317468,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11560","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"\u201cI\u2019m very shy,\u201d says Lexi Holguin, 17, one of four captains of University City\u2019s wrestling team. But when she gets on the mat in her 106-pound weight division, there\u2019s something that happens. \u201cBeing part of this team is like another family to me. We have common goals.\u201d","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"3","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"1","show_view_counter":"1","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"1","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","show_zoom_button":"1","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"1","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"","hide":""},"jnews_social_meta":{"fb_title":"","fb_description":"","fb_image":"","twitter_title":"","twitter_description":"","twitter_image":""},"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[11560,11553],"tags":[13328,12537,13522,14246],"class_list":["post-317467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-la-jolla-village-news","category-sports","tag-high-school","tag-la-jolla","tag-university-city","tag-wrestling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1484"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=317467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317467\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/317468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}