“I’m very shy,” says Lexi Holguin, 17, one of four captains of University City’s wrestling team. But when she gets on the mat in her 106-pound weight division, there’s something that happens. “Being part of this team is like another family to me. We have common goals.”
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.
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 “comeback year” in 2021-2022 coming out of COVID.
Lexi, the captain, said she’s “taking care of my body more” because of wrestling. “In school, with my daily life, I’m learning how my mind and body are connected, dealing with stress.”
During an afternoon of practice, 10 pairs of wrestlers carried out Hernandez’s instructions on the cross-body hold, in which the aggressor starts with her leg looped inside her opponent’s 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.
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’s command “Break” with two claps.
“I do this in (teaching AP U.S. History) class,” he said when asked about it. “I want to know who is listening, who is engaged.” 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.
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.
Christian Legler, 114, a junior, placed third in the county, and fourth at South Torrance.
M.J. Andres, a senior girl trying wrestling for the first time, said: “Lexi and Kyle were wrestling before. Our families are pretty close. They really wanted me to join last year.”
Asked how it’s going, she said, “It’s been a challenge to lose weight. I weighed 147, I’m at 130 right now.” M.J. added, “I feel like I’m getting better and getting stronger. I’ve been going to the gym. I’ve cut out a lot of junk food.”
