KELSEYVILLE — Once upon a time in Lake County, the Kelseyville High School wrestling team was the real deal. In recent seasons, it”s just been real bad.
That may be about to change.
“We”re going to be back in the game in a few seasons,” Kelseyville head coach Rob Brown said. “We”re actually going to be a force to be reckoned with.”
Brown and son Steve, an assistant coach for the Knights and perhaps the best wrestler ever to come out of the school, are trying to put the pieces back together one wrestler at a time. It won”t be easy and it won”t happen overnight, according to Brown.
“We have lots of freshmen with lots of potential,” Brown said. “We”re pretty well set from 103 to 135 (pounds). We have 18 kids out but we”re still missing guys at 152, 160 and 171. But we”re recruiting other kids at the school and we should have a complete team by the time league rolls around.”
Brown said the signs have been encouraging. On Saturday at the McKinleyville Tournament, which was won by a young Upper Lake squad, the Knights came in ninth as a team. They were led by Thomas Esberg”s second-place finish at 140 pounds and Morgan Nelson”s third-place finish in the heavyweight division.
“The joke has been, ?By 1 p.m. Kelseyville is usually out of it,”” Brown said of the inability of Knights wrestlers to reach the final rounds of tournaments in recent seasons. “But by 4 p.m. (at McKinleyville) everybody was still in it.”
Earlier this month at the Coastal Mountain Conference Novice Tournament in Lakeport, two Knights won their weight divisions — Jeff Ponce at 103 pounds and Adryan Segura at 135 pounds — and another, Wensus Rojas at 125 pounds, came in second. Other standouts were Chris Gomora, third at 119 pounds; and Mason McGee, fourth in the heavyweight division.
While Brown is officially the Knights” head coach, he readily admits that it”s son Steve”s hands-on instruction that has Kelseyville about to re-enter the world of thriving wrestling programs in Lake County.
“The kids don”t even know about Steve or what he did when he was wrestling,” Brown said. “He doesn”t talk about his accomplishments ? he wants to talk about their accomplishments.”
Kelseyville travels to Fort Bragg on Saturday.
