BAKERSFIELD — William Isaacs surprised himself this season by reaching the California Interscholastic Federation State Wrestling Championships. Now that he”s had a taste, he”s hooked.
The Lower Lake High junior wasn”t able to pick up a victory Friday at Rabobank Arena, going 0-2 and exiting the competition. But he still felt satisfaction about reaching what is considered the toughest state tournament in the nation, and was especially hopeful following a pair of matches that he lost by slim margins.
“I just wanted to do the best I can. At some points I did,” Isaacs said.
His matches Friday weren”t the most exciting in the building. But that had a lot to do with the opponents the heavyweight was facing.
His first match was a snoozer, with Woodcreek (Roseville) opponent Dominic Balmer slowing the pace to a crawl and Isaacs playing along. It was 1-1 entering the final period and looked to be going to overtime. Then Balmer, the Sac-Joaquin Section champion and ranked eighth in the state, all the sudden shot in for a double-leg takedown in the waning seconds and got all of it, taking Isaacs down to win the match.
“We knew he was going to play defensive. We didn”t know much about him but that he had low scores in the Sac-Joaquin Masters. He was waiting for us to shoot to score off of. I thought we wrestled well, I thought in the last 30 seconds we would go to overtime,” said Lower Lake coach Ed Fuchs.
So then Isaacs went to consolation, and he had an interesting match with Tommy Saetern of Overfelt (San Jose) that saw each get big points on moves. In the end, Saetern won 5-4 after Isaacs had put him on his back. He led 3-1 after two periods but it just wasn”t meant to be.
“I”m thinking ”Dude, we”ve got this thing” and we got too high and one mistake cost us the match,” Fuchs said, referring to when Saetern rolled Isaacs for a reversal. “But (Isaacs) never quit on me. He gave everything he had … he just made a mistake.
“My goal for him was to win a match and I thought we had that in our hands. His goal was a medal but realistically he”s a junior. He ended his season in Bakersfield, knowing what it takes to win matches, and that will push him a bit. He mentioned hitting the weights when he gets back.”
The matches didn”t go the way he wanted them to, but Isaacs (35-10) had a blast just getting to Bakersfield.
“I had loads of fun, just getting here was fun. I”m going to look back and say I had fun and did my best,” he said.
“And I”ll say how many mats can you fit in a basketball arena,” he said, referring to the eight-mat setup in Bakersfield.
Now the attention turns to next season. Hopes are high at Lower Lake for its heavyweight, to say the least.
“Now we have a returning state qualifier in the room, that”s going to be huge. I”m not disappointed, it”s just unfortunate to come all this way and not taste that victory. Nonetheless I”m so glad we were here.”
And Isaacs will be working hard to make sure the trip happens again next season.
“Preparation. Running a lot, trying to stay in shape. My goal is to make it here again, this is one hell of a place to be and it means a lot coming here. We”ve only had two guys ever come here.”
