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Since Sunday was Oscar’s night, we thought it was the perfect time to unveil the SGV/Whittier Prep Sports Zone All-Area Boys and Girls Wrestling team.

It was a bumper crop year for girls wrestling with four girls winning state titles and another one earning a spot in the finals. It was a great group of girls from the SGV to invade the state championships in Bakersfield.

On the boys side, we had a repeat state champion and several others who earned a spot on the podium.

Let’s start with the boys.

(All photos courtesy of RT Tolentino)

Ramirez showed again why he has to be on the shortlist of great wrestlers in the San Gabriel Valley as the junior turned back all challenges in 2024 and won his second straight state title with a 4-1 win over St. John Bosco’s Nathan Carrillo. Nothing is stopping him from becoming a three-time state champion in 2025.

There was a time back in the 1990s and 2000s when Santa Fe was the king of wrestling in the Whittier area. Despite falling into hard times, the Chiefs are back and it’s thanks to the work done by Romero and his staff. The Chiefs were the class of the Del Rio League this year and advanced to a CIF Southern Section Dual Meet final. With the talent that will be returning in 2025, you can name the Chiefs as the early favorites to win another DRL title.

106: Marcus Tolentino, Northview, Sr.

113: Jovanni Evangelista, Northview, Sr.

120: Michael Manzano, La Canada, Jr.

126: Christian Garcia, Walnut, Jr.

132: Aaron Contreras, Walnut, Sr.

138: Gianluca Munoz, Bishop Amat, Sr.

144: Ryder Yoshitake, San Marino, Sr.

150: Tristan Fernandez, Bonita. Jr.

157: Joseph Contreras, Walnut, Sr

165: Ricardo Leal, Santa Fe, Sr

175: Max Topete, South Hills, Sr

190: Sonny Acuna, Northview, Sr.

220: Caden Arellano, Damien, Jr.

285: Zeke Lucero, Damien, Fr.

There were four legitimate choices for this award, that’s how deep girls wrestling was in the area. In the end, we chose the two wrestlers that were undefeated in 2024. Falcon won her third state title at 105 pounds with an impressive 8-0 win over Olivia Lopez of Hamilton HS. She finished the season 33-0, a career HS record of 118-0, and is currently ranked second in the US at her weight class. She’ll be wrestling at NAIA power Life University next season. Bartoszek, a transfer from Wyoming Seminary in Pennsylvania (and her hometown of Wisconsin), made the transition from freestyle to folkstyle without a problem as she also didn’t suffer a loss throughout the season. She earned her state title at 140 pounds the hard way with a thrilling 9-5 win over Olivia Davis of Monte Vista HS.

Despite suffering a loss to Northview in the semifinals of the CIF-SS Dual Meet semifinals, the Mustangs would have the final laugh as they secured the team state wrestling championship three weeks later. Sebastian has built the Mustangs program to be one of the most respected in the state and helped lead two wrestlers to individual state championships.

100: Malia Manibog, San Marino, Soph.

105: Leah Lopez, San Marino, Soph.

110: Deandra Meza, Walnut, Jr.

115: Samantha Rivera, Northview, Jr.

120: Ysabella Hinojosa, Northview, Jr.

125: Samantha Sachs, Glendora, Jr.  

130: Jasmine Macias, Walnut, Sr.

135: Audrey Villalon Estrada, Mark Keppel, Sr.

140: Alani Marrujo, San Dimas, Sr.

145: Trinity Palumbo, Northview, Sr.

155: Andrea Mateo, Northview, Sr.

170: Savannah Pratt, Northview, Soph.

190: Juliana Marquez, Gabrielino, Jr.

235: Charlene Smith, San Dimas, Soph.

BASEBALL NOTEBOOK: If you have been surprised by the slow start for La Mirada as anyone who follows the team closely, you are not alone. After Thursday’s loss to Downey, coach Jimmy Zurn spent the night trying to figure out why his team was not meeting their standards. And while it was nice to see the Matadores score five runs in their win over Warren on Friday, keep in mind that Warren used their ace (Angel Cervantes, UCLA commit) earlier in the week against Gahr, and La Mirada still only connected on six hits and went hitless the final two innings. If you are a stat geek, here is one that sums up the plight of the Matadores offense. The combined batting average of La Mirada’s big three, Mavereck Russell, Travis Friend, and Aiden Aguayo currently is .222 (12-54). The team has a batting average of .236. I don’t know who’s having a worse month, those three guys or Apple, Amazon, and Adobe on Wall Street. They better figure out things quickly as the La Mirada has a rematch with South Hills on Thursday at Glenn HS… One look at the strikeout leaders in the CIF-SS that have been reported by schools on MaxPreps shows that Arcadia’s Fernando Palencia (4th in the CIF-SS with 42) and Gabe Lopez (#7 in the CIF-SS with 37) are in the top-10 for strikeouts in the Southern Section. This is not by accident. Palencia is someone we took a look at in our first Insider Report (behind a paywall) and got excited about him. We saw a lot of Gabe Lopez last year, but we haven’t had a chance to see him this year. However, Steve Florindo from Perfect Game did see him in his last start and liked what he saw. He allowed one hit and fanned ten hitters in 6 innings of work against Damien. The fastball worked up to 88 MPH with a breaking ball at 73-75. Those are two pitchers with an FB++ and that will make life very difficult for anyone in the Pacific League. It’s tough enough to have one, but when you have two – that improves your odds of winning greatly… Florindo also had a chance to see Damien senior Nathan Ries and he had his FB topping at 89 MPH, which conforms to our numbers against Bishop Amat on opening day (FB topping at 88 MPH). He is a UC San Diego signee… Speaking of Damien, they may have the best 1-2 pitching combination in the Baseline. You all know about Nies, but Andrew Carter was just as impressive in their win over Charter Oak on Saturday. The TCU commit allowed one run on four hits and struck out five while hitting 88 on his FB early in the first inning. He’ll be part of our fourth “Insider” Report that will be out on Wednesday. Those inside the program all say that the pitching is getting better, but the scars from a loss to Santa Margarita in which they allowed numerous walks still haunt them. And don’t count out Julian Hines – he’s not a bad pitcher to come out of the bullpen… We’ll be heading out to Los Altos on Wednesday to see the Conquerors host San Dimas. Los Altos has won two of their last three and you can be sure that either Kody King or Jude Favela of San Dimas will take on Randy Mora. The pitcher that we are interested in is freshman Manuel Tinajero. He is 1-1 on the season with an ERA of 1.40 with 9 strikeouts. One thing to watch out for is the winds, which are projected to reach 12 MPH. If anyone knows anything about baseball at Los Altos, once the winds get going – all bets are off… Prep Baseball Report has updated their 2025 rankings with Maranatha’s Zach Strickland (#20), Josh Proctor (#30), La Mirada’s Maverek Russell (#29), and Aiden Aguayo (#35) all landing in the top-50. Quite coincidentally, all are UCLA commits. The player that saw a noticeable drop in the rankings is Aguayo who started the season at #9. Strickland makes a nice rise from #27. We’ll see him in action for the first time this week against Heritage Christian.

The announcement over the weekend that Jaden R. Soong, who has been dubbed the next great golfer to come out of Southern California, has committed to St. Francis had an earthquake feel. He chose the Golden Knights over Loyola.

Soong has a glittering resume that includes SCGA Jr. Amateur Champion in 2023 (in a one-hole playoff), U.S. Open Qualifying Finalist in 2023 and has a handicap of 4. He was featured in 2018 on ABC7 Los Angeles and even has a personal website. The hype is so large that he has been called the next Tiger Woods.

Several weeks ago, as part of the SCGA Junior Tour event at Oak Valley Golf Course in Beaumont, Soong shot a 77-74-75 and finished tied for 18th. Earlier this year, he posted an impressive 72 at the Industry Hills Golf Course which many consider to be the toughest golf course in the SGV.

He even has a great motivational video from the late Kobe Bryant that is a must-see on his Instagram account.

We’ll have a column on him next week, but as I love to say, “BUCKLE UP”. Many believe that he could be as good or even better than La Canada HS alum Colin Morikawa.

The stunning news of the passing of former Bishop Amat football player Feiloaki Mateni Jr. highlighted a weekend that saw several area football players and coaches pass away. Published reports indicate that the sophomore, who had transferred from Amat to Rancho Cucamonga, passed away in a fatal crash on the I-15 freeway at 3 a.m.

Mateni Jr. played significantly for the Lancers in 2023 and was projected to be a major contributor to the Cougars in 2024.

This news came on top of Saturday’s announcement that Ontario HS football coach John Kusleika had passed away. The first indication that things weren’t going well was a tweet that was sent out by District Trustee Gil Zendejas on February 22nd. Kusleika had also worked as a Graduate Assistant at the University of Redlands and was widely respected in the Inland Empire and knew several area SGV coaches closely including Walnut’s Eric Peralta.

This is the second time that someone affiliated with the program has passed away. Back in 2021, former player Osmin Ramirez passed away without any details made available.

That news was preceded earlier this week with the announcement of the passing of coaching legend, Wayne Moses. Moses, who at one time was a resident of Walnut and a nearby neighbor to football coach Steve Bogan, went to high school in the early 1970s at San Dimas HS where was a two-sport star that included football and basketball. He went on to college where he was the starting cornerback at the University of Washington which played in the Rose Bowl in 1978, where the Huskies defeated Michigan 27-20, and was teammates with NFL Hall of Fame Quarterback Warren Moon.

After graduating from college, jumped right into coaching college football as a graduate assistant at Cal State Fullerton in 1979. From there he coached at NC State, Bowling Green, Rutgers, San Diego St., and New Mexico before landing at UCLA in 1990 where he coached with the late Terry Donahue until 1995.

After a year at Cal-Berkeley, Moses was hired as the running backs coach at his alma Mater – University of Washington with coach Rick Neuheisel. In 2001, Moses won his second Rose Bowl when the Huskies defeated Purdue, who was led by QB Drew Brees. One of the players on that Washington team played a starting role on the offensive line, South Hills HS alum Matt Rogers.

After that year, Moses accepted the spot of Pete Carroll’s first staff at the University of Southern California. That lasted one year as Moses left to become an assistant coach at the University of Pittsburgh and Stanford before he accepted the position as running backs coach for the St. Louis Rams of the NFL. Moses coached with the Rams for four years, during which he coached star ball carrier Steven Jackson to back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons.

Moses went back to UCLA in 2008 to work for Karl Dorrell and Neuheisel again until 2011 where he finished his coaching career at Idaho, Army, Hawai’i, and Claremont-Mudd. Moses always accepted the recruiting area of the San Gabriel Valley wherever he coached and was much respected in the area by football coaches.

Moses was 69 years old.

One other note, the CIF Southern Section announced the passing of former section commissioner Ray Plutko. An alum of Mt. San Antonio College and Upland College (which is now Azusa Pacific University), Plutko served as section commissioner from 1980-1986. He was also an Assistant Principal at Charter Oak HS in 1992 and then was principal at Temple City HS from 1993-1997.

Plutko was 85 years old.

Yes, I know for the past several weeks I’ve sounded like a bitter sports talk show host. For this week, I’m flipping the script.

Have you noticed that many of our former players are making a name for themselves in college? The latest was this past weekend when former Pasadena alum Darius Brown II, on senior night, hit a game-winning three-point shot to give Utah State an 87-84 win over New Mexico.

This was preceded by former Los Altos great Jarod Lucas making a huge contribution to leading Nevada-Reno to a 26-6 record and a #2 seed in next week’s Mountain West Conference Tournament in Las Vegas.

Remember Bridget Nemeth, the softball pitching star from Glendora? She’s picking up where she left off at Penn State as she has posted an 8-0 record with an ERA of 0.63 and has earned a Big-10 Freshman of the Week award. (Remember Glendora fans, UCLA is moving to the Big-10 next season, which means you might be able to catch Nemeth at Easton Field.).

Then there is baseball where South Hills alum Marcos Rosales and Los Altos alum Eli Lopez are crushing it for Cal State Fullerton. Lopez leads the team in hitting with .370 and Rosales has hit several home runs this year and is just behind Lopez with a .326 average. You can understand why Cal State Fullerton has no problem taking players from the SGV.

Remember Maranatha superstar Dawson Netz? He’s in his final year pitching for the University of Arizona and made an appearance over the weekend as he threw for two innings and struck out four in the Wildcats’ 16-9 win over USC.

But the biggest player that has made the headlines is former Northview star Dean Curley. Currently a freshman at the University of Tennessee, Curley has had a coming out party the likes of which we haven’t seen in a while.

On March 5th against Kansas St., Curley had a grand slam, a 3-run home run, and a 2-run homer in leading the Vols to a 15-5 win. He is the first Tennessee freshman to ever achieve this accomplishment. Curley is batting .306 with 6 HRs and 19 RBIs (2nd most on the team).

And then there is La Mirada’s Jared Jones. My pick for Whittier News Baseball Player of the Year in 2018 and 2019, as well as the Los Angeles Times 2019 Player of the Year, Jones signed with Pittsburgh in 2020 and appears ready for the big leagues. In his latest outing on Sunday, Jones pitched 2.2 scoreless innings, allowed two hits, and struck out three against the Philadelphia Phillies.

I know that I am only scratching the surface. If you know of someone who is playing in college and is having a great year, please drop me a line at James_Escarcega@outlook.com. Maybe we can make this a regular item each week. As you can see, there is a softer side to me – you just have to be patient.

Have a great week.

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