Cardinals know what’s expected of each of them
Confident wrestlers work together, lead by example
Getting shut out of the trophy stand last year did not sit too well with Robertson High School, which won the state championship in 2015. So team leaders rededicated themselves in the off season to getting back to where the Cardinals believe they should be after learning a good lesson last year when they finished fourth.
“We have to stay humble,” said junior Jonathan Trujillo, who has won back-to-back individual championships. “We kind of weren’t connected as a team last year. We have to build on that. We had some chills and drills, and team bonding studying videos. And on the bus rides, we got closer as a team.”
Although wrestling is an individual sport, the team aspect is an important part of the Cardinals’ success, coach Mark James Martinez said.
“We’ve got a lot of injuries that we had to overcome, a lot of illnesses, but they are finally getting healthy,” he said. “We finally got a team together that can do it. We just need to make it happen. All season, it’s been kind of hit and miss, but we’ve come together at exactly the right time.”
Although Robertson fell three wrestlers short of having a full slate, the Cardinals are confident.
“We didn’t quite get the full lineup in there, but I think we have enough to do the job,” Martinez said. “Everybody just needs to be in there. It’s going to be a close one with Silver. If we have any head-to-heads with them, we have to capitalize on them.”
The athletes know what’s expected of them.
“We need to pin through, but just wrestle one match at a time and not look into the future,” said junior Justin Trujillo, Jonathan’s cousin.
Interestingly, the Trujillos, although cousins who grew up in the same small city, didn’t get to know each other until they both landed on the same club wrestling team.
Since meeting on the mat, the older Trujillos, along with younger sidekick Andrew Trujillo, a freshman who is Jonathan’s brother, have become a force that Martinez is banking on this season.
“They worked their butts off this summer,” the coach said. “They went to camps, got in extra workouts wherever they could. They’ve been the leaders, leaders by example.”
Of course, the Cardinals are far from a 3-man team and all are going to have chip in, he said.
“For the other guys, they have a job to do,” Martinez said. “They have to get their close matches to make sure. They have to get in there and win some matches. This is going to be their year to make their mark.”
Justin Trujillo, in particular, is looking to make his mark this year after a third-place finish last year and a runner-up medal as a freshman.
“I’ve been very disappointed,” he said. “This is my turn. I did a lot of post-season wrestling. I wrestled a lot of freestyle and Greco, and I did lot of camps with my cousins. It’s turned us into attack kinds of wrestlers. Usually we’re pretty defensive, but seeing wrestling from a different perspective has changed our attitudes toward techniques.”
Of course, the trio of Trujillos, as family is wont to do, also spend a lot of time challenging each other.
“We just try to make each other better,” said Andrew Trujillo, who, as the youngest and smallest, is usually on the receiving end of most lessons. “It’s hard. It makes me way better. It pushes the limits.”
But the younger Trujillo also has learned to take his lumps and keep coming back for more.
“Either he tries or he gets wrecked,” Jonathan Trujillo said with a chuckle.
The same could be said of the Cardinals’ opponents this weekend.