After the pandemic made the sport of wrestling next to impossible, with competitions held now open again, the Hollister Razorbacks have staged an impressive reentry into the sport with one of their wrestlers, 14-year-old Cole Seymour, taking the Fresno Folkstyle State Championship in his division and another, 11-year-old Eliana Salcedo, taking second in hers. While the team is not quite back up to pre-COVID levels, Coaches David and Steven Salcedo continue to train their students to a high standard of excellence, with this victory helping make up for the lost practices and meets over the last three years.
Steven, who is also the wrestling coach at Hollister High School, said that Cole has always been a natural, from the first days when he would roll around for a while and then suddenly, somehow, end up being on top.
“Cole is extremely athletic,” he said. “He’s fast, he’s agile and he’s strong. He’s a gamer. He’s able to think, adapt and gain in any situation, which makes him very hard to beat.”
Seymour, who also plays football and studies jiujitsu, began wrestling when he was five years old.
“My uncle was into wrestling and I thought it was a really cool sport,” he said. “Starting when I was younger, I was always looking to wrestle against people better than myself to get improve my skills.”
Those skills are hard to acquire, he says but it has resulted in him going to the state championships four times previously.
“What I like is that it is not just a sport of strength,” he said. “It is not just being able to manhandle somebody, you have to have technique and keep going. You have to be able to wrestle for a minute and a half, never stopping and just being relentless and having a full tank of energy all the time.”
Seymour had four opponents at the meet, with his first being the top seed in his bracket.
“He was ahead for most of the match,” he said. “But then I pushed myself and started to wrestle smarter and I came out victorious. The second kid was alright but I pinned him in the second quarter. My third opponent was someone I had wrestled my entire life and who beat me for state three years ago. This year I beat him and he ended up in fourth place.”
His final opponent, Seymour said, was extremely good and forced him to concentrate on his skills.
“He had put on 40 pounds since I had seen him last and it was solid muscle,” “I knew I had to wrestle really smart. The kid fought all the way through like he was winning but, in the end, in the last 14 seconds, I just kept him down. I got this underdog feeling and as soon as I got it, I knew I was not going to give up.”
Steven said that what impressed him in the final match was how Seymour handled those last 14 seconds.
“You know, all he had to do was finish that match and be done with it,” he said “It is a credit to him that he ever stopped wrestling. He didn’t let it slip through his fingers. He took that kid back down and kept control for the rest of the match. It was a relief but it was also kind of a redemption.”
Seymour said that winning the championship was one of the greatest feelings he had ever had in his life and that it had all come down to focus and determination.
“It is all about being able to push myself,’ he said. “I knew whenever I was down, I had to fight to get back up again. I needed to make sure I wanted it more and that I would get it. One thing I have learned is in life, just like in wrestling, I am not going to be able to get by with just strength. It takes knowledge as well.”
As Eliana Salcedo’s last name suggests, she has had a little bit of help in her career from her father, Steven and her uncle David.
“We have put a lot of time into Eliana,” David said. “She has done her home workouts and it obviously has paid its dividends. The goals she has set for herself have been pretty hard and it is really encouraging to see her following that path.”
She started wrestling when she was four years old and has been wrestling against boys for most of her life because there are not enough girls participating in the lower age groups. In sixth grade now and at this age, there are enough girl wrestlers for all the weight divisions.
“I try to approach girls and boys the same way,” she said. “The boys seem to have a stronger mindset and the girls are more aggressive. But they all cry when they lose.”
Eliana said she was nervous for her first of three matches, spending extra time warming up but won it easily.
“My second match was a little longer but it was pretty quick, too,” she said. “My finals match was very long and I ended up losing. But it was really tough. I had my mind ready for the match but she just overpowered me. But it was the first time I had been to that level, so I was really happy about that. I felt it was a big step forward.”
David said the focus of the Razorback program is to provide a layer of consistency in the training of young wrestlers at their new location at 731 San Felipe Road in Hollister.
“We’ve only been here for four months,” he said. “It allows us to be more self-sufficient and provides us with a platform for kids to be able to come and work out. We want to make sure everyone stays in shape, so being in here every day grinding is important. We are excited about where it’s going.
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