Predators Wrestlers Headed to State Championships

The double leg, the cement mixer and the Saturday Night Ride are some of the favorite moves of five young IB wrestlers heading to the California USA Wrestling State Championship in Fresno this weekend.

In the San Diego-Imperial County championships last month, five of six Predators' wrestlers placed.

Dominic Gurule-Metzig and Christian and Julian Winnie took first place trophies home and are part of a small group of five wrestlers heading to Fresno this weekend.

Josh Barbados, Angelo Posada, Jordan Seblan, Luciano Parra are a few other wrestlers who finished the season strong, coach Mike Metzig said.

Prior to the state championship, the IB Predators prepared by practicing with the Chula Vista Badgers.

Coaches train wrestlers how to compete, but when they get on the mat, everything they do is on their own, Metzig said.

"There's no one else carrying you there's no one else doing the work for you, it's all you. And that's what's great about wrestling it's one on one. No interference, no assistance," he said.

The Imperial Beach Predators Junior Wrestling Program works with young athletes from 5 to 14-years-old for about 10 tournaments from the end of December to the end of February. Other programs operate year-round and often have a larger team.

"That's always a challenge since we have a smaller club," said coach Don Winnie. "Other clubs have 100 kids. We only have 25 or so. So that's one of our challenges."

That's something the team wants to change in the future, Metzig said.
"The IB community, a lot of people don't know about the program," he said. "50 kids, I think that's a good number with the room that we have and the amount of kids coming back we would hope to at least grow it by double."

The wrestling program which was established seven years ago acts as a farm league for the better known Mar Vista High School wrestling program.
Girls are welcome to join next year, Metzig said.

"We would love for any girl wrestlers that want to try it out and train, its open to both boys and girls," he said. "The more the merrier."

For more information about the Junior Predators program email ibpredators@gmail.com or find the team on Facebook.