After the best season in program history, what can the Los Gatos High wrestling team possibly do for an encore in the 2023-2024 campaign?
Keep on improving.
“We have to keep evolving and keep growing,” coach Greg Varela said. “We’ve got to start looking bigger than the state of California. We want [our graduates] to be NCAA champions or think about eventual world titles.”
Last season, the Wildcats finished eighth in the CIF State Championships with 89 points and three medalists—all program bests. The three medalists—Stanford-signee EJ Parco, Stanford-commit Dylan Pile and sophomore standout Antonio Rodriguez—are all back, a year older and better.
Varela makes sure of that.
“We have to analyze our weaknesses and make those our strengths,” he said.
Varela points to Pile as a great example. Since last season ended, Varela and the coaching staff have made it a point to get the junior out of his comfort zone. Pile, a skilled and highly conditioned athlete who was the Central Coast Section champion at 160 pounds last year and fourth-place finisher at State, has certain maneuvers he defaults to under duress.
However, Varela has forced Pile and all of his wrestlers for that matter to improve their weaknesses while honing their strengths.
“Dylan definitely has some tricks he likes to go to,” Varela said. “We always tease him because we know what his security blankets are, the two to three main things he likes to do under pressure. And we kind of took that away from him because the theme is we have to grow in our wrestling and training and add offense. He’s been doing other moves and he knows it’s hard, but he’s being challenged and growing because of it.”
Pile is currently ranked No. 3 in the state at 165 pounds and finished second in the Reno Tournament of Champions Dec. 15-16, falling to State No. 2 Joseph Antonio in the final, 4-1. Parco and Rodriguez also had strong showings at Reno TOC, one of the nation’s premier early season tournaments.
Parco also took second in Reno at 150 pounds. He’s ranked No. 4 in California, which boasts perhaps the strongest 150-pound division in the country. Frontier’s Miguel Estrada, Palm Desert’s Brock Mantanona and Poway’s Laird Root are ranked ahead of Parco, and Gilroy’s Moses Mirabal is No. 5 in the state.
“EJ’s weight class is arguably the toughest in the country,” Varela said. “I think those top five guys are ranked in the top 15 in the country.”
Parco, a two-time CCS champion who took fifth at 145 pounds in last year’s State Meet, edged Gilroy’s Daniel Zepeda—the state champion last year at 132 pounds—in the Reno TOC semifinals in triple overtime. Zepeda is currently the top-ranked wrestler at 144 pounds.
Varela said Parco rode Zepeda out in the second OT period and then chose bottom in triple OT, when he scored on a reversal to earn the victory. Parco has been working on elevating his offense and while that has been key, his recent signing with Stanford has freed him up to really let loose.
“EJ is doing great and it was a little relief for him to sign,” Varela said. “That was a big weight off his shoulder and now that he’s got that out of the way, he can really focus on training [with no distractions]. He’s excited and had a great tournament in Reno.”
Rodriguez is ranked No. 3 in the state at 120 pounds, and took third in Reno. The sophomore is in a stacked weight class after finishing second in the state at 113 pounds last year. Similar to the 150-pound division, California’s 120-pound class features five of the nation’s best.
However, Rodriguez has diversified and evolved his mat skills, complementing his single leg takedowns and sweeps with a variety of attacks.
“He expanded his offensive focus in the offseason so it’s not just two to three moves with him and that’s it,” Varela said. “He’s adding to his stuff and it’s been working. He’s hitting different shots against quality opponents in Reno. He’s getting more dangerous and for a kid like him to get more dangerous than what he already was is huge.”
Outside of the Big Three, senior Timmy Murabito is an impact member of the team. A two-time, CCS third-place finisher, Murabito is ranked No. 15 in California at 144 pounds. He went 2-2 in the CIF State Championships last year at 138 pounds.
Varela said he’s been pleased with Murabito’s improvement with his top game, noting the senior has been working on minimizing the big mistakes in a match that can often prove to be the difference between a narrow win or loss.
Two of the team’s other top-line wrestlers—sophomores Lucas Pannell and Joseph Pavlov Ramirez—are in line for strong seasons again. Pannell took fourth place in the CCS Championships last year at 170 pounds but is now competing at 157 and 165 pounds, his ideal divisions.
“Lucas, the poor guy, was up two weight classes last year because of Dylan and EJ,” Varela said. “We’re expecting some huge things out of him now that he’s down a weight class. We expect him to be a state qualifier and pushing for a state medal.”
Pavlov Ramirez is ranked No. 14 at 138 pounds and had a nice showing in Reno, going 3-2 to finish in the top-12 in the 138-pound division. He took third in the CCS Championships last year at 126 pounds.
“Joseph quietly had a great season last year,” Varela said. “He played football this year and after their extended season went straight to wrestling. He’s working his way back into wrestling shape and we kind of expect him to place at State. We think he can do it. It’s how fast can he knock off the ring rust and then make the big gains. We’re excited to see what he does.”
Varela is in his sixth season and has the program humming. He half-jokingly said the wrestling team needs to step up their game to keep up upon the success of the school’s football team and field hockey teams.
Make no mistake: the wrestling squad has become an elite CCS program, the second best behind national power Gilroy.
