Baler wrestlers celebrate 32nd anniversary of undefeated season

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This year marks the 32nd anniversary of San Benito High wrestling’s 1992 undefeated season and the 44th anniversary of the Razorbacks, Hollister’s youth wrestling program. Former participants of both programs will gather Sept. 28 for the first of what is hoped to be an annual reunion dinner. The funds raised will go toward establishing scholarships for current and future Baler wrestlers.

“What motivated us,” said Daniel Hernandez, “was that a few of us had gotten together when a fellow wrestler passed last winter. We thought, ‘Why do we only meet for something like this?’”

Hernandez said a group of alumni came together to plan the reunion, and as it gained traction, they realized they could use the event to benefit others.

“We thought, ‘If we are going to get together, why not give it a real go?’ We decided to think about it for a few weeks to see if it was plausible.”

Hernandez said time will be set aside at the event to celebrate alumni who have passed away.

“Over the years,” he said, “we have never acknowledged them or others who were part of our wrestling family and community. Time has flown by, making us realize how long it has been for some of us.”

Hernandez wrestled at what is now Hollister High School for coach Marty Dillon. He graduated in 1992 as a member of that undefeated team and wrestled at the varsity level for all four years. 

“We were successful,” he said, “The coaching was very methodical and organized. I competed in two different weights and set the record for takedowns. I wrestled at quite a high level, which allowed me to go to college.”

Balers Head Coach Steven Salcedo is one of the alumni who plans to attend the dinner. He was introduced to the sport when he was around four years old by his brother Ralphie, who also wrestled for the Balers. 

“By the time I was seven, I was wrestling with the Razorbacks, which John Kiesewetter ran at that time through the Hollister Rec Department.”

Salcedo wrestled at San Benito High for four years and contributed to the Balers winning CCS championships during his sophomore (2000) and senior (2002) years. 

“Back then,” he said, “there was a lot of camaraderie, sort of a family connection. My older brothers Ralpie and David wrestled, and I made friends with other kids in the club who grew up to be my teammates.”

Salcedo has coached continuously since graduating, becoming head coach at San Benito High when Brian DeCarli left to continue his education in 2015.

“It provided an opportunity for me,” Salcedo said. “I’ve been a part of the program in different ways over my lifetime—as a kid, being a fan, a supporter, and then being part of the program itself. It has been quite an honor.”

Salcedo said he has tried to keep the program’s traditions, such as the Baler Challenge, intact.

“It’s a chance for wrestlers to prove themselves and earn their spot on the varsity team,” he said. “It’s a way that coaches in the past have developed tough, gritty, hard-working wrestlers.”

Steven’s brother, coach David Salcedo, was also around four years old when he became interested in wrestling.

“Coach Kiesewetter came to pick my older brother up for practice,” he said. “He ended up taking me with him, and I have not looked back since.”

David was also a four-year letterman with the Balers and participated in the Cadet National and the Western Regional Championships.

“Those gave us some good exposure,” he said. “I was a state place winner in my senior year—I had a good run and a fun time. The wrestling community was in place back then, and we were really strong.”

David said that one thing that made the Balers cohesive was the number of wrestlers who were related to each other.

“You had the Velasquez brothers, the Salcedos, the Maldonados,” he said. “You had and levels and layers of cousins and brothers. It was a beautiful thing, and we’re starting to tap back into that tradition of family-oriented wrestling.”

Welcome changes

Another change, David said, has been the influx of women into the wrestling program.
“The avenue has always been there for the guys,” he said. “And our strength has always been in our numbers. But the girls have flourished from five or 10 to 20 or so. Their numbers are good, and the team is making strong showings in competitions.”

One of the Maldonado brothers, Guillermo, who wrestled from 1983 to 1986, plans to attend the reunion. After watching his league-champion brother Gilbert, he took up the sport in the seventh grade and finished the year as the county champion.

“I was a skinny, small guy,” he said. “I tried to play football and basketball but never got much playing time. I tried wrestling, where everyone is the same weight so I did alright.”

Maldonado made varsity as a Baler freshman and was league champion all four years of high school. He was also a CCS runner-up as a junior and placed sixth in the state championship in his senior year. 

“You’re out there in the middle, and they put the lights on you,” he said. “It’s just you and one other guy, and it’s pretty awesome. I loved competing. I loved the training. I used to go to sleep dreaming of becoming a world champion.”

Matt Mattson helped organize the reunion and is also a bit of a team archivist, posting old VHS tapes of Baler matches on his Hollister Alumni Wrestling YouTube page. He began wrestling during his freshman year in 1986.

Maldonado wrestled under Dillon and said it was just when the Balers began to be noticed in the tournament scene.

“When we first started, nobody out there knew who we were,” he said. “I remember when I was a freshman, people would say, ‘Where’s San Benito? Where’s Hollister?’ By the time I graduated in 1990, they knew exactly where we were from.” 

Both of Mattson’s sons wrestled for Hollister, and he said that seeing them compete in Baler singlets was memorable for the whole family.

“We were going to the same tournaments I went to,” he said. At one point, we had all the old names on the team again: a Mattson, a Salcedo, a Corona, and a few more. It was like a legacy.”

Digging deep

Isaias Rivera is carrying that legacy even further, helping to open a new gym at 1270-E Fourth Street for the Hollister Razorbacks, a group that has acted as a feeder for the high school team. He began wrestling for the Balers in 1991, picking the sport up in the seventh grade.

Rivera said that the high school program kept him busy throughout the year and kept him engaged in his school work. Now, he is dedicated to coaching up-and-coming Hollister youth. 

“After I left school,” he said, “I came back to help coach my own boys. I have always wanted to turn the Razorbacks into a nonprofit and take them to the next level. My goal is to have kids be able to wrestle for free and pay for it with fundraisers.”

So far, Rivera has gotten help from the Community Foundation for San Benito County and hopes local kids come to the gym to find the fulfillment he got from the sport.

“Wrestling is about mental toughness,” he said. “It makes you dig deep inside you, whether you’re getting healthy through wrestling or you’re actually competing in the sport. It’s the hardest sport to train for, but it’s as much mental as it is physical.”

Many wrestlers attending the reunion began as Razorbacks, and that added camaraderie has helped generate interest in the event. The organizers hope the dinner will also generate donations to the wrestling scholarship fund.

“Just out of the gates, this has been well received,” Hernandez said. “We want to open it up as much as we can and fill that room. And I think in the future, we will be able to improve on this one and continue to do it every year.”

The 32nd Anniversary Reunion will occur on Sept. 28 at 6 p.m. at 731 San Felipe Road in Hollister. Tickets are $25. Contact Matt Mattson at 303-656-5872 for more information.

BenitoLink thanks our underwriter, Hollister Rotary, for helping expand the sports coverage around San Benito County. Rotary is a nonprofit organization that conducts humanitarian projects, encourages high ethical standards, and works toward world understanding. All editorial decisions are made by BenitoLink.

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