Sobrato senior rides upset wins to second place
GILROY
After getting pinned in the 287-pound final of the Mid-Cal Classic, a match he had no business being in according to rankings, Gustavo Ramirez smiled inside.
“I’ve had better days,” he said before a long pause. “But not better weekends.”
With a second-place effort in one of California’s premiere regular-season wrestling tournaments, a 71-team spectacle held Friday and Saturday at Gilroy High School, Ramirez has become a major player in the Central Coast Section and beyond.
The Sobrato senior entered the weekend ranked eighth in the CCS and was not listed in The California Wrestler’s 61-person rankings. He can expect an upgrade after his seismic 5-1 finish at Mid-Cals. It comprised wins over two of the state’s top-27 wrestlers at 285-287 pounds, including the No. 1-ranked heavyweight in the section, Travis Kelly of El Camino.
Ramirez put up a stern fight early against Los Bano’s Andres Quintero in the championship match but got caught on his back in the second round.
“We expected him to place, but we never expected him to be in the finals,” Sobrato coach Moses Guillardo said. “Now that I know what kind of caliber he is, more is expected out of him than being here — second at Mid-Cals. Coaches and wrestlers are looking at him for CCS and state now. He has a name out there.”
Ramirez, already the “hardest worker on the team,” Guillardo said, needs to push himself even more to qualify for state. He gets his chance in the Feb. 25-26 CCS Championships.
“This doesn’t change much about my expectation,” Ramirez said. “I still expect to go to state. I want it more than I wanted before.”
That desire is a chief reason why Ramirez (25-5) has been so successful this winter. At 6-foot-1, 260 pounds, Ramirez is typically undersized on the mat — you would think otherwise standing next to him — but his speed and strength are as good as any prep heavyweight’s.
“He’s really quick, really strong,” said Quintero, who at 32-2 is ranked 10th in the state. “When I went in for those underhooks, he was quick to defend them.”
Wearing glasses between matches, Ramirez strikes a professorial look that suits him well. Saturday, he was able to outfox Kelly in a stagnant semifinal, wrestling more aggressively to avoid stalling penalties.
Kelly, who beat Ramirez at the season-opening Golden Gate Invitational on Dec. 11, lost 4-3 on a caution call in overtime.
“That was a huge win. He read the game plan perfectly,” Ramirez’s primary coach, Sobrato assistant Genaro Redmond, said. “He gets smarter and better every day. At this point, I see him placing at CCS and going to state.”
Who better to judge than Redmond? The assistant Sobrato coach won a 275-pound CCS title with the Bulldogs in 2006.
“I taught him everything he knows, so he’s definitely good enough to go far,” Redmond said with a laugh. “He definitely wants it, and that’s all you need. It doesn’t matter how good you are. It matters how bad you want it.”
Ramirez wrapped up a solid opening day at Mid-Cals by pinning Gilroy’s Jose Lara (No. 11 in the CCS) and Dos Palos’ Logan Enos (No. 18 in the state). Ramirez also pinned Jon Lacayo of Riordan, using his perfect single-leg takedown and a “make-shift’ head-and-arm hold.
“I’m pretty good at improvising,” Ramirez said. “I’m not going to use brute strength to beat guys. I’m going to try and be smart. You have to do whatever you can to win, right?”
Ramirez spent Saturday evening trying to relax as the championship round played out before a standing-room-only crowd in Bob Hagen Memorial Gym. The heavyweight final was the last match of the tournament.
“It was really nerve-racking being in there and watching everyone else wrestler first,” Ramirez said. “I had to take a break, get out of the room and calm down a couple times.”
After losing to Quintero, Ramirez quietly put his warm-ups on while his parents, teammates and coaches gathered around to congratulate him. They were swallowed up by fans and wrestlers as the award ceremony commenced — one of few times Ramirez could get lost in a crowd.
“He came in here an underdog,” Guillardo said. “He’s not going to be an underdog anymore.”
