Harrison Zhang has made tremendous improvement since his freshman season. It’s no surprise considering his rock-solid mindset approach to training. The Sobrato High senior takes pride in being mentally tough.
“The challenge everyday is taking a hard situation and having the right mindset through it,” he said. “For example, practice is not always fun, and you have to work hard day after day if you want to improve. But having the mindset that all your hard work will pay off helps me get through the tough times.”
Sobrato coach Robert Rael mentioned Zhang’s work ethic several times in a short conversation with the Times, a big reason why Zhang has developed strong technical skills. Zhang has a variety of shots in his repertoire to take down opponents and score points. Last season, Zhang took first at 132 pounds in the Blossom Valley League Championships before finishing sixth in the CCS Championships.
This season, Zhang expects nothing less than a podium finish at CCS and a trip to the CIF State Championships. Rael expressed similar sentiments, noting Zhang’s versatility in his standup game.
“The good thing about Harrison is he has a couple of different shots he can do,” Rael said. “A lot of guys have one shot and that’s it. But Harrison can go to another shot if something isn’t working. Harrison can do number of shots, and he’s pretty lethal in that regard. … Obviously we hope Harrison goes to state this year. There’s no reason to think why he can’t.”
Zhang said it took a lot of practice to hone his vast arsenal of shots.
“I started wrestling in the fifth grade, and I continued practicing shots many times a day,” he said. “I wanted to perfect the speed and technique of every shot, which brings me to where I’m at today. Now I’m really comfortable with multiple different shots, and that really helps me in matches.”
Zhang entered the week ranked eighth in the section at 138 pounds. He’ll either stay at 138 or move down a class to 132 by the end of the regular season. Zhang said the highlight of his career so far was a 10-5 quarterfinal victory over Seth Goyal, the No. 2 seed at 132 pounds in last year’s CCS Championships.
Even though Zhang lost his final three matches to place sixth, the quarterfinal win was a nice breakthrough.
“That moment was really nice because it was an underdog moment,” he said. “That match put me in a really good position to place. I learned a lot from last year, and I feel like all the experience I’ve gained will be to my advantage. If I could win CCS, that would really be great.”
Zhang has three older brothers, all of whom graduated from Sobrato High. They also either graduated from Cal Poly or are currently enrolled at the university in San Luis Obispo. They all played football at Sobrato, and Zhang has followed in their footsteps. Zhang had a solid season playing receiver and safety for Sobrato, which ended up winning the BVAL’s West Valley Division.
Zhang said growing up with three older brothers motivated him to improve and develop a passion for both football and wrestling. Zhang’s oldest brother, Zach, had a particularly strong influence oh him. Zack is 6 years older than Harrison, who grew up watching Zach’s football games and wrestling matches.
“Seeing my brothers wrestle and other older wrestlers made me want to be at their level one day, too,” he said. “They taught me well.”
In Zhang’s first-ever tournament as a fifth grader, he lost his first two matches. Instead of feeling defeated, however, Zhang grew stronger from the experience.
“It made me want to stick with wrestling and get better,” he said.
And that’s exactly what Zhang has done.
