This year, there is a new wrestling program for the Milpitas middle schools, Rancho and Russell, which is being run by the MHS wrestling team, according to wrestling Coach Roberto Clemente. The program officially started on Oct. 1 and practices run throughout October, he explained. The program is meant to teach middle schoolers how to wrestle and allow them to compete in a dual meet on Nov. 1, Clemente added.
Assistant coaches of the MHS wrestling team are serving as coaches in the program, and MHS wrestlers are junior coaches, Clemente said. The assistant coaches are involved with the community, with many being parents or business owners in Milpitas, he added.
“We have so many people from the community volunteering their time to help make this happen, and so the goal is to keep inviting the community to help us grow this program,” Clemente said. “This is a real, big community event. Right from the admin of both middle schools to the school board president to the admin here at the high school, and all of these parents and community members are making this happen.”
A goal for the middle school wrestling program is to get the program big enough so that Rancho and Russell can have their own wrestling teams with their own coaches and join a league, Clemente said.
“I’m a big believer in start small, build momentum, build size, and make it long lasting,” Clemente said. “My goal is to, at some point, get it big enough to where Rancho has its own coach, Russell has its own coach, and they have healthy programs, and I at the high school can support both of them. I don’t think it’s sustainable for me to just do all three for longer than several years.”
The program receives no funding, so Clemente is covering the cost of running the program he said. Next year, he wants to start a fundraiser in the hopes that the program will pay for itself, he said.
“The facilities are getting donated because it’s a middle school program,” Clemente said. “All my coaches are volunteering their time to help start this program. I’m volunteering my time to help start the program. When we move the mats, I’m going to go pay for a U-Haul to move the mats to Rancho and move them back here to the high school. I am paying for t-shirts for the kids to get so that they can have a team uniform.”
Senior Collin Bui, a junior coach for the program, enjoyed seeing the middle school students step out of their comfort zone, he said. A lot of the students who attend the program have never done a sport before, he added.
“I could sense that a lot of kids were nervous,” Bui said. “They were unsure about doing the moves. Even when I was showing them, they were shy and timid. But as the practice progressed, I think they began to open up a little bit more, became more comfortable talking to one another and with the coaches in general.”
Senior Pratham Gajjar, captain of the wrestling team, notes that there has been a lot of improvement among the 40 students..
“This middle schooler was very passionate,” Gajjar said. “We went to this tournament, and her name is Mila. She was very nervous at first, and as she went through the tournament, she was getting more comfortable with wrestling in front of a crowd. And I was really proud of her, because in the end, she liked it. She was extremely comfortable with everything.”
Clemente said he wanted to create opportunities for all kids in Milpitas to wrestle. His own daughter wrestled in second grade, so he wanted other kids to start young, he added.
“It’s a very tough sport that takes a lot, and it’s a great sport that teaches a lot about hard work, good work ethic,” Clemente said. “It teaches about just overall resilience. There’s a lot of discipline that goes with it, and a lot of times, kids need a sport that’s this tough.
In the future, Clemente says that he would like to see more of an integration of wrestling in MUSD, he said. He would also like to see wrestling at MHS grow to create a healthy community of wrestling, he added.
“I would like to see elementary schools offering wrestling for kids, especially with kids that really need that physical attention, or if they have to get their energy out,” Clemente said. “I would like to see two healthy programs at both middle schools, where it’s a yearly program that each middle school has.”
Clemente says that people should take risks whenever they have an opportunity, whether it be in arts or sports, and do the best they can, he said.
“Challenge yourself, do things that are out of your comfort zone,” Clemente said. “And it doesn’t necessarily have to be wrestling. I always tell kids, go do things that you have thought about doing but are too afraid to do.”
