Pirates boys and girls teams each defeat Nipomo is final dual matches of the season
It’s not often you see the high-school wrestling coach handing out cookies to his wrestlers after a hard-fought couple of duals, but last week there was Sean Yamasaki, in his first season heading the Pirates program, distributing the baked goodies Jan. 28 after his boys and girls teams defeated Nipomo on their respective Senior Nights.
“My mom used to do that with me,” he said. “Back when I was in high school and wrestled, and even in college, she would come to the dual matches and always have a big batch of cookies for everyone. So, I’m continuing that.”
The days of Yamasaki wrestling competitively are actually not that long ago. He was hired by SYHS last summer shortly after graduating from San Francisco State with a degree in kinesiology with Cum Laude honors. He is also a 2020 graduate of Dos Pueblos High School in Goleta.
At SFSU, an NCAA Division II school, Yamasaki was named team captain and finished in sixth place at NCAA Super Region 6 tournament as well as third in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation conference tournament. At DPHS, he finished his high school career as one of only three wrestlers in Channel League history to be a four-time league champion. He was also a three-time CIF Southern Section top 10 competitor.
And now, he is quickly transitioning from a student/athlete to a teacher on the wrestling match.
“It’s been a learning experience for me, I actually look like one of the students here, so it’s not always easy to tell my wrestlers ‘hey, you have to listen to me,” he said with a laugh.
Also, Yamasaki is learning how to take his knowledge and convey it to his athletes.
“When things come natural for me, it’s hard to think about and break it down to get them to understand the generic movements and how I can get them to understand what they’re supposed to be doing,” he said. “One thing I’m trying to do is think of key words to make them understand and finding terminology that clicks with them.”
If the boys and girls dual meets against Nipomo are any indication he seems to be making progress. The Pirate girls defeated the Titans 18-12 in a result that came down to the last match, and the boys dominated Nipomo to the tune of a 58-12 final score.
In the girls match, the Pirates had built a slim 15-12 lead thanks to pins from Willa Hansen at 120 lbs. and Patricia Silva at 155, as well as a decision by Dallana Margarito at 145.
The final girls match, at 170, pitted SYHS’s Andrea Garcia against Nipomo’s Anna Benitez. Garcia built up an 11-4 lead with less than two minutes left in the final period when Benitez was able to get the upper hand and tried to get Garcia’s shoulders to the mat for a pin that would have given the Titans the dual-match win. However, Garcia was able to hold off the pin attempt until time ran out and gain the decision and clinch it for the Pirates.
The boys match had no such suspense. The Pirates got pins from Cole Arrellano (113), Jake Montejano (120), Luke Elliott (132), Carter Franson (150), and Anthony Herrera (215), as well as major decisions from Curren Lane (144) and Neil Cunningham (157).
Three days after the Nipomo matches, the Pirates sent nine wrestlers to the CCAA League Finals in San Luis Obispo, with six placing in their weight classes.
For the girls, Willa Hansen placed sixth at 117, Dallana Margarito second at 147, and Andrea Garcia second at 172. For the boys, Luke Kruse placed third in 146, Jonathon Rodriguez second at 159, and Jack Kohne third at 167.
SYHS will compete in the CIF Team Tournament in Morro Bay this weekend, Feb. 6-7, and the weekend after, Feb. 13-14, will be the CIF tournaments in Hanford (Sierra Pacific High School, girls) and Fresno (Edison High, boys), where competitors hope to move on to the subsequent CIF Masters and State tournaments.
