John Glenn Wrestling: A strong Winning Enriquez Family Tradition
The school has CIF awards and championships, along with league titles. (Photos by Keith Durflinger)
NORWALK - A winning tradition in wrestling has been established at John Glenn High School with numerous family ties to the titles.
It all starts with coach Monico Enriquez.
“I feel real good about that,” said Enriquez, when asked about the tradition on campus with wrestling. “The kids are working really hard. They spend a lot of time in the summer and spring and do a lot of year-round wrestling. So it’s good to see that our hard work is paying off.”
As a high school wrestler, Enriquez took fourth at CIF Individuals in 1994 and was the 1995 CIF Individual Champion.Those placings qualified Enriquez for the CIF Masters tournament where he placed second at the Masters in 1995. As a result he qualified for the State tournament; a tournament widely considered one of the premier high school wrestling tournaments in the nation.
He continued wrestling after high school for East Los Angeles College. During his time at ELAC, he earned All-Conference honors and was a two-time state place winner.
“The knowledge and experience I gained helped prepare me for the next phase of my wrestling career – coaching,” Enriquez said..
He started his coaching career at John Glenn High school from 1999-2004, where he was the assistant coach for five years. After that Enriquez spent the next fourteen years as a Head Coach - 12 years at John Glenn and two years at Downey High School.
“I am proud of the hard work by myself, my staff, and my wrestlers have put into building these successful programs,” he said.
Enriquez has been honored to coach four CIF Championship teams, nine league championships, and 46 CIF individual placers. This work was rewarded with nine CIF Individual Champions, 10 State Qualifiers, one Masters Champion, two state placers, and one National placer.
These statistics did not go unnoticed in the wrestling community. “It has been my honor to receive the Press Telegram Coach of the Year for 2007, 2009, 2010, and 2011,” he added. “I am humbled by this success because I know that, while wrestling seems like an individual sport, success like this can only come from the hard work and dedication of all those who have been part of the wrestling programs over the years. From those who help run tournaments and snack bars, to wrestlers whose sweat turned into realized goals, to selfless time commitment from my assistant coaches.
“John Glenn is blessed to have Coach Monico and his entire staff coach our boys wrestling program,” JG Athletic Director Linda Parra said. “It is a program built on tradition, hard work, excellence and pride. This pride comes from the fact that many of our coaches on staff are John Glenn Alumni, and they were all successful wrestlers. Because of this, coaching at John Glenn is very meaningful to them. They have an opportunity to give back to the community that they grew up in, by teaching the values of hard work, discipline, and teamwork to kids through the sport of wrestling.
“I am constantly amazed at how Monico and his coaching staff are able to take a kid who has never wrestled before and coach them up to become successful wrestlers. They never turn kids away and take so much pride in teaching their sport. I have so much respect for how hard the athletes work in practice. The evidence of all their hard work is demonstrated by the achievements of the wrestling program."
“Things are going good, on the up right now,” Enriquez said. “We’ve won league two years in a row and we’ve won CIF last year.”
Family and hard work has brought the program closer together.
“It took a lot of hard work,” Monico said. “A lot of team bonding, just a lot of time on the mat. Just making sure our guys are taking care of business in the classroom and staying together as a team and family. It all played out pretty good.”
What the wrestlers said:
Isaiah Saavedra
Weight: 113
Q: What do you think about your wrestling team and where do you think you are going?A: Our wrestling team is amazing. I like the people. We've really built like a good family here. My wrestling career I hope to take it to college, to get scholarships and advance in wrestling in many ways. Q: What do you see in the future for your wrestling team?
A: I see getting another win in CIF duals and hopefully keeping that streak for a long time.”
Q: What is the key for this team to be good?A: “Dedication, motivation, staying strong and watching your weight.”
Hector Ramirez
Weight: 126
Q: Have you had success?A: Oh yea. I’ve had a lot of failures when I was younger. I know how to push through that.
Q: What do you see in the future for your team. Besides Covid, because you are going to have to do some creative work and practices, how do you plan to get past that and build on your program?
A: “First things first. Hopefully we are allowed to participate and be able to get past this Covid. I think that once we get the green light that we can train and practice. We will be as safe as we can. And try to follow as many guidelines as possible and just work hard in other ways with maybe less contact until it’s allowed to for this school to continue doing what we do. It's going to be kind of hard because wrestling is a contact sport. I just hope we get cleared, find a vaccine and let us do what we do. It’s kind of important that we find that vaccine.”
Q: What do you see as your goal for this next year?A: “My goal this next year is to be a CIF Champion and place in state. Place in the top five in the States.”
Q: What do you think is the key for your team to do well? A: “The key for my team to do well is to get a better bond. This past year I feel like we kinda lacked that a little bit. I know this your its going to get better and we’re going to push though and we are going to be CIF Champions.”
Mauricio Venegas
Weight: 126
Q: What is your goal for this year?
A: For this year, to wrestle again. And then to become a champion again.
Q: What do you mean to wrestle again?
A: Because of the pandemic I was hoping we can wrestle again. I know for sure I’m coming back if it does start up again.”
Q: What is your key to your success?
A: “Just to have a great mind, clear everything out and have focus on wrestling.”
Q: What was your toughest match and how did you overcome that?
A: “My toughest match was against the Mayfair kid. He kept like throwing me over. And I kept thinking to myself ‘Why do I let this happen? I’m not going to let this happen. And I just get all the energy out and overcome it and take him down.”
Q: What do you think about your coaches and how they’ve been bringing this program up?
A: They are the best. They always bring the best for us and they always do the best thing that they want us to do.”
Assistant coach Juan Enriquez graduated from John Glenn in 2007. He was a CIF Individual Champion, placed seventh in Masters and was a state qualifier. He also wrestled for Cerritos college and was a two-time All-American and placed second and third in state and was a wrestler for Great Falls Montana.
Assistant coach Martin Gevorkian is a Downey alumnus and Monico Enriquez coached him at East Los Angeles College.
All in the family continues with Monico’s younger brother, Adrian Enriquez, who graduated in 2000 and was a two-CIF placer and a CIF individual champion.
The Coaches:
Ramirez, who is looking to have a great senior year, is a three-time CIF placer.