Graphic made by Anissia White

On the evening of November 19th, West High boy’s JV and varsity wrestling teams got their first taste of competition for the 2025-26 season. In a scrimmage against James Logan High School of Union City, we saw 11 varsity matches and 8 JV matches. Although they faced a loss that night, the scrimmage was a crucial point of reflection for the team to recognize their strengths and weaknesses and predict how the rest of the season will go.

When asked how he thought the scrimmage went, head coach Roy Bravo recognizes the usefulness of the experience for his wrestlers. “I think the scrimmage went great… a lot of our wrestlers got a lot of good experience of knowing what they need to work on… They get to see where they’re at against a good quality competition.” Team captain Phoenix Lopez adds, “As a team it was good because a lot of our wrestlers got to… get experience before the actual season started.” The scrimmage allowed the team to return to the drawing board and build on the things that may be lacking.

As far as improvements that can be made, both admit that conditioning is the limiting factor for the team. Lopez explains how newer wrestlers tended to stay too close to their opponent when in neutral position and continues, “…just focusing on our conditioning a lot more.” Bravo adds about the importance of match awareness also, “I know that our conditioning needs to improve with many of the wrestlers…and understanding match score and strategy in real time.” He thinks back to how sometimes wrestlers would give up a point when time was short and hopes to prevent this from happening in future matches.

Despite obstacles, the team’s determination and utilization of the things they’ve learned showed through. Bravo commends them by saying, “The team did really well in competing…even though some of them were losing… they didn’t just give up… they kept trying to fight…” Lopez also recognizes their efforts, “…the team did well at applying what we worked on in practice… even though we didn’t get the outcome we wanted, we still showed that we learned and came back better than last year.”

Going against another league winning team allowed for West wrestlers to compare and reflect before the rest of the season and especially before league duels. While skill is inevitably built over time, the obvious determination and desire to win is what will allow West High’s wrestling team to continue to dominate the league and hopefully bring home the title for the second year in a row. For any further information follow the team @whswolfpackwrestling or see Coach Bravo in MS12.