All attention is on the mat lit by a spotlight in the darkened Hemet HIgh gym. BOB PRATTE/STAFF PHOTO

Heavy metal music blared. The Hemet High gym darkened.

A lowered spotlight lit up the wrestling mat and the Bulldog wrestlers, never losing their serious expressions, filed out for warmup drills

The appreciative crowd of wrestling fans roared. Students, teachers, wrestlers’ relatives and fans of the sport stomped their feet. The start of the Wednesday, Jan. 22 match with powerful Citrus Hill High from Perris was minutes away.

A tall, Bulldog-red curtain was drawn across the gym to create a small wrestling arena. The mats were up close to the stands on one side. The teams sat on their respective sides of the mats in folding chairs. Scorekeepers and the press filled the fourth side.

 

 

Hemet High wrestlers warm up before the gym goes dark. BOB PRATTE/STAFF PHOTO

Cheerleaders lined the grandstand edge of the mat.

With the bright spotlight castling wrestler shadows, one of the San Jacinto Valley’s best shows, ranking with the famous play “Ramona” and Mt. San Jacinto College men’s basketball games, was about to begin. It was a reprise of long-held tradition in Hemet.

Taking in the spectacle before the start of the key match , Citrus Hill Coach Scott Schumm said he was glad to visit Hemet High. It was the first time in the season that his team competed in a Riverside County gym that shines an overhead spotlight on the mat. He loved the atmosphere.

“My kids are excited to wrestle with a spotlight and a large crowd,” he said over the roar in the gym. “Hemet has a great tradition of wrestling.”

The match began. Julius Reyes, Hemet’s head coach who was a state champion for the Bulldogs in 1993, urged his wrestlers on.

Alumni wrestlers like match announcer J.J. Willerford,  Ralph Montoya, who coached the Bulldogs in the past, and Hemet Youth Wrestling coaches Kenny Kinzler and Leo Peralta were there to lend enthusiastic support.

The spotlight added to the high intensity of each match. It was the effect Hemet High wrestlers wanted when they raised money in the 1980s to buy the school’s first spotlight.

“We wanted to wrestle under the light, like a championship fighting event, to add interest to our sport, and place the focus on each individual match, rather than everything and everybody else around it,” wrote Hemet High wrestling alum Matt Wiley in a Facebook message from Thailand, where he now lives.

“It made it more exciting, and added a sense of importance to each weight class.”

Wiley wrestled for legendary Hemet High Coach Hap Lovell during the late 1980s. Teammate Brad Font told teammates at the time about how much he loved the atmosphere of wrestling under a spotlight in Alaska.

Wrestling alum Eric Nord, who graduated in 1989, said they collected about $500 to buy the light through a variety of fundraisers. He said the light went on his junior year.

One fundraising technique, employed by Matt Wiley, Nord recalled, was especially fun.

“He would get people to pay money for him to do stunts,” said Nord, who now is a teacher at Diamond Valley Middle School.

“He would do things like eat goldfish.”

Coach Reyes said he was glad the team started the spotlight tradition. He said it is a big part of presenting an entertaining match. He said with the rest of the gym dark, fans are not distracted from the bouts. All focus is on the two wrestlers competing.

“It creates the atmosphere,” he said. “The light goes on and there are not many distractions. The wrestlers get excited about it.”

The match was close with both teams scoring points for falls and pins. I was impressed with fitness level of the wrestlers on both teams, the intensity of the matches, the cheers from the crowd and the respect wrestlers had for their opponents and their coaches.

I didn’t see tantrums after losses. I didn’t hear trash talking. I did see disciplined kids performing at a high level.

Unfortunately for this year’s strong Hemet High team, which had been unbeaten in Mountain Pass League competition, Citrus Hill won key upper-weight matches.

Citrus Hill returned home victorious and remained undefeated in league matches.
Though the Hemet High wrestlers were disappointed, the Bulldogs’ last home match of the season was great to see.

Kevin Pelligrini, a Citrus Hill wrestler who won his match in the 113-pound class, paid Hemet High a compliment. He was happy to spend the evening in Hemet. So much for home-match advantage.

“The atmosphere is a lot more energized than all the other gyms,” he said. “I like it. This is wrestling atmosphere. This is good competition.”

Contact Bob Pratte at 951-368-9078 or [email protected]