New Sonoma Valley High wrestling Coach Nico Saldana inherited a team that includes five wrestlers who qualified for the North Coast Section meet last year.
One, senior Noah Bartolome, finished fourth in the 182-pound class at NCS, and the top three went to the state meet in Bakersfield.
Others who went to NCS include junior Nick Biaggi and sophomores Tyler Winslow, Ryan Sherwood and Macklyn Liss.
Even though this is only his second year of teaching at Sonoma Valley High, Saldana has deep roots in the Valley. He started wrestling at Altimira and continued when he moved on to Sonoma Valley High where he graduated in 1996. Along the way, he was in club wrestling under Roger Winslow, and wrestled under Deets Winslow’s tutelage while he was at SVHS. And this year, he’s coaching Roger’s grandson and Deets’ son, Tyler.
After graduating from SVHS, Saldana wrestled for a year at SRJC and a year at Cal-State Fullerton, and coached for two years at a high school in LA and was an assistant coach for five years at Windsor High School.
“I want kids to enjoy the sport,” he said. “Learning is more important than winning, but winning is a by-product of learning and having fun.”
The Dragons have about four or five wrestlers who are new to the sport, but some of the freshmen wrestled in junior high. One of the things Saldana has done is restart the club wrestling program for wrestlers from 6 years old through high school.
“We have a great group of freshmen,” Saldana said. “Junior high wrestling is such a benefit.”
While Saldana and the assistant coaches try to make it fun, he said they can’t hide the wrestlers from how physically and emotionally tough the sport is.
While he has Bartolome wrestling at 182 pounds and Winslow at 195, the Dragons are missing a couple of weight classes – most notable heavyweight.
“We look pretty good in the middleweights with Andrew Beatty, Ryan Sherwood and Macklyn Liss,” he said. “We’ll have some of the freshmen fill in some of the lower weights.”
Saldana said his assistant coaches – John Bartolome, Eddie Hernandez and Scooter McAllister – have been working hard with the kids. “You can’t run and grow a program without good assistants,” he said.
The grapplers will see their first action this coming Saturday, Dec. 10, at the San Marin Green and Gold Tournament.
Saldana said Healdsburg is the perennially the top team in the Sonoma County League and Petaluma is no slouch either. Sonoma opens its league schedule when Petaluma visits on Wednesday, Jan. 4, and then Piner visits the following Wednesday, Jan. 11. The Dragons will host the Deets Winslow Memorial Tournament on Saturday, Jan. 14.
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