The Bakersfield College men’s wrestling team is ready with a young team this season, and coach Bill Kalivas recognizes the adversity that the team will face.
“We probably have a third of our team [that] doesn’t have very much wrestling experience,” he said.
“For this year, practices have been hit and miss. We have so many people still applying their high school antics. They don’t realize until they actually compete – that you’re going to have to compete against people that are committed and determined.”
BC returnees include Vince Rivera, Brad Carls, Alvaro Zermeno and Adolfo Rojo. The new wrestlers have had improper training from past coaches or have little experience, according to Kalivas.
Kalivas is pleased with the amount of wrestlers this semester but understands the state’s recent college budget cuts.
“We have a big group, we probably have 24, 25 solid. Travel-wise, we’ll probably be a little down this year because of the break in finances.” Kalivas added about cutting costs,
“Almost all the teams in the state, including ourselves. We’re trying to be as fiscally prudent as we can be. We cut way back on our schedule, we’re going to have to cut back on our travel squad – probably not take as many people as we have in the past and be more committed that way. It’s a tough time. It’s made it difficult on a lot of different levels.”
Kalivas talked about how commitment in junior college athletics is crucial.
“Unless you’re committed as a student, you’re not going to be able to compete and we get a lot of people coming last minute and we can’t help them because they procrastinated,” he said.
“We recognize that junior college athletics is a different animal – they have other requirements: jobs, school, other personal issues that have to deal with it. We try as much as possible to work with them in confides of the system. But on the same token, we have to have committed people.”
Kalivas reflected on past years to this season. “Looking at how our team is going to be, we have some good balance this year. We have some weak spots like we’ve always had in the past. Since probably 2005, [I think] that we’ve haven’t been solid at every weight class. I’d probably say by the time December rolls around, that eight of our 10 are going to be very solid and we’ll see if we can strengthen out line up so that we have 10 representatives qualify to the state meet.”
Kalivas expressed once again, despite flaws, he’s happy with the turnout.
“On the whole, we’re pleased with the talent level we have,” said Kalivas.
The rest of the roster is as follows: Marc Collier, Martin Cueto, John Dickerson, Jason Hail, Antonio Hernandez, Bryce Horton, Sean Martin, Evan Mcbride, Antonio Morales, Salvador Raya, Jose Santos, Frank Sepuluveda, Alexis Smith, James Smith Li, Nicholas Sotelo and Zach Weldon.
The men’s wrestling season kicks off Sept. 26 at home for BC duals.