‘Atmosphere is awesome’: Buchanan and Poway meet on the wrestling mat outdoors
Football and track and field didn’t hold center stage at Buchanan High’s Veterans Memorial Stadium.
Instead, it was wrestling that was held at the outdoor venue under a pleasant sunny weather, and in front of at least over 500 fans that watched beginning at noon Saturday with junior varsity, followed by varsity.
The mat was placed on the track for fans to see the up close battle between Buchanan and Poway, ranked Nos. 1 and 2, respectively according to The California Wrestler. The Bears won the match, 50-9.
The Buchanan wrestlers entered through the Bears’ inflatable tunnel with a fog machine on each side.
Buchanan coach Troy Tirapelle credited athletic director James Gambrell for the idea.
“He likes trying to be like cutting edge, innovative kind of in the front of things,” Tirapelle said. “We do a big deal with Clovis every year and we always try to do something when, whoever is hosting to try to one-up each other, and Poway called and said they’d like to be a part of it. ...They were pumped.”
For wrestlers like Michael Gioffre and Caden Rodgers, they said they enjoyed wrestling outdoors.
Both won their respective matches.
“I’m just thankful our athletic director Gambrell and our coaches can put it together,” Gioffre said. “It’s definitely a different feeling, it’s way different wrestling out here and it’s been fun. The atmosphere is awesome and it’s definitely different, and it’s pretty fun.”
Said Rodgers: “It’s a different feel on the mat than it would be on a hard gym floor. I’d rather be inside, I mean, having this stage is awesome, but I like being inside under a roof or not. It’s definitely different. We’ve never done it before, but honestly it’s great to have this big crowd our there, give us motivation to put on a show for them.”
This story was originally published February 5, 2022 at 8:47 PM.
