Story by Alex Doan
“He’s one of the hardest working kids I have ever coach,” stated assistant coach Dennis Piramo about Andrew Morgan (’15) after he placed seventh in the 152 pounds weight class at the 2014 CIF State Boys Wrestling Championships last Saturday.
Morgan is one of those athletes who have the natural ability to perform. He has been wrestling for five years since he joined the FV Kid’ s Club Wrestling and has now achieved a state title – and he’s only in his junior year of high school.
Morgan began his interest and training for the wrestling after encouragement from his older brother who knew some of the members of the FV team and figured Morgan would be good at it. After trying it out for the first time, Morgan knew he loved it.
He began his high school wrestling career in and out of varsity for FVHS but didn’t wrestle for Varsity Sunset League Finals in his freshmen year. He continued on the varsity track for the next two years and placed first and third in the Cossareck Classic and the Five Counties Tournament, respectively.This year, Morgan placed first in both Sunset League Finals and CIF Individuals and fifth in the Masters Meet.
After placing fifth in Masters, Morgan qualified for the State Meet. He, along with four others, made it to State, the most wrestlers that FVHS has sent since 1977. This year’s team was young but strong, with three out the four wrestlers being juniors. Wrestlers included Bryant Vasquez (‘14), Ben Madrid (‘15), and Stone Escobedo (‘15). Morgan wrestled hard and ended up placing seventh out of all State qualifiers in his weight class. The team placed fortieth out of 256 schools and won 12 matches total.
“We are a loaded junior team so I can’t wait to see what next year holds in store for us,” said Morgan about his team members at the state meet.
Morgan plans to wrestle at the college level. While he does not have his sights set on any particular school, he aims to wrestle for a Division 1 college.
Next year, Morgan plans to come back to the State Meet stronger and become the next state champion for his weight class.
“Getting on that podium, this year, [has made me] want to be the best now,” said Morgan. “Next year I want to be number one.”
