story and photos by: Jacob Perez
Wrestling is a majestic sport. Its been around since forever. Wrestling is a combat sport involving throws, technique, and takedowns. Although it can be mistaken for entertainment, real wrestling is a sport of dedication and hard work, and that’s how it’s taken at Skyline.
Skyline wrestlers, like any other athletes, work extremely hard and sometimes have to work against their teammates like Isaiah Dean did last year. Dean, a senior JV wrestler, met up against sophomore Varsity wrestler, Alek Ivan Veloz, in the 126-weight class city final. Both wrestled with passion, but in the end, experience prevailed and Veloz won first place.
Even though wrestling season hasn’t started, wrestlers are already working. Practice is from 4:30 to 6:00 every day after school. Since there was a big wave of people interested in wrestling, the head coach, Larry Karl, who has been the Skyline Wrestling Coach for 43 years and is a former Skyline teacher, and his assistant coach, Hasper Ree, who is a Skyline teacher, have started the practice year off easily. With the passing of time, the rookies have slowly been moving up to more wrestling and now most of them know enough to get on the mat.
With the help of experienced wrestlers, Coach Karl’s knowledge of the sport, and the assistance of former Skyline wrestlers that come to help from time to time, the rookies will one day become the masters and help other rookies out. This is a “to-be” fact as it has happened several times over the years.
The Skyline’s Boys Wrestling Team has won District 31 times out of 43.
“We are the only school in the district that has this,” aid coach Karl to the rookies their first day of practice and proceeded to say that he expected much from them.
But not only has the boys team been successful over the years, but the girls team has also been on fire since 2003, the first year Lady Raiders were allowed to wrestle. They have won 14 District titles ever since and only lost once which was last year, when they finished second.
The wrestling team is one of the most successful sports at Skyline with too many medals to even count and more than 300 trophies. It has also gotten many former students’ scholarship and college opportunities. The trophies and medals divide into different categories, starting from JV, to Varsity, and even the coach has got in on it. One of the big awards that Skyline wrestling received last year was “Coach of the Year.”
When coach Karl acquired this award, he said “It shows that the other coaches respect me.” Coach Karl has been nominated and won several awards such as the “Texas High School Wrestling Coach Hall of Fame,” “National Wrestling Hall of Fame” and was placed in the Woodrow Wilson High School Hall of Fame.
A lot of coaches from the other schools were surprised at how good Skyline did but like coach Karl says, “Without effort, you won’t accomplish anything.”
Although wrestling is a really underrated sport in Texas, it is not taken for granted at Skyline as they announced our city win on Skynet last year.
The wrestling captain, Fidel Tinajero, senior, was also interviewed recently and had some pretty good things to say about his team and a story of his own. When he was asked who got him interested in wrestling he said that his older sister, Alejandra Tinajero, former North Dallas High School wrestler, was the first person in his family to wrestle and the root of his love for wrestling.
Although he was interested in wrestling, he didn’t join the wrestling team like the rest of the athletes at the beginning of the school year but instead he joined until the beginning of the season which is mid-November his freshman year due to being involved in other school activities.
“I have a lot of pride and I’m very proud of how many accomplishments we’ve acquired throughout the years,” Fidel said when asked how he felt about the Skyline’s Wrestling Team.
“Coach Karl is a very old and funny wise man. He has a lot to say as far as wisdom and has a lot of stories, he was at the Vietnam war and he used to be a history teacher at Skyline until last year.”
Fidel Tinajero
Fidel also added that coach Karl has supported him and the team in a lot of ways, and that coach Karl has spent about forty-two years being the Skyline’s Head Wrestling Coach. Fidel has been mentored by some of the best wrestlers in DISD schools such as Brian Benitez,who wasn’t only a teacher, but also a friend.
He also mentioned María Guadalupe Vidales, a Skyline alumni, who is one of the people who most influenced him in this sport. Vidales is the only state champion from Skyline that he is aware of and is currently attending college on a full-ride wrestling scholarship.
When asked what he would say to people who want to join the sport and Fidel said,“It is difficult for me to tell people that it is an easy sport because it’s not. It’s very competitive and especially Skyline because we aren’t with the rest of DISD.”
The Skyline Tribune 