Submitted photos – The Del Norte girls had a big showing at the recent Brittney David tournament.
The Del Norte Warriors were expected to be the team to beat in H-DNL wrestling this season and so far there’s no reason to doubt that.
But more impressively, this is a program that is also making some serious noise beyond the Redwood Curtain and coming off one of its strongest performances of the season at the recent Lou Bronson tournament at Liberty High School.
Both the boys and girls teams turned in strong performances — the girls competed at the Brittney David tournament, also at Liberty — as they get set for the league dual meet season, which begins this week.
The Del Norte boys placed a very impressive third overall out of 68 teams with nine of their 11 wrestlers reaching at least the quarterfinals and eight of them placing, which was the program,’s best-ever showing at the prestigious two-day tournament.
All five Del Norte girls who travelled also had impressive showings, with four of them placing in the top eight and leading the team to a 17th-place finish out of 64 teams.
“We had a good solid tournament,” head coach Clinton Schaad said. “We placed third out of 68 teams. It’s hard to be upset with that.”
The coach admitted, however, that his team is still a work in progress and suggested they were happy with the performance but not satisfied.
Curtis Bartley continued to lead the way for the boys and placed second overall at 132 pounds, with his first loss of the season coming in the championship.
“It was good,” Schaad said. “We got to see him make some mistakes and we’ll work on it and that won’t happen again.”
Outstanding freshman Chuls Bates also continued to impress and placed third at 106, with his only loss of the day coming against a section placer from last year.
Submitted photo – The Del Norte boys at the Lou Bronson tournament last week.
The most pleasant surprise of the day for Del Norte was sophomore Braden Johnson at 182, who was filling in for the absent Rey Martinez and placed a very impressive fourth.
“Braden had a fantastic tournament,” his head coach said. “We were really happy to see that.”
Sophomore Colton Schaad also had a good tournament as he continues his strong start to the season, placing fifth at 160.
“He’s wrestling tough right now,” Clinton Schaad said.
Eric Stansberry also had a good tournament and placed sixth in a deep 126-pound bracket that featured several state contenders, while Jase Mintonye placed sixth at 195.
“It’s a new weight class for Jace,” said the head coach, who added “he has a huge upside.”
Isaac Lopez also placed seventh at 138 and had “a good solid tournament,” according to Clinton Schaad, while Alex Osborne placed seventh at 113 despite battling sickness.
The Del Norte boys should continue to get even better with the impending return of senior RJ Loftin, who has been battling injury early in the season and is expected to provide a boost with his return.
For the girls, both Adenne Schaad and Karlye Dodson both placed fourth in their brackets last week, while Channey Schaad won the consolation championship after battling back from an opening loss to win four straight matches.
Autumn Thompson also placed sixth, while Tescha Gensaw was eighth, making for a solid overall team performance with all five girls making some noise.
“It’s a small squad,” the head coach said. “They may be small in numbers, but their effort is big.”
The Warriors will host McKinleyville and Ferndale in a dual meet on Friday night, before making a team-bonding trip to take in a Division-I collegiate dual meet at Oregon State on Saturday.
“The kids are wrestling real well right now and they’re working hard,” the head coach said. “We’re happy, not satisfied.”
