Submitted photo – The Del Norte seniors
A group of talented Del Norte senior wrestlers appear ready to close out their high school careers with a bang in the coming weeks.
The Warriors will go into next month’s league championships as favorites to repeat as boys team champions and carry on a recent tradition that has seen them dominate league opposition for the past several years.
Many of the senior standouts — including defending North Coast Section champions Colton Schaad and Curtis Bartley — will be expected to challenge for an individual league title and more in February, before they close out their high school careers and move on to the next chapters in their lives.
Last week, before a dual match against Eureka in Crescent City, the Warriors honored their seniors.
All eight of them would go on to win their individual matches that night, as they all continue to build towards the upcoming league and North Coast Section championships.
More importantly, however, all eight look likely to make big contributions to the world long after their time on the mats.
In addition to Schaad and Bartley, the class also includes James Gensaw Jr., Alex Osborne. Ben Weiland, Braydan Johnson, Brandon Starcher and Aaron Burger.
Gensaw, who has a GPA of 3.75, has already committed his future to the Cal Poly Humboldt wrestling team and plans to become a physical therapist.
Bartley also will wrestle at he next level and has committed to to North Idaho Junior College with plans on transferring to a Division-I university after his time there.
Schaad, who has a 4.0 GPA and was a recent recipient of the prestigious Army Reserve National Scholar Athlete Award for the second time, also plans on continuing his career on the college mats, although he is still deciding on which school to attend after graduation.
As you would expect for a defending NCS champion, the senior standout has received plenty of interest but wants the best opportunity for his athletic and academic ambitions and plans to become a civil engineer.
Submitted photo – James Gensaw, Jr., Curtis Bartley, Braydan Johnson, Alex Osborne and Colton Schaad have been wrestling together for much of the past decade.
Osborne, who has a 3.5 GPA, also plans to wrestle in college and also is still weighing his options, with plans on becoming an athletic trainer.
Weiland, meanwhile, plans on becoming a fire fighter after high school, while Johnson is looking to attend a trade school and become an electrician
Starcher says he will join the Air Force after graduation, and Burger, who has a 3.0 GPA, plans to join the Marines and eventually become a fire fighter.
Five of the hard-working and ambitious class — Gensaw, Bartley, Johnson, Osborne and Schaad — have been competing together on the mats for much of the past decade, having also come through the Del Norte youth program.
All eight seniors and their teammates continued to impress earlier this week with league dual match wins over Hoopa.
The Del Norte girls won 24-12 and the boys won 72-12.
The Del Norte boys won 12 of their 14 matches, including pins by Gensaw, Weiland, Schaad, Johnson and Burger.
Osborne, Bartley, Trevan Donahue, CJ Norris, Gustavo Ochoa, Coulter Chilcott and Blake Owen all won by forfeit.
Andee Lewis (forfeit) and Antonio Correa (pin) each won for Hoopa.
In the girls match, Golden Rule (forfeit), Karlye Dodson (pin), Bailey Fox (forfeit) and Aubry Dodson (forfeit) all won for Del Norte, while Lewis (fall) and Allison Mace (forfeit) each won for Hoopa.
The league championships will take place on Feb. 15.
