By William Joseph Borders IV ’16
THE ROUNDUP
Every Monday and Wednesday the AMDG Wrestling Club meets after school in the wrestling room to improve their skills and prepare for future matches.
“People say wrestling is like a lifestyle, it’s just something you can’t stop,” said varsity wrestler Valentine Hernandez ’16.
Hernandez said he has been wrestling his entire life and recently joined the AMDG Wrestling Club to help everyone learn new moves and to be an overall good person and an assistant coach.
“I think part of the reason we started this AMDG wrestling club is because there is no central Phoenix wrestling club for youth or highschool,” said head wrestling coach and AMDG Wrestling Club moderator Mr. Jose Leyba ’94.
This is Mr. Leyba’s first year as the moderator for this club and he said he is very excited to get things rolling.
“Any kid that wrestles can participate, but we’ll hope that our AMDG club wrestlers will go to some of these tournaments and compete. It’s open to not only Brophy high school students, but anyone hoping to get into the sport. No matter where they live,” Mr. Leyba said.
Although it has not yet been made official Mr. Leyba said he is working on getting the Loyala Academy scholars involved in this club as well.
“If you see some of the guys (Loyola students), they are anxious to get out on the mat as well. Those junior high kids have a lot of energy and hopefully wrestling can help them work out some of that,” Mr. Leyba said.
Hernandez said its about more than wrestling when asked why he joined this new club.
“I just feel that part of this club has more meaning to it than just the name, it betters the person and not just what it’s thought to be for,” Hernandez said.
The wrestling club is getting more popular as 10 people have joined in the couple of weeks it has been open.
To sign up for AMDG Wrestling anyone who is interested can send an email to luchaleybas@yahoo.com.
To obtain a wrestling card, athletes can go to themat.com or USA Wrestling for an athlete membership.