While it ended up being a bit of a tough day overall, the Port Hardy Secondary School wrestling team tried their best to win at the Island Championships on Saturday, Feb. 8 at Queen Margaret’s School in Duncan.
With PHSS team captain Anthony Blacha unable to make the trip down island to compete, the coaching staff managed to bring back Grade 10 student Auzton Shaw to replace Blacha in the 70kg division. Shaw had previously competed the last two seasons for the PHSS wrestling team, winning two bronzes and one silver medal. Unfortunately he ended up injuring his hip in his first match at Islands against Isfeld's Coady Frisch and then had to drop out of the rest of the tournament.
Also making the trip to Islands this year was Grade 9 student Hunter Stagg and Grade 8 students Jayden Jones and Filipe Bettencourt Da Rosa.
Da Rosa, who was coming off back to back silver medal performances in Comox and Campbell River in the junior 60kg division, ended up getting a bye in the first round before facing off against the top seed Wyatt Rhodes from Ucluelet in the second round of the tournament. Da Rosa managed to get out to an early lead by pushing Rhodes off the mat to score one point, but Rhodes quickly took over from there by scoring a takedown and following it up with a leg lace on the ground. Rhodes continued to rack up points by using takedowns and leg laces to bring the score to 10-1 in his favour. That was when Da Rosa charged forward in search of a Greco Roman bodylock at the same time as Rhodes shot in for a double leg. A collision happened, and the refs made the decision to give Da Rosa an “unsafe conduct” penalty, awarding Rhodes one point which ultimately ended the match 11-1 by technical fall.
Da Rosa regrouped after the loss and went on to face Carihi’s Sebastian Vanstone in the relegation bracket. Vanstone managed to get out to an early lead and ended up winning a 10-0 technical fall victory, which brought Da Rosa’s standout rookie season to a quiet end.
As for Stagg, he faced off in the first round against Queen Margaret's Kalem Thomas in the 66kg division where he was caught early in a cradle pin. Stagg then faced off against Quamichan's Cohen Allen in the relegation bracket and lost again by pinfall, which brought his season to a close.
PHSS’ last chance at qualifying for the Provincial Championships now rested squarely on the shoulders of Jones, but he had a very tough first round match against the top three seed Pouya Pasokhi from Reynolds and he ended up getting pinned in 30 seconds.
Jones rebounded well from the loss by defeating Highland’s Jake Stuve by a 14-1 technical fall, but that meant he would have to go up against Vanstone, who had defeated Da Rosa earlier in the day. Jones tried his best, but he ultimately lost by a 14-1 technical fall, which ended PHSS’ chances of qualifying for the third year in a row for the Provincial Championships.
When asked to comment, PHSS head coach/team manager Paul Cagna said while his team didn't manage to qualify for provincials this year, "we still did okay. We have a young team and they didn't give up, they gave a great hustle during practices and they showed a lot of grit on the mats."
Cagna noted he knew all along it was going to be very tough for such a young team to qualify for provincials due to the fact they mix juniors and seniors into one division at Islands and only the top five wrestlers in each division make it through.
"It's a double knockout tournament," he said. "So if you lose twice you're out, and unfortunately, when the draws came out, they all got really tough brackets. Filipe went up against against the 60kg top seed, Jayden got the third seed, and Hunter and Auzton both received tough first round matchups as well."
Despite only winning one match at the tournament, Cagna said he was still really proud of how his team performed.
"They didn't make us look bad, they gave a good effort, and they tried their best which is all that we can really ask from them," he said. "Wrestling's a tough sport, it's a contact sport where you have to be willing to put your body on the line in order to try and win, and I feel our guys did that."
The PHSS wrestling team will be wrapping up its 2024-2025 season with a final practice on Wednesday, Feb. 12 with year-end awards being given out.
