By Martie Thompson
editor@floridanewsline.com
The boys’ varsity wrestling team at Ponte Vedra High School is coming into prominence — this year they are the district runners up — and it’s due in no small part to their head coach Josean Gonzalez and his team of assistant coaches, Jordan Matthews and Gary Define. When Gonzalez became the coach in 2018, he said the team contained a lot of good kids, but the team wasn’t very big.
“We only had about 15 kids by the time the first season was over,” he said, noting that there are 14 weight classes and not all of them were filled on his team. “Today we have 26 boys on the team and all the weight classes are filled.”
Gonzalez said the team made strides for his first couple of years, only to be sidelined by COVID in 2020. It has taken four years to finally now have the team getting back to normal, which means performing well at districts and having multiple individual champions at various weight classes. Gonzalez, Matthews and Define also coach the junior varsity team and a girls’ team.
Like many middle schoolers, Gonzalez, who grew up in Orange Park, said he initially wanted to play football. When a friend introduced him to wrestling, he was hooked.
“It’s the mental aspect of the sport,” he said. “When you’re a kid, maybe not super athletic, and you go to practice and have to do 100 pushups, it was mind blowing. But then I became stronger and it became more normal.”
Gonzalez stressed that being prepared mentally and physically, as well as remembering all the techniques, are critical to success in wrestling.
“Wrestling is a lot about the time you put in,” Gonzalez said. “It’s not a naturally intuitive sport such as there’s not a hoop to throw a ball in. It’s like you’re in a controlled fight and you have to understand technique and positioning while you’re out on the mat.”
The Sharks wrestling team definitely puts in the time — Gonzalez said the wrestlers practice six days a week for up to three hours a day. He said wrestlers have to be prepared for matches which are basically six minute sprints. They practice for this when they are tired, hurt, and hungry.
“I’m really proud of the growth for this post-COVID group,” he said. “The wrestlers who are seniors this year have battled adversity and have really stuck it out — and now they’re reaping the rewards of being a winning team.”
The wrestling season lasts from November through the first week of March. Next up for the athletes [as of interview date] is individual championships. Gonzalez said many of the wrestlers train year round and are members of a wrestling club (that he coaches) that goes to competitions in the spring and summer.
Gonzalez credits his assistant coaches with sharing his vision for success. He said Matthews, who has been at PVHS for three years, has taken the program to the next level due to his knowledge and passion for the sport. Define has been an assistant coach for two years and comes from a program with a winning tradition in Ohio, so he “knows what winning looks like,” according to Gonzalez.
For anyone interested in checking out wrestling, Gonzalez said, “Do it! Give wrestling a chance. Even if you don’t do it forever, it’s something to look back on that you can say challenged you and made you better able to handle life.”
Photos courtesy Frank Milia
PVHS wrestler Poulo Milea vs Nease at Senior Night.
