WATSONVILLE—Watsonville High senior wrestler Danisha Nuñez was finally able to see some action last weekend after a hectic offseason delayed her return to the mat.
The reigning Pacific Coast Athletic League champion made an appearance at the 13th annual Lady Royal Tournament at Overfelt High in Fremont on Dec. 3.
However, there was just one minor setback.
Nuñez—who was scheduled to compete in the 106-pound weight class—was bumped to the 111-pound division after dialing in at 107 pounds.
She fell to Sabrina Tran of Evergreen Valley, who beat Nuñez in last year’s Central Coast Section 106-pound division title match.
“It really doesn’t seem like a difference but it’s muscle weight, there’s a difference,” Nuñez said. “I lasted a little bit longer so I felt confident even though I was barely back into practice.”
The confidence boost will help Nuñez, who vowed to take practice a lot more seriously especially after coming close to a CCS title.
Watsonville has produced 25 CCS champions including two girls: Emmly Kalka in 2010 and Gianna Mosqueda in 2018. The last boy to win a section title was Abel Peña Jr. in 2017.
The ‘Catz also have a pair of CCS team titles that came in 1977 and 1999.
The last time Watsonville had a California Interscholastic Federation State champion was Gus Paz in 1982 and David Barnes in 1979.
Becky Tavera was the closest Wildcatz girls wrestler to win a state title after she was runner-up in 2001.
Nuñez won the 2022 PCAL Girls Wrestling Championship by going 3-0 in the tournament. She became the first Watsonville High athlete to win a girl title in the program’s history.
The victory earned her a trip to the CCS Championships, where she was runner-up to Tran in the 106-pound weight division.
She still qualified for a trip to the CIF State finals in Bakersfield, where she finished 2-2 in two days of competition.
“I still tried my best,” Nuñez said. “Last year was a little bit difficult, I would say, to maintain weight. That was something I struggled with at every competition.”
This past offseason was a blur for Nuñez, who had up to three jobs including an internship for school during the summer break. There were delays with her physical and she had just two weeks of training in the wrestling room.
“I wasn’t able to do much offseason work,” she said.
Another big goal was to maintain her weight at 106 pounds, possibly even drop to 101 to test out the competition.
Besides keeping the weight down and getting stronger in the weight room, her main goals are still to repeat as PCAL champ, place first at CCS and hopefully stand atop of the podium at the CIF State finals.
Nuñez is hoping fellow teammate Martha Zurita, a sophomore, will join her in Bakersfield at the end of February.
“It’s also a goal for me to help not just me but also my partner,” Nuñez said. “She’s been an inspiration to me just seeing her grow, too.”
Nuñez mentioned she felt lonely on her trip to Southern California. This time she doesn’t want to be the only athlete representing Watsonville.
Ruben Mora, a junior, will try to earn his first trip to the CCS Championships after he fell short last year.
“My goal is to come back even stronger than I did last year and set things right,” he said.
Watsonville coach Josh Castillo said Mora still might be learning the sport, however, the young stud works hard and should be a leader on a young ‘Catz team.
“He’s holding everyone accountable, making sure all the guys are ready,” Castillo said.
The most challenging part for Castillo is having to start from essentially scratch. It’s also a demanding sport and there’s only so much the coaches can teach in a four-month span.
“I tell them I teach quick so I expect them to learn quick,” he said. “It’s the process of showing them the sport of wrestling.”
Mora made his way from the football team and had little to no time to get back into wrestling conditioning.
On top of being preoccupied with football and track, he’s waiting for his ribs to heal after a recurring injury he suffered last year in a wrestling scrimmage.
“It’s going pretty good,” he said. “I’m honestly excited to be wrestling again, it’s nice and I sure have missed it.”
One would think an injury of that magnitude would set him back, yet Mora has been helping his teammates while cheering from the sideline.
Castillo wasn’t worried about Mora whipping back into shape and is confident he’ll return to full speed soon.
Mora still needs time to heal but at this point it’s more of getting mentally strong so he can return to the mat again, he said.
Being able to build a strong mindset was one of the major factors he took away from last season.
“It’s very true as I come to realize,” he said. “If you go into this match and say you’re going to lose, you’re going to lose… that’s just something I’ve taken from wrestling.”
Mora is optimistic the underclassmen and those new to the sport will be able to build what he calls a “wrestler’s mentality.”
“A lot of our guys would give up as soon as we started falling behind in score,” he said. “I try to teach these guys, look, it doesn’t matter how much you’re losing by…if you keep powering through and have that perseverance to wrestle at a 100% there’s still a possibility you can win. Mentality is just as important as skill and form.”
Nuñez also mentioned some people might not take team spirit seriously. But she begs to differ and notices that having more bodies in the wrestling room is bringing up team morale.
“You just feel the motivation as a team in the room,” she said. “It’s hotter, sweatier and you lose weight faster. You have more partners, more options. It just helps everyone overall as a team.”
The Wildcatz are scheduled to compete at the Pat Lovell Holiday Classic at Aptos High on Dec. 27-28 at 9am.
They’ll be hosting the 3rd annual Manzanita Girls Wrestling Invitational (Jan. 5) and Apple Cider Classic (Jan. 6-7). Both events slated to begin at 9am.
Watsonville will begin PCAL Mission dual meet action against Carmel and Soledad at Soledad High School on Jan. 11.
By the time the season comes to an end, Castillo said he just wants Nuñez, Zurita and Mora to become the best version of themselves.
“They got all the right tools, they just gotta put it all together,” Castillo said.
