Best Wrestlers to not win a state title

Coachdoerr

Well-Known Member
Joey Gonzalez of Yuma 2x placer 3rd and 2nd back in the late 80’s lost to the great Chagolla kid from Peoria both years
 

FamousLie

Well-Known Member
Kareem Abdullah, 3x runner up for Hamilton HS. believe he lost to Efrain Escudero in the finals his senior year, but I could be wrong. He lost to Alex Varela from Marcos de Niza the year before and I believe he lost to David Garcia from Peoria the year before that, but I coulbe wrong on that too. He was a guy who always came ready to wrestle at state. I don't recall if he won many big tournaments, but he seemed to always turn it up a little extra at state.
 

acestallion

Well-Known Member
Kareem Abdullah, 3x runner up for Hamilton HS. believe he lost to Efrain Escudero in the finals his senior year, but I could be wrong. He lost to Alex Varela from Marcos de Niza the year before and I believe he lost to David Garcia from Peoria the year before that, but I coulbe wrong on that too. He was a guy who always came ready to wrestle at state. I don't recall if he won many big tournaments, but he seemed to always turn it up a little extra at state.


You are right on all accounts there. I remember watching his Finals match his senior year, and I thought it was his year; but sometimes it doesnt always go that way. Tough wrestler though.

Also, since we're talking about 3-time runner-ups; there's Yobel Muchang from Saguaro.

He lost to Brandon Horton from Lake Havasu in the Finals his freshman year.

Then he lost to Anthony Wagner from Independence in the Finals his sophomore year.

His junior year he was the #2 seed and got upset in the 1st round, and ended up coming back and taking 3rd.

His senior year he lost in the Finals to Trace Gutknecht from Cienega, and that was a good close match.

He was a really good wrestler and he didn't lose much in high school from what I remember. He was always freakishly fast and fun to watch.
 

FamousLie

Well-Known Member
I coached against Muchang his senior year and was surprised he managed to beat Jalen Pugh from Thunderbird in the semis since we had to wrestle Thunderbird during the season and lost a pretty one sided dual. He was very technical and had all the skill in the world, the problem was that after his sophomore year the good coaching staff at Saguaro all left and the guy who was the head coach at the time wasn't the best coach. He had nobody in the room to push him or who was able to give him any good help, other than his dad. I forget what tournament it was, it might have been a dual meet, but we beat the crap out of them and their only win was 6 Muchang got by beating our backup at his weight. So afterwards I was walking by while their coach was giving them a pep talk and he was saying that they had the outstanding wrestler of the tournament so it didn't matter that they lost. They had a pretty decent little thing going there, good coaching but after Muchang, Carey and Mallioux that was pretty much the end of Saguaro producing anybody talented. Now they don't even have wrestling because of how poorly things were managed.
 

FamousLie

Well-Known Member
Looper was tough... I don't think that he ever won a title.

Looper was a guy who was completely self made. He willed himself to be good, there's no other way to put it. He didn't have anything that stood out other than the fact he would work out and train harder than most human beings I've seen. I remember when he beat the guy from Kellis at Peoria, it was crazy like 12-11 or something. There was no doubt that unless the Kellis kid managed to stick him somehow, that Looper was going to just out-will him to win. Any time you wrestled him you knew you had to be down for a fight. With him it was life or death and he would come up big when he had to simply because he had so much belief that he would win. I honestly thought Cortez would beat him comfortably in the state finals, and no knock on Looper but Cortez was just really good. Looper came within a second of pulling that off, and not because he had anything better than Cortez, but because he was so motivated to win. If you ever wanted somebody who would have been coachable and not quit, that was your guy. Just amazing mental toughness and a willingness to take matches into deep water and drown you if he had to. He really showed that you don't have to be particularly talented to be successful. He also went on to wrestle at ASU for a couple of years. Anybody who coached him got 120% from him.
 

BDBlue

Well-Known Member
Did Pierce Swerdferger out of Deer Valley win state? Archuletta from Pueblo deserves to be on this list (I can't remember who beat him), Lovio from Pueblo should be on here I think, and Silva from Mingus?
 

Coach P

Well-Known Member
Did Pierce Swerdferger out of Deer Valley win state? Archuletta from Pueblo deserves to be on this list (I can't remember who beat him), Lovio from Pueblo should be on here I think, and Silva from Mingus?
Lil Freshmen Deberry beat #1 ranked Senior Archuleta...great coaching by Coach Deberry. And I remember Silva beating Big Deberry at FWs....he should have won it all at state.
 

acestallion

Well-Known Member
Pearce won it his senior year, and Silva got upset by Long in the semis and Deberry beat Long in the finals. Also I want to say that Silva won it his sophomore year?
 

acestallion

Well-Known Member
Must have been a close match.


To be honest from what I remember it wasn't that close. I think that Deberry's match with Sato in the semis was more entertaining; although that match wasn't close either.

I don't remember Deberry having that many close matches in-state his junior and senior years. I think Calteaux from Hamilton had a good match with him, (don't remember when it was tho and apologize for any misspelling).

Of course I still won't forget the match he had with Gaethje at Senior All-Stars. Some people will say it didn't, but to me that match lived up to the hype. I remember it being a real close match, I think it was 1-1 going into OT and I remember Gaethje going for a big move and Deberry catching him and I want to say he stuck him.

It's funny I know we're trying to capture this same type of thing with One State; which hey I'm all for it. And I know Senior All-Stars wasn't always the best with guys being out-of-shape and all.

Yet I remember for that one moment that match, you had the two best wrestlers in Arizona going at it with each other, and they both looked good; and it's just a moment that I will never forget.
 
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