Warren wrestlers celebrate success

DOWNEY - The Warren High School wrestling team is the reigning 2011-12 S.G.V.L champions as well as the C.I.F. Division VI champions.At the head of that success is long time coach Tim Brogden. Brogden was recognized on Wednesday as the Long Beach Press Telegram's Dream Team Wrestling Coach of the Year. Brogden has been coaching at Warren for 12 years and, along with his teams, has won seven league titles over that time period. Brogden maintains that this year he had "a special group of kids who were willing to work hard and understood the concept of team better than any previous team." Helping Coach Brogden this season were a strong group of young coaches, former Bear wrestlers, whom have come back to help out. Damien Gomez, Ruben Gutierrez and former East Knight Ryan Medina were a vital part of this team's success as well. Downey has dominated the wrestling scene lately making the C.I.F. Division V and Division VI finals for four straight years, winning two of them. This, however, was Warren's year to get a ring. Coach Brogden had seven S.G.V.L. champions out of fourteen weight classes and several placed at C.I.F. Despite this talent however, no Warren wrestler placed at the Master's meet. Andy Garcia (106), captain Jeremy Rocha (113), Darren Donate (120), Michael Morales (132) and "little Rock" Sean Thompson (195) were huge reasons for Bear success this year. Rocha, Morales and Thompson are seniors this year and won't be back while Garcia and Donate will be back next year with another team of wrestlers hoping to duplicate what this team did this year.

********** Published: April 26, 2012 - Volume 11 - Issue 02