City wrestling enters transition year with high hopes for future

The drill may seem odd in a sport as physical as wrestling.

One girl stands in front of the team and the rest of the wrestlers pepper her with compliments completely unrelated to wrestling. Many times, it’s about their hair or eyes or shoes. Sometimes it goes deeper.

“When I came in the first day, you were really nice to me. I liked that.”

The “spotlight” drill, done every practice by the United wrestling program composed of Sehome, Bellingham and Squalicum, is just one of the ways new coach Brian Porteus is trying to change the culture of the city girls’ wrestling program.

“The purpose is to get away from wrestling stuff. I want them to start noticing the whole person,” Porteus said. “I really think girls respond well to positive reinforcement and tons of it.”

For Porteus, wrestling is about more than just what happens on the mat.

After serving as an assistant coach for Squalicum’s boys’ wrestling team and a head coach for the Shuksan Middle School wrestling program, the coach will get a chance to infuse that into the city wrestling team.

“I’ve learned so much from wrestling. I’ve had challenges, both emotional and physical,” Porteus said. “Those moments along the way I made it through because there’s something I remembered from wrestling.”

It’s a process he’s taken from the philospohy known as three-dimensional coaching, pioneered by Jeff Duke, and one that’s essential for a youthful team that doesn’t bring a lot of experience to the squad.

The city wrestling program only qualified two wrestlers to state last season — Sehome’s Lisa Hernandez and Squalicum’s Mika Markishtum. Hernandez graduated and Markishtum hasn’t come out to the team yet this season.

Bellingham’s Aryanna Tejada, an alternate to state last year, has come back to wrestle in the 125-pound class, making her the program’s top returner.

Despite a youthful team, the turnout was positive.

United was at 22 girls as of Dec. 2, a rise from last season’s numbers and most notable is the growth from the Sehome and Bellingham schools. Six girls came out from the Mariners and four from the Red Raiders, combining for nearly half the team, which holds its practices at Squalicum High School.

“We’re asking Sehome and Bellingham girls to sacrifice a lot of time and travel to get over to Squalicum,” said Porteus, who hopes in five years the schools each have a separate team.

But sacrifice is really what the wrestling season is all about. It’s arguably the longest most grueling of all the high school sports seasons and there’s really no let up in the taxation the athlete takes during the season.

“It’s not always gratifying. You’re getting you’re face smashed in day in and day out and you go out there and most of the time you have to lose and lose bad,” Porteus said. “Then you have to go back into the room and get your face smashed in again so you can get to the point where you don’t have to lose anymore.”

If they can just get through the season, that’s going to apply to everything in life, Porteus added.

And for the first-year United coach, that’s really what high school sports are about.

Not wins, not losses, just lessons.

This story was originally published December 11, 2015 at 8:48 PM with the headline "City wrestling enters transition year with high hopes for future."