Daily Pilot Athlete of the Week -- Jeremy Valdes: Quieting the

critics

Barry Faulkner

While some athletes measure success by the roar of the crowd, it is

periods of silence by which Estancia High senior Jeremy Valdes weighs his

worth.

Quiet time is, in fact, what the 135-pound wrestler is working for

when he steps on the mat. The better his performance, the shorter his

father’s videotape critique.

“We always watch the videos of my matches and he likes to tell me what

I did wrong,” Valdes said of his father, Luis, a former 171-pound

wrestler at Culver City High. “He was kind of quiet after Saturday.”

Saturday included five victories, all by pin, in the University High

12-way Tournament. Valdes, a two-time Pacific Coast League champion who

was 18-4 through Tuesday, was named most valuable wrestler in the lower

seven weight classes.

His pristine tournament showing capped a week in which he pinned all

seven of his opponents, including league dual meets against Costa Mesa

and Northwood. It also earned him Daily Pilot Athlete of the Week

recognition.

Valdes who competed last season at 140 pounds, shed 17 pounds after

football to tackle 135-pounders in his final prep campaign.

“It took me a while to feel comfortable after dropping all that

weight, but things are going as planned,” he said. “My goal, coming into

this season, was to finish in the top four in CIF Southern Section

(Division IV) and make it to the Masters Meet (from which Southern

Section standouts advance to the CIF State meet.)”

Toward that end, Valdes stopped eating junk food and has maintained a

rigid training regimen.

He has also continued to refine his style, which is based on

aggressive counter attacks.

“I like to react off what the other guy is doing,” he said. “My dad

taught me to be aggressive. He always said I should try to be three moves

ahead of the other guy and take advantage of every chance he gives me.”

Valdes said he doesn’t worry much about scouting the opposition, an

opportunity most wrestlers seize in a tournament setting. Instead, he

relies on six years of wrestling experience to feel his competition out

early in the first period.

“I can tell a lot by the handshake,” said Valdes, who began wrestling

in a freestyle club as a sixth-grader. “Usually I know how serious the

challenge is going to be within the first minute. If it’s a decent

opponent, I get serious. If not, I try to kick back and work on some

technique. Against the guys I can fool around with, I try to score a lot

of points.”

But, clearly, he is not above bringing a quick halt to his matches, as

his seven pins last week would attest.

Valdes said he does not favor any particular move, but he likes to

utilize his legs when attacking. He said his work in the football weight

room (he started at quarterback, wingback and cornerback the last two

seasons), has given him an edge in the strength department. He noted his

quickness is hardly special for his weight class, but he considers

aggressiveness and experience as attributes.

Valdes, who won the El Rancho Tournament earlier this year, is also a

strong leader for the Eagles, guided by Co-Coaches Steve Perez and Matt

Atalano.