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| Tigers stay the course at all-night tourney |
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| Written by Marc Aceves / Patterson Irrigator | |
| Wednesday, 30 January 2008 | |
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“The kids did a wonderful job of maintaining stamina and a sense of humor.” — Lee Scoles, Patterson High wrestling coach Saturday’s Rumble in the Jungle Wrestling Tournament at Pitman High School was a marathon event. The tournament featured 37 schools with nearly 800 wrestlers participating, and the final match concluded just shy of Sunday morning. It was a grueling day of grappling, but one that proved rewarding for Patterson’s junior varsity squad. The Tigers placed second as a team for the second year in a row, much to the delight of Patterson coach Lee Scoles.  “There was more competition this year, and we still finished second,” Scoles said. “We wrestled excellent and held up excellent, considering that this was the longest tournament that I’ve ever been to.” Among the winners for the Tigers JV team was Carlos Bacerra, who took first place in Division A. Rafael Sotelo, Rafael Martinez and Alfredo Robles also fared well at the event. Things did not go as smoothly for the Patterson varsity team. The remaining Tigers wrestlers needed to wait on their matches until all of the JV level contests had concluded. Some wrestlers did not see a match until 4 p.m. Waiting around for a spot on one of the tournament’s seven mats proved to be just as much an emotional strain as a physical one. “Wrestlers were tired, and there was no place to sit,” Scoles said. “People were camping around the mats just looking for a piece of floor to lie on.” Just getting over to the staging room was a hassle in itself. “It was wall-to-wall people back there,” Scoles said. “Everyone’s just standing there. It was kind of reminiscent of a scene from Ellis Island.”  Patterson's Anthony Sanchez tries to escape the grasp of Omar Hanafy from Golden Valley High, of Merced. Photo by Elias Funez / Patterson Irrigator Despite the event’s struggles, the varsity team was not without its share of winners. The Tigers’ George Miranda earned praise for his performance as did teammate Elias Pasillas. Scoles expressed satisfaction with his team’s ability to stay the course at such an exhausting tournament. “The kids did a wonderful job of maintaining a sense of stamina and a sense of humor,” he said. The coach also said he did not harbor any ill emotions toward tournament organizers. “They made an honest mistake and overbooked the tournament,” he said. “The coaches and the wrestlers all made the best of it.”
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