Righetti High School’s Stuart Malm is humble, soft-spoken, and hesitant to admit any hint of his prowess as a wrestler.
“I don’t think I’m that good,” he said of his wrestling abilities.
However, a short video on Youtube that shows Malm in the heat of battle is confirmation of the old adage “actions speak louder than words.”
The video is of a duel Malm called one of his most memorable matches, taken at a tournament known as “The Bash.” Viewers will see the final championship round, with Malm going toe-to-toe with a wrestler ranked 11th in the state.
“It was really close the whole time. I was up [on the score cards] most of the match up; then the score got tied. With about 20 seconds left, I got an escape and won the match,” he recalled.
Malm recently qualified for the CIF tournament, where he’ll be competing along with 32 other wrestlers in the 126-pound weight division. He intends to place in the top five, which will qualify him to compete in the Masters tournament. There, he’ll need to place in the top nine to advance to the statewide tournament, which he said is his ultimate goal.
“Stuart has a good shot at going very far,” said his coach, Andrew Domingues. “I think he can be a state qualifier, if not place in state this year. He’s put in all the hard work to get himself to that level. He’s proved it throughout the season, that he can wrestle with the best guys.”
For now, Malm is focused on lifting weights to keep his strength up, maintaining his weight, and “practicing all the time.”
“One of the hardest things is going your hardest every practice because you’re cutting weight,” he said. “You may not feel 100 percent, but you have to think you are. It’s tough.”
Mental toughness, he explained, is the key to any victory.
“You have to know you can beat a guy; it’s mostly mental. It doesn’t matter if they look stronger or whatever, you just have to be ready to wrestle and just beat them,” he said.
This article appears in Feb 16-23, 2012.