Although Pioneer Valley High School senior Elias Zepeda isn’t sure what he wants to do after graduation, he knows one thing: He wants to keep wrestling.
“Hopefully I’ll find a good college to wrestle at,” Zepeda, 18, told the Sun. “I just like that it’s a very tough sport, and I like the feeling of getting my hands raised up after a win.”
Kent Olson, head coach of Pioneer Valley’s boys’ wrestling team, said a college wrestling career looks entirely possible for Zepeda. Although it’s only Olson’s first year coaching at Pioneer Valley, he said Zepeda has proven to be an extremely hardworking individual. Zepeda recently won the California Interscholastic Federation Boys Wrestling Divisional Championship, Olson said, and will be competing later this season at the Masters.
“I’ve known him now for about six months and he is a very competitive, very strong-willed kid, and that is really what makes him so successful,” Olson said. “He sets goals for himself.”
This article appears in Mar 1-8, 2018.