Los Al senior Ethan Bakker capped off a stellar wrestling career last weekend with a trip to the medal podium at the State tournament in Bakersfield.
He battled his way through the toughest high school State tournament in the Nation to become a California State medalist.
After making it to day two, he knew if he wrestled well, he could see a path to the medal stand.
Saturday brought only 16 wrestlers back from the original 40 man bracket and every match was against California’s finest.
Los Al senior Ethan Bakker capped off a stellar wrestling career last weekend with a trip to the medal podium at the State tournament in Bakersfield.
He battled his way through the toughest high school State tournament in the Nation to become a California State medalist.
After making it to day two, he knew if he wrestled well, he could see a path to the medal stand.
Saturday brought only 16 wrestlers back from the original 40 man bracket and every match was against California’s finest.
He battled through the second grueling day and lost a tough match 1-0. Knowing it was lose and go home, Ethan fought back to make it to the blood round. He beat a top 10 wrestler 5-1, then went on to claim his medal. Bakker was one of five other Orange County wrestlers to medal this year at State. This marks only the ninthth time Los Al has had a state placer in wrestling.
Bakker, unranked at the beginning of the season, slowly worked his way in to the rankings, where he finally cracked the top 15 only two weeks ago.
To place top eight in State was a dream since his Freshman year.
“I trained really hard in the offseason,” Bakker said. “I dedicated my life to wrestling this year and the hard work paid off. I got sick during CIF last year and I was devastated when I didn’t get past masters. Nothing was going to stop me this year.”
Bakker was especially grateful for the whole Los AL coaching staff.
“We work harder than any other sport and we don’t get much support from the school. It has been a tough season on all of us. When we lost Coach Torres, morale was low and there was confusion on the team. The school wouldn’t even allow Coach Torres to speak with the new Coach, so the transition that should have taken place never happened, and I think it was really unfair to all the wrestlers. It really hurt our team this year. Coach Torres has been such an important part of my life.” Bakker concluded, “Coach Cadwallader had a tough job this year. He’s been amazing and did everything he could to prepare me for State. He brought in the toughest guys he knows to beat me up in the wrestling room. Without Coaches Pat, Wyatt, Billy, Torres, Dylan, and my brother Austin, I am not standing here today. It’s always a team effort. I just hope we set an example for the younger guys to work hard and make Los AL Wrestling great again.”
–This article appeared in the March 15, 2017 print edition of the News Enterprise.