Senior caps GHS career with title
Gilmer’s Bregan Berry is the undisputed 132-pound state champion in Class 3A.
Berry etched his name in the history books last Saturday at the GHSA Traditional Wrestling Championships. The three-day event at the Macon Coliseum attracted the best boys and girls from across the state.
Gilmer’s defending state champion Taylor Schiesser found herself in the title match as well for the second year in a row. She ended her senior season with a runner-up placement.
Berry wrestled Columbus High School’s Tyler Nguyen in the finals. The pair also met a week prior in the sectional finals, a match Berry won, 2-1.
Their state finals meeting was a nail biter as well. Nguyen’s escape to begin the second period was the match’s first point. However, Nguyen’s ensuing defensive approach while protecting his lead led to stall warnings. With 10 seconds left in the match, another stall evened the score at 1-1. Berry fended off Nguyen’s shot and tossed him to the mat to score near-fall points. The referee’s hand slapped the mat to signal a pin as time expired.
Berry concluded his time at GHS as a three-time state placer. He finished third last year and was fifth as a sophomore. Berry discussed his victory over Nguyen and the championship to end his Gilmer career.
“I knew he was strong and had a good grip, and I just wrestled my hardest,” he said. “With the work I’ve put in, I couldn’t have put in any more. I just had to trust my offense. At the end, I heard the stall call and then he shot in, unexpectedly. I just used what I’ve worked on in practice and threw him.
“This is amazing. It’s the best feeling, especially coming back from getting fifth and third, going 0-2 (as a freshman) to winning it all.”
Head coach Josh Ghobadpoor had plenty of praise for his senior captain.
“I’m just so proud of him. He’s worked so hard for this and earned every bit of it,” he said. “Some guys want what he has, but they’re not willing to pay the price. He’s paid the price year in and year out since he was 4 or 5 years old. He’s a program kid. He came through our youth program, middle school then high school.”
Berry won his title with dad Brent Berry in the corner. He has been a GHS assistant for seven years.
“It’s humbling,” responded Brent, when asked about the experience. “Proud cannot put into words what it means to be in the corner watching your son from the very first time he stepped on the mat, through all the struggles and hard work, watching the levels he’s jumped and then to finally seeing him get to the pinnacle.
“As a dad, this is beyond measure. As a coach, I’m extremely proud to see his growth. I learned early to take off the coach’s hat and put on the dad’s hat very quickly because I’ve seen so many kids get burned out. I’m a dad first and a coach second, and I’m extremely proud of my young man.”
Ghobadpoor also weighed in on the Berry’s dynamic, noting, “It’s been a pleasure to coach with him, and to sit in the corner with a wrestler’s dad who happens to be a coach. You can feel the emotion from it and the hard work they’ve put in as a family for a long time.
“People don’t understand the sacrifices it takes for a family, for your kids, to achieve high-level things and the opportunities you have to provide. Because of that, and his attitude, he continued to improve. Because of all that, he’s a state champion.”
Schiesser squared off against Southwest DeKalb’s Ayla Evans for the 235-pound title. No points were scored in the first period. After escaping in the second, Evans got a takedown and eventual pin 45 seconds into the period.
Her tournament began with a pin in 43 seconds, and Schiesser was victorious in the quarterfinals when her opponent was injured and unable to continue. She took on Osborne’s Sandra DeSouza in the semifinals, and Schiesser needed just 25 seconds to secure a takedown and pin.
Schiesser only returned to action ahead of state duals. She suffered an injury over the summer and was back to defend her title.
“Taylor went out there in a season where they said, ‘You’re never going to wrestle in high school again.’ She defied those odds and made it back to the finals. She persevered through that, and what toughness she had to show to fight through that,” Ghobadpoor said.
Schiesser was a four-time state placer as she was third her freshman and sophomore seaons.
Also attending state for Gilmer were Josephine Royer (105), Leticia Tercero (130), Abelinda Tercero (135) and Linda Tercero (155).
Linda Tercero won her opening match by fall before a decision sent her to the consolation bracket. She secured another pin before a 3-0 decision ended her tournament.
Leticia Tercero won her first match as well with a second period pin. A pair of decisions knocked her out of the tournament. Royer lost by minor and major decisions, while Abelinda Tercero was pinned before a 7-6 defeat in the consolation bracket.
Carrollton won the girls championship (103) and was followed by Woodward Academy (73.5), Lumpkin County (68), Jordan (62.5) and Greenbrier (54). Gilmer (35) placed ninth.
Four more Bobcats competed at state and combined for four wins. Freshman Nelson Jacinto posted a 2-2 record at 106 pounds. His wins came in the opening round and first round of the consolation bracket.
Senior Alex Raymundo (138) notched a first-round win by decision, as did junior Harrison Chester (150). Senior Aspen Hataway (157) lost his matches by fall.
“Overall, I think we knew going in it was going to be really tough, especially with some of the draws we had,” said Ghobadpoor. “How you do at area sets you up for sectionals, which sets you up for state. You’re going to run into somebody tough a little sooner. At the end of the day, we have to be able to win matches we should win and compete at a high level. I think we lost some matches we should have won.”
Columbus won the boys title with 169.5 points. Next up were Lumpkin County (139), Ringgold (117.5), Franklin County (106) and Bremen (100.5) in the top five, while the Bobcats (32) finished 19th.
Gilmer’s placement was its lowest since 2009. Ghobadpoor said the coaching staff will continue to reevaluate its ways to ensure wrestlers are in the best position to thrive, and he addressed the program as a whole.
“We have to recommit and rededicate ourselves to the sport of wrestling,” he said. “We have to put in the offseason work and the work in the weight room. It’s kind of the end of an era in a lot of ways for kids who have cycled through our youth program. And now we’ve got to start that back up to where they’re going through youth, middle school and competing at Kids State and in USA Wrestling.”
Gilmer lost 150-win wrestler Carson Farist to a season-ending injury on senior night, and he did not compete in any area or state events. He is a three-time state finalist and won the 106-pound state championship as a freshman.
Sophomore Manny Velasquez, who had a top-three winning percentage on the team, and senior captain Llesion Puac, were also derailed by season-ending injuries. Puac missed sectionals and state, as did Velasquez, who also did not compete at state duals.
“I think Carson wins another state title and Manny is in the finals,” said Ghobadpoor. “I think Lleison is at state. Those are the kind of kids we lost. It’s very tough to see kids you care about get injured and not have that moment to at least leave it all on the mat. That was one silver lining, getting to at least see Bregan be able to win it.
“Between injuries and inexperience, it hurt us a lot. We didn’t finish as a team the way we’d like to. We lost three of our captains to season-ending injuries and that hurt our morale. It was hard to bounce back from that. We just had injuries in droves at the end. The first half of the year we worked hard to get to the point where we were a top contender. When those injuries happened, it really just took the steam out of us.
“Then we started looking like how many people anticipated us looking where we were very young. We went from a team that was contending, to a team that was in a rebuilding situation. We’re going to use the disappointment of how our season finished to motivate us to work harder.”