Meza Says He Hasn’t Met His Match

ANAHEIM —  Richard Meza is cool, calm, collected and, perhaps, the best high school wrestler at 152 pounds in the county.

He doesn’t pace the floor like a caged animal before each match, nor does he feel the need to psych himself up with music.

“I’m just not into that stuff,” said Meza, a senior at Loara High. “The Walkmans and CD players distract and I don’t need to pace. I just focus on the match and go through my moves in my head.”

Meza, 17, is ranked second in the Orange County Wrestling Coaches Assn. poll behind Calvary Chapel’s Ty Wilcox. Earlier this month, Meza (19-1) lost in the semifinals of the Five Counties tournament at Fountain Valley High. Other than that, he says he hasn’t been in the type of tournaments or against tougher opponents necessary to properly test him.

“There just hasn’t been the quality matches I need,” said Meza, noting that during Five Counties was the first time he wrestled anybody ranked. “Our coach last year just didn’t schedule anything for this season. He wasn’t going to be our coach this year, so I guess he didn’t have time to do that.”

Last season under then-coach Ted Steffel, Meza and senior teammate Anthony Pham (112 pounds) were two of the county’s best wrestlers.

Steffel, who now teaches at Savanna High, said he resigned as coach to spend more time with his family.

“I can’t blame him for his decision,” Meza said. “If it was me, I’d probably do the same thing.”

About the scheduling, Steffel said, “it sort of fell through the cracks.”

Mike Gallo is the new coach at Loara, and although he’s sorry Meza hasn’t been getting the matches he thinks he needs, he said there’s a silver lining.

“It’s bad that Richard isn’t getting that mat time, but since he’s not in these tournaments, he’s not getting beat up and he has more time to work on his techniques and drills,” Gallo said.

Meza, an extremely talented wrestler, is fast on his feet and has an aggressive style, Gallo said.

“When I first saw Richard wrestle, I knew he could go far,” Gallo said. “Five Counties was an excellent match in telling Richard where he was in his training. He’s very smart, and he knows what he needs to do. And I have no doubt that he will do very good this season.”

Besides the respect Meza has from his teammates and coach, there are also many coaches who think he’s among the county’s best, including John Azevedo, coach of the powerhouse at Calvary Chapel.

Azevedo said one of the reasons Calvary Chapel made its debut at the Estancia tournament earlier this month was the possibility of a Wilcox-Meza matchup. However, the match never took place as the Saxons didn’t participate in the 44-team tournament.

However, Meza continues to be highly ranked in the weekly coaches’ poll.

“Keeping in mind that Meza hasn’t been in any big tournaments,” Irvine Coach John Phillips said, “I think the fact that he took third at a tough tournament like Five Counties is really an attribute to the talent he has.”

Last season, Meza beat Dave Hennig of El Dorado Hills Oak Ridge at 145 pounds to finish fifth at the state championships. Meza was the Masters and Southern Section Division II champion.

Though some believe he would have more success this season if he stayed at 145 pounds, Meza says he’s firm about staying at 152 pounds, which is his natural weight.

“I really hate to drop weight. I just don’t think I’m any good when I have to go through all that stuff,” Meza said. “When I drop, I have to change the way I wrestle and I’m not as strong.”

Calling those coaches and wrestlers who are obsessed with cutting weight “crazy,” Meza said he refuses to put his body in harm’s way.

“The last time I remember going through anything like that was when I had to go to a wrestling tournament in Fresno,” he said. “I had to drop some weight, so my dad drove the whole way up there with the heater on. We were in that car for seven hours. My dad even lost weight.”

Since there’s nobody at Meza’s weight to give him a workout in practice, he wrestles teammates in the upper weights. He also relies on help from his friend, Pham, who is a freshman at Cal State Fullerton, where he’s continued to wrestle.

Pham agrees with Meza, that the lack of quality mat time has been a factor in his performance, but Pham believes Meza still can go far without the tournaments.

“I think Richard is capable of winning state,” Pham said. “He has everything he needs to do the job. He just needs to work at his full potential.”

An admitted slow starter, Meza works toward the end of each season.

“I gradually build up as the season goes on,” he said. “But it’s better to come on strong when it counts.”

Meza grew up in Bakersfield, where he started to wrestle for a freestyle club when he was 5. He also took judo lessons, which he said has helped him in his takedown techniques. He moved to Anaheim with his family during his freshman year.

Meza, who has a 3.27 grade-point average, said he would like to wrestle in college, where he plans to major in civil engineering.

“Any Division I school would be good,” Meza said. “And if I can wrestle, that would be great. But school will always come first.”

Meza’s more immediate goal, in addition to another appearance in the state finals, would be to qualify for the prestigious National Championship tournament, which is held in the spring at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh.

“I just think that would be so cool,” he said. “That’s just one tournament I would really want to go to.”