Rodriguez Has Busy Day’s Work on Way to Watts Wrestling Title

For Rio Mesa High wrestler Ramone Rodriguez, it was all in a day’s work. A long day’s work.

Rodriguez won the 152-pound division title in the L.A. Watts Summer Games with a 7-1 record in the one-day competition last weekend at Cal State Dominguez Hills.

“That was quite a few matches for one day,” Rio Mesa Coach Todd Stoke said. “Toward the end, Ramone was like, ‘How many more, coach?’ It’s a long day, but it was OK, because Ramone was in pretty good shape. He did a good job.”

Rodriguez was one of only two wrestlers from the region to capture division championships. The other was Ventura High’s Cristobal Gonzalez, at 215 pounds.

Stoke, who had five athletes participating in the games, likes the full-length, one-day competition, and said the Spartans benefited from the format.

“What it does is give more kids a chance to wrestle, and when you go to the Watts Games, that’s the whole point, participation. I had a couple kids that I brought who went a little farther than they otherwise might have, just because there were so many matches, and I was able to get a good look at them.”

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Making a racket: The tennis future looks bright for San Fernando High if the performance by the doubles team of William Ramos and Tony Nguyen is any indication.

The pair, both seniors-to-be, rebounded from a semifinal loss, erasing a 5-2 deficit to take third place in the Watts Games.

“I’ll be looking forward to seeing these two guys play. I can hardly wait,” San Fernando Coach Park Cockerill said. “They play very coordinated. They play very well together, and I think they showed that down there.”

Ramos also competed in singles and reached the semifinals before finishing in fourth place.

Ramos blamed Sunday’s fourth-place finish on fatigue after advancing in two singles matches and two doubles matches Saturday.

“I’m sure I could have played better, but it was the best I could do that day,” he said.

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Back home: Softball player Patty Del Real, who transferred from Kennedy High to Granada Hills and back to Kennedy in the past two years, says she never wanted to transfer in the first place.

Del Real said she attended Granada Hills last year when her family moved into the attendance area of that school. Older sister Jennifer Del Real transferred to Granada Hills first and Patty followed at the insistence of family members. Jennifer Del Real, a catcher, has since graduated.

“I didn’t want to go,” Patty said, “but it was my sister’s senior year, and my parents wanted us to play together.

“At first we were thinking about letting me stay at Kennedy, but it just would have been too hard.”