High School Male Athlete of the Week: Fountain Valley wrestler TJ McDonnell is excited but not satisfied
What happens to a dream deferred?
Fountain Valley High freshman TJ McDonnell hopes to never find out.
McDonnell began wrestling at age 6. Before long, he developed a close relationship with Jeremy and Justin Thomas through Team Thunder.
The Thomas twins thrived at Calvary Chapel High in Santa Ana, eventually earning honors as the Orange County Co-Wrestlers of the Year. Justin (160 pounds) and Jeremy (170) finished their careers at Calvary Chapel with CIF State titles.
McDonnell revered the Thomas brothers growing up. Jeremy Thomas is now one of his coaches in connection with the Barons’ feeder program in Genesis Wrestling.
“They won [state championships] the same year [in 2016] as seniors,” McDonnell said. “I was there. I watched both the matches. I was there every year that they competed in the state tournament.
“They’re like super-close family friends, people that I look up to. Having one of them in my corner is pretty cool.”
The dream for McDonnell is to join his idols at the top of the sport. In his first year of high school wrestling, he has made it his goal to get on the podium as a state placer.
“I’ve been going to the state tournament every year since I was a little kid, watching [Jeremy Thomas] and other wrestlers that I grew up with,” McDonnell added. “It’s been something that I’ve been looking forward to almost my whole life.”
After years of making the pilgrimage to Bakersfield for the state tournament, McDonnell is one step away from getting there as a competitor.
In the CIF Southern Section Northern Division individual wrestling championships at Marina High on Feb. 15, McDonnell took home the 138-pound title. He recorded two victories by fall and two decisions in the tournament.
Sean Solis, Mikey Folch, TJ McDonnell, Luis Ramirez and Max Wilner win individual titles, leading the Barons over Simi Valley Royal 218.5-189 in the CIF Southern Section individual wrestling championships on Saturday at Marina High.
The 138-pound final was an eventful one, as McDonnell needed a reversal with four seconds to go to earn the 6-4 decision against Perris Citrus Hill’s David Villa.
This season, McDonnell joined a Fountain Valley program that was coming off a Northern Division title the year before. The Barons won a CIF dual-meet title for the first time in Division 3, and then defended their Northern Division crown.
In repeating as Northern Division champions, the Barons had five CIF individual champions, six finalists and seven Masters Meet qualifiers. McDonnell said the Barons’ dominance is exactly what he envisioned when he entered the program.
The job is not finished, though. The Masters Meet pairings came out, and as a freshman, McDonnell already found himself as the No. 4 seed in the state-qualifying tournament.
Barons assistant coach Danny Woiwor, who is also often in the coaching corner for McDonnell’s matches, said that the recognition is nice for McDonnell, but he reiterated that the goals range beyond the Masters Meet.
“For TJ, personally, he is very happy with himself,” Woiwor said. “He is excited about it, but at the same time, he is not satisfied at all. His goal is to place at the state tournament this year, and this is just another steppingstone.”
In order to win a team title in the CIF postseason, wrestlers must slot into specific weight classes to maximize the points that their team can earn. McDonnell has cut roughly 15 pounds from his walking-around weight to compete at 138 pounds.
“I’ve been going to the state tournament every year since I was a little kid, watching [Jeremy Thomas] and other wrestlers that I grew up with. It’s been something that I’ve been looking forward to almost my whole life.”
— TJ McDonnell, Fountain Valley freshman
At the beginning of the season, McDonnell was wrestling at 145 pounds, a weight at which he won a title in the Mann Classic at Marina High on Dec. 14.
Freshman Mikey Folch, who won a CIF individual title at 120 pounds for the Barons, is also cutting weight this postseason.
Cutting weight is a subject that wrestlers can commiserate over, but it is often up to the individual to determine what they will get out of the process.
Woiwor will ask wrestlers to think about scenarios like the blood-round match to place at state or riding out an opponent for the final 30 seconds of a match to motivate them during workouts.
“Those are the things that we’re emulating, just trying to change your thinking a little bit, to the point where now all of the sudden, he wants to do it,” Woiwor said of McDonnell. “I remember the last time at UFC Gym, he did a minute bike sprint, and we’re sitting there just talking about, ‘Keep going. Keep going. You’re getting the takedown. You got him.’
“You could see him start sprinting harder and harder. At the end of the day, it’s up to the athlete to change their thinking.”
McDonnell said that he had never cut weight before high school.
“It’s the worst thing ever,” McDonnell said. “I have never hated anything more. It’s terrible.”
He has a few ideas about how he might reward himself when the season comes to an end. At the top of that list are deep-fried Twinkies and ice cream.
If McDonnell can accomplish his goal of placing in the state meet, he might find that to be a pretty sweet treat, too.
TJ McDonnell
Born: Sept. 10, 2003
Hometown: Huntington Beach
Height: 5 feet 9
Weight: 138 pounds
Sport: Wrestling
Coach: Dennis Piramo and Brad Woodbury
Year: Freshman
Favorite food: Ice cream
Favorite movie: “The Sandlot”
Favorite athletic moment: McDonnell won a state title in eighth grade. In the championship match, he secured a takedown on the edge of the mat in the final seconds to turn a one-point loss into a one-point win.
Week in review: McDonnell won the 138-pound title in the CIF Southern Section Northern Division individual wrestling championships on Feb. 15 at Marina High. The freshman recorded two pins and two decisions to claim first place in the weight class.
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