A Grip on Winning : Wrestling Teammates at Valencia Differ in Size, but Not in Results

Meet Sam and Fred. Two nice enough guys separated by 60 pounds and half a nation’s worth of growing up.

Sam Lopez is the one with the we-never-close grin and the fuzz above his upper lip. He’s 115-pounds of brashness from New York City.

Fred Jenkins is a 178-pound parents’ answered prayer, born and bred in Waco, Tex. He’s clean cut, clean living and cleaning up in the way of athletic and academic accomplishments.

If it seems odd to mention their weight, understand that Sam and Fred are wrestlers at Valencia High School.

Wrestlers are what they weigh. They work out with guys their weight, wrestle opponents their weight. They cut weight and gain weight all to achieve a oneness with opponents.

Sixty or so pounds means that Sam and Fred don’t grapple with each other.

“It would never happen,” Jenkins said. “Not even playing around. Never.”

And yet, they know each other well. As far as wrestling is concerned, the two have a lot in common--winning.

In last week’s prestigious Five Counties Tournament held at Fountain Valley High, Sam and Fred each won their respective weight divisions.

After the meet, Sam’s record improved to 29-1, Fred’s to 23-0.

Sam was the Southern Section 3-A runner-up last season. Fred was the 3-A champion. Each went on to win their division at the Masters’ Tournament.

“They’re as good a two guys as you could hope for on a team,” said Kent Lillenberg, Valencia wrestling coach. “You never like to have unreal expectations, but, quite honestly, I would have been surprised if they hadn’t won at Five Counties.”

Their wrestling accomplishments are as similar as their approach to life is different.

Fred gets good grades, make that straight A’s. He attributes it to his grammar- and middle-school training in Texas.

“They were strict, very strict,” he said. “No excuses. You got your homework done.”

When Fred was there, the schools used corporal punishment to deal with kids who didn’t obey. According to his sister, Carrie, Fred, known around the team as Kid Perfect, once got the paddle.

“But he won’t tell anyone what it was for,” she said. “I think he’s pretty embarrassed by it.”

For one thing, it doesn’t make for good campaign publicity. Fred, whose family moved to California when he was in the eighth grade, is a guy on the move. He was sophomore class president, student body vice president as a junior and is serving as student body president this year.

He’s also an all-Southern Section lineman on Valencia’s Central Conference championship team.

Is the kid just too much of a good thing or what? A few members of the Valencia wrestling team were asked if Jenkins’ excellence in so many endeavors grated on their nerves.

“Sure, we hate him,” one answered joking. “Wouldn’t you?”

If you’re a university, no. Fred’s been contacted by Harvard, Stanford and the U.S. Naval Academy.

“Actually, everybody likes Fred,” Sam said. “He wouldn’t be president if they didn’t.”

Everyone seems to like Sam too. Not that they have any choice in the matter. Sam is, well, how does one say, extroverted.

“The guy never shuts up,” said teammate Mike Salas. “He says anything to anyone. He’s always cutting people down. He’s not afraid of anyone . . . He also thinks he’s a ladies’ man, but I think most of the girls who’ve known him for a while, figured him out a long time ago.”

The only thing Sam didn’t seem to get along with was schoolwork.

“I’m lazy when it comes to doing my homework,” he said. “I think it comes from growing up where I did. Everyday when I’d get home from school, I’d have the choice of doing my homework or playing stickball. It was a pretty easy choice.”

According to Lillenberg, Sam’s grade point average poses no threat to his athletic eligibility--a 2.0 minimum--but neither has it encouraged some colleges to recruit him.

Perhaps it’s that fact that has made Sam study more this year than any other. And perhaps it’s Fred.

“Fred is such a good kid, he’s a very good influence on Sam,” said Nilda Lopez, Sam’s mother. “I think someone like Fred shows Sam what working at schoolwork can do for you.”

Sam said: “I’m trying harder this year. I look at Fred and I see that there are things out there for you if you work at school.”

Like Fred, Sam and his family moved to California during his eighth grade year. Nilda describes the neighborhood they left behind as, “not a very nice one at all.”

Sam and Fred met at Kraemer Junior High in Placentia. They played on the same freshman football team at Valencia. Fred was a defensive tackle, Sam, technically, was a 98-pound wide receiver.

“Actually, I was the designated (kicking) tee picker upper,” he said. “That’s the only time I got off the bench.”

Each of them got into wrestling as freshman as something that might fill some time. Sam’s first love was baseball, Fred’s was baseball.

They weren’t bad at wrestling. Sam was 17-11-1 at 101-pounds. Fred was second in the Orange League with a 26-11 overall record at 168 pounds.

As a sophomore, Sam, still at 101, won the league title and placed fifth in 2-A. At 178, Fred was second in league and went on to win the 2-A championship.

This season, they expect to improve on last year’s performances.

“I think we both won’t be satisfied unless we do well at the state tournament,” Fred said.

Sam placed third in the state last year. Fred was eliminated in the early rounds.

“We’ve got a friendly little rivalry going,” Sam said. “We try to see who can do better in each tournament. I guess I got him at state last year.”

Sam grins. Fred laughs. It seems 60 pounds can separate only so much.