WHO’S NEXT? USAW STAR OF THE FUTURE Chavez making his mark
By Bryan Baumgartner Jon Jay Chavez dominated the field in
both styles at the FILA Cadet National Championships in Akron, Ohio in May. Chavez did not allow a point in the entire Greco-Roman tournament at 152 pounds, winning every match by technical fall. In the freestyle tournament, Chavez
won every match leading up to the finals by technical fall and defeated Nick Reenan 7-4 to clinch his second title. “I really think I overperformed accord-
ing to my expectations,” Chavez said. “I really did well this tournament and hope- fully there is more to come.” With the two wins in Akron, Chavez
has qualified for August’s FILA Cadet World Championships in Serbia. “I really expected to do well, but I was-
n’t expecting to double up in both styles really,” Chavez said. “I’m expecting to perform well at World’s in August and I’m just going to keep working and learn from my mistakes.” Chavez has not always enjoyed the
level of success he has recently reached and in the summer after his sophomore year of high school, Chavez and his fami- ly made the decision to move from their home in California to Centennial, Idaho. Jon Jay was a rising star wrestler for De La Salle High School in California, but after attending a wrestling camp in Idaho, felt that the move could take his wrestling to new heights. “I came for a camp with the Suples
Wrestling Club and was really impressed with the staff, wrestlers and coaches,” Chavez said. “I thought it would be a good decision for my wrestling to move out here and train with them.” Chavez admits that the move might
have been a hard decision for his family to make but that they really didn’t debate it that much. “We just made the decision and moved,” Chavez said. “It wasn’t that hard to adjust. I had to make new friends after leaving my old friends but it wasn’t too tough. Transitioning to school was easier because I attended a college prep school in California and I enrolled in a public school here.” After making the move that summer, Chavez began training with the Suples Wrestling Club immediately and started being pushed harder than ever in the
30 USA Wrestler Jon Jay Chavez was dominant at the FILA Cadet Nationals. John Sachs photo.
practice room. “We have 5:45 a.m. practices and you
just have to push yourself as hard as you can to get stronger,” Chavez said. “At the 6:30 and 4:30 practices you have to learn your technique and be really focused through the entire practice and those things pay off eventually.” Though the training was making an
impact, Chavez admits that he did not see the results he was hoping for imme- diately. “It took a little time for me to see improvement,” Chavez said. “I didn’t do as well at Fargo as I hoped. I placed third in Greco and didn’t place in freestyle. By December, I improved a lot more and definitely saw huge jumps in my wrestling ability.” Wrestling for Centennial High School, Chavez wrestled in the Reno Tournament of Champions, which is widely regarded as one of the toughest high school tour- naments in the Nation, in December. As a No. 6 seed, Chavez toppled several past California state finalists on his way to the finals where he won to secure the title at 145 pounds, which was dubbed the tour- nament’s toughest bracket. “That was my first big win in awhile
actually,” Chavez said. “I had a little bit of a problem coming back from that, real- ly working hard and I had a couple wake up calls in a couple tournaments later in the season.” Those wake-up calls both came in January as Chavez wrestled in two more prestigious tournaments looking to build on his breakthrough win at Reno. “I actually lost in the semifinals at the
Rollie Lane and I lost in the finals at the Rocky Mountain Rumble to a kid from Colorado and you know I was really angry at those losses,” Chavez said. “I didn’t do as well as I hoped and I came back working harder than ever.” Chavez bounced back by dominating
the 145-pound bracket at the Idaho 5A State Championships in February. The junior won by pin in the finals to help lead Centennial to a classification record 318.5 points for the team title. “I have a great coach and great work-
out partners like Hayden Tuma who’s always there to drill with me,” Chavez said. “Stuff like that really helped a lot of the guys improve and we had a great state tournament and just a great year this year.”
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