WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS

The American landscape is woven together with many pieces to form a unique cultural tapestry. Part of these pieces are different accents from different parts of the country. Take for example the word “wrestling.” Some people in parts of the country say “wressling,” while people in different areas say “wrasslin’.” Regardless of how people in Basile say the word, they now say it after the term “state champions.”
For the first time since 1991, the Basile Bearcat wrestling team won the state championship this past weekend at the CenturyLink Center in Bossier City.
As for head coach Brian McCoy, he said winning the state title was “absolutely great.”
“The guys went in with a lot of focus,” he said. “I told the guys two weeks ago they were champions in my opinion because to be a champion all you have to do is go out and give everything you got. These guys did that earlier last week. It was inevitable. Win or lose, we were going to come home champions.”
He added, “Somebody like me with a very limited knowledge of wrestling can come in and be very successful in a program like this.”
McCoy admitted he has no wrestling background instead of watching collegiate matches on television and watching YouTube videos.
“I started here in 2004 with a bunch of guys like Lance West,” McCoy said. “I was a young man back then, so I would roll around with them. They asked me to be an assistant coach with Tony Bertrand for three years. We would wrestle and get after it.”
“I got out of it for about eight years,” he continued, “and they were looking for someone here. They put me in it, and I took over as the head coach. My knowledge was very limited, but, the longer I did it, I picked up on some things and started being able to help them now more than I could two years ago.”
McCoy was lucky enough to inherit a wrestling program with such athletes as Gavin Christ and Isaac Cortez who followed in their fathers’ footsteps and came to be unofficial team captains.
“Both our dads wrestled,” said Christ. “Isaac’s dad Carmen Cortez was a four-time state champion, and mine, Chris Briscoe, was a three-time state champion. So, me and Isaac together both started real young. He started before I did. I started when I was in the 5th grade, and he started when he was four-years-old.”
Cortez said, “My dad was always kind of an idol for me in wrestling because I didn’t really follow college or national wrestling. All I knew really was high school. He would always tell me how he had four state championships, and I always thought that’s pretty hard. I didn’t know anybody else with four state championships.”
Besides being an inspiration for his son, the elder Cortez along with Christ have become a support system for McCoy. “I’ve got great support here,” he said. “I’ve got Carmen Cortez who can tell you anything you need to know about wrestling. I’ve got Gavin Christ in my wrestling room everyday. I don’t need to know anything about wrestling to be able to be successful.”
As McCoy explained, the season this year had its share of memorable moments. “The season was very long and excruciating,” he commented. “We went to a couple tournaments. We did very well at some of them, and we didn’t do quite so well at others.”
“I had to figure out what we did right when we did wrestle well and what we did wrong when we did not and fix those problems,” he continued. “I think by the time state rolled around all of our problems were fixed because it was an outstanding and dominant performance on our part.”
According to McCoy, the performance of his wrestlers during the season seeded them for the state tournament. Once they got to Bossier City, they were assigned to their particular weight classes. Then points were accumulated throughout the matches to determine the team’s title.
“The team title was such a big accomplishment because we had our ups and downs throughout the season,” said Cortez. “We had wrestlers get hurt, but they ended up coming back for state.”
He continued, “At some points in the season, we were down on ourselves not knowing if we were going to come away with the state title. Going into state, we all knew we had to show up and wrestle our best because we had such a great lineup of wrestlers. They all knew they should finish well and all knew where they had to land.”
On top of winning the team title, five Bearcats in Christ, Cortez, Logan David, Alex Menier, and Blake Menier won individual state titles.
Alex Menier scored 26.0 team points, and, in the 1st Place Match, he won 36-6 by fall over Taurio Grisby (Lakeside).
Blake Menier scored 23.5 team points, and, in the 1st Place Match, he won 31-13 by decision over Jamar Brown (DeLaSalle) 33-14 (Dec 3-1).
Gavin Christ scored 29.5 team points, and, in the 1st Place Match, he won 42-0 by fall over Mikey Gordy (Ouachita Christian) 21-6 (Fall 3:48).
Logan David scored 28.0 team points, and, in the 1st Place Match, he 8-1 won in sudden victory - 1 over Haven Dominguez (Church Point HS) 20-7 (SV-1 5-3).
Isaac Cortez scored 28.0 team points and, in the 1st Place Match, he won 30-3 by decision over Will Gage (St. Louis) 25-4 (Dec 5-1).
It was Christ’s fourth individual state title and 114th consecutive win, but the taste of winning the team title was sweeter than that of this year’s individual title.
He said, “I was more excited for the team to win a state championship than anything else. I told coach and my dad any team title would be more important to me than my own individual title by far.”
“To me just seeing all those guys excited as they were and as happy as they were when we won and then seeing that we made Basile proud all meant the most to me more than anything else. It’s like making a parent proud. After four years of Basile supporting the team and supporting me individually, to finally give something back was the most important thing for me than anything else.”
Christ, after the school year, will then take his wrestling talents to Campbell Univeristy in North Carolina. “I’m ready to go over there and take my licks for the first couple months,” he said. “Everyone is good up there. No one got there just on sunshine and rainbows. It’s all hard work and dedication from everybody.”
He continued, “I’m ready to go over there, and it’ll be a big learning curve. But, I’m ready to take on the challenge. It’s kind of refreshing for me.”
For Cortez, who will be returning for his senior season, he is looking to pass on the rich wrestling traditions to the younger classes coming up in Basile.
“I’m focused next year on the new kids coming up,” he said. “Once Gavin leaves, there’s stuff he knows that I can’t teach. I want to pass that onto the younger kids so they can teach it and keep it going.”