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Bruins gear up for big games this
weekend
George Fox falls to familiar foe in
Arizona
Even
with a
broken vertebrae,
you can't keep him down |
By B. Scott Anderson, Newberg
Graphic sports editor
E-mail Scott at banderson@eaglenewspapers.com
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 Sean Santana had a busy year in 2003.
A senior transfer from McNary High School, Santana won his second state title
in February despite a nagging back injury. It turned out that he in fact had a broken
vertebrae and was forced to have surgery on it if he was going to be able to ever wrestle
again. In June, he had surgery that fused three vertebrae together and had to sit out of
action until just prior to the start of this season in November.
“It was hard because I wanted to wrestle all of that time,” he
said. “It was just a whole big setback.”
Santana transferred from McNary where he won two state titles, his first his
sophomore year when he defeated Adam Haupt, a Newberg senior at the time, in the finals at
135 pounds. Santana isn’t a complete stranger to Newberg, though. He went to school
in the district in third, fourth, fifth and part of sixth grade before he moved to Keizer.
Even before his first move to Newberg, Santana was a wrestler. He then
participated in the Newberg Mat Club during his tenure in Newberg before he went on to
wrestle while in Keizer. Santana’s start came from close within, he said.
“Basically, my whole family wrestled so they just passed it on to
me,” he said.
Santana’s most accomplished relative is his uncle, Chomo, who won two
state titles in 1990 and 1991 while at Lebanon High School. Santana began his high school
career with a Valley League district championship at 130 pounds. He went on to state and,
oddly enough, he had to face a Newberg wrestler, Jared Norman.
Santana couldn’t get past Norman in the matchup but Santana was the last
wrestler NHS coach Neil Russo wanted Norman to go up against in the first round.
“We knew (Norman) was going to draw either a district champion or a
runner-up and the only one we didn’t want him to draw was Sean Santana,” Russo
said. “He did but Jared was able to beat him. I knew how tough Sean was. He could
have very easily won (state) as a freshman.”
Santana didn’t place at the tournament and said he was disappointed with
his performance. He worked meticulously through the spring and summer. All the hard work
paid off when he won state the following year at 135 pounds.
The improvement between his freshman and sophomore year was huge, Santana
said. His confidence was high at the state tourney.
“I kind of expected it to make it to the semis but after the first or
second day, I thought I was capable of winning it,” he said.
He followed his sophomore season with another state title last year, this
time at 140 pounds. Again, he wrestled all the way through the spring and summer until the
vertebrae problem became too painful.
“I don’t know,” Santana said of when the injury happened.
“I think it happened during football but I wrestled with it throughout the year.
During my junior year, it didn’t really bother me but I could kind of feel it at
times. But after the collegiate season, I went to freestyle and (Greco-Roman) and I could
really feel it and it hurt pretty bad so I had to get it checked out.”
Santana said he was hoping the pain was going to be a muscle spasm, but it
turned out to be far more serious. He said his injury would hamper his ability to get in a
wrestling stance but it didn’t effect his everyday life.
“But it was going to start if I didn’t get it fixed,” he said.
“I didn’t need to have surgery but it was the only way I was going to
wrestle again.”
Santana wanted to wrestle again but it wasn’t going to be at McNary. His
mother still lives in Newberg and he said he wanted to live with his mom this year.
Already knowing classmates from his elementary school days, Santana said the transition
was easier than he thought.
“I knew a lot of people coming in,” he said. “I was happy I
made the transition. I wasn’t scared at all.”
The differences between the McNary program and Newberg’s program are
vast, Santana said.
“I think it’s a lot better run program than McNary and the coaching
staff is a lot better, too,” he said. “They’re a lot more involved in the
sport than McNary was.”
After the season ends, several wrestlers continue to work in the spring and
summer at Newberg. At McNary, Santana seemed to be the lone soul who continued to wrestle
in the off season.
“These guys want to come in after the season,” he said. “At
McNary, when the season was over, it was over.”
While at Newberg, Santana has been wrestling up a few weights. He will
wrestle at 145 this season, but in the preseason he wrestled at 152 and even at 160 a few
times. Santana said wrestling at 160 is a challenge.
“Those guys are bigger and you can definitely feel the strength
difference,” he said.
Santana said he wasn’t surprised Russo put him in the lineup in the
upper weights.
“It’s whatever is best for the team,” he said. “Whatever helps
the team out and whatever is best for the team. If it’s better for the team, I
don’t care (what weight he wrestles).”
At a tournament in Pasco, Wash., earlier this season, a sick Santana lost his
first match in more than two years.
“I think it was a little bit tough for him, but it might turn out to be
a fairly positive thing,” Russo said. “No disrespect to the kid who beat him,
but I don’t think he would beat Sean one out of 100 times if Sean is even close to
healthy. But he’s over that and he’s moved on.”
Now that he’s at Newberg, Russo said Santana is a wrestler every
opponent wants to defeat.
“He’s got a big bulls-eye on his chest and coming here has done
nothing but made it glow in the dark,” Russo said. “He knows that and I think he
kind of relishes that. We’ll see how he responds to that in the next month or so when
things get hot and heavy.”
When the wrestling season picks back up this week, Santana will head toward
the home stretch of his high school career. While others have dominated competition by
pure speed or brute strength, Santana uses a different route to defeat opponents.
“He’s fundamentally sound and he’s always in good
position,” Russo said. “He smothers people. If he gets you off balance,
you’re probably not going to recover. He just smothers you. If he gets you turned,
he’s going to take you down. If he gets an angle, he’s going to beat you with it
and what I think he does better than anybody in the state right now is that he keeps
constant pressure on people and his position is so good.”
Santana’s wrestling abilities have already landed him a partial
scholarship to the University of Oregon. Santana said University of Oregon wrestling
coaches began looking at him after his first state title but it was his trip to Eugene
that settled it for Santana.
“I went down there for my visit and the campus is beautiful and I liked
what the school had to offer and just everything about it, the wrestling program, the
coaches and the guys,” he said.
Russo, an Oregon State University alum, said an NHS wrestler attending the
University of Oregon is something new.
“We give him a hard time about it,” Russo laughed. “We’ve
never had any green and gold in here. As a matter of fact, guys were afraid to wear it ...
now, (other wrestlers) are seeing that he wears it and is surviving and now I’ve got
Oregon gear popping up all over the room.”
Several former Newberg wrestlers have gone on to Oregon State. In fact, four
former NHS wrestlers on the current Beaver roster. Russo said the fact that he attended
Oregon State and that several former NHS wrestlers wrestle for the Beavers is a
coincidence.
“It just so happens that we have a bunch of kids there and it happened
to be a good fit for them but it wasn’t a good fit for Sean and the University of
Oregon is,” Russo said. “I’m happy for him that he’s some place that
he’s going to get better and help him pursue those goals he has at the next level.
“I don’t think I’ll be wearing any University of Oregon stuff
any time soon, but I’ll certainly have one Duck that I can root for anyway.” |
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From Jan. 7,
2004, Newberg Graphic
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