Opportunity Knocks For Frosh Hopefuls On The Mat

Wrestling is one sport where freshmen can make an impact right away.

You get to pick on someone your own size --- and usually the same age --- when you make the jump from a successful feeder program like Evanston’s to a potential varsity starter.

Recent history proves the point. Rodrigo Salinas racked up 41 varsity wins last year as a freshman, responding when opportunity knocked for the son of Evanston coach Rudy Salinas in his first try as a varsity athlete.

The Wildkits open the 2024-25 season on Tuesday at home with a quad meet versus Hope Academy, Lane Tech and Ida Crown Academy with three freshmen expected to crack the starting lineup.

Salinas won’t be in the lineup --- he’s sidelined for the season following knee surgery last week, the result of a football injury. And the graduation of 14 seniors from last year’s team that posted a 14-12 dual meet record means there are plenty of holes to fill in that lineup.

How quickly freshmen like Nick Arend (106 pounds), Art Bytyqi (157) and Musa Amin (165) can grow from boys to men may determine just what kind of progress ETHS can make as a team this season.

“I’m super excited about those three freshmen,” said Coach Salinas, noting that all three hopefuls qualified for State as youth standouts in multiple seasons. “Their attitude is why not me, why not now? And if you’re going to lose (as a team), it’s better to lose young. And if you’re going to win, you want to win young.

“We did lose 14 seniors, but only four of them were actually in the lineup at the end of the season. And we were better at the end of the season as a team than we were at the start, and that’s what you want every season.”

The youngest Salinas brother tore his ACL in Evanston’s football opener against Saint Viator and the family opted to delay his surgery and avoid the temptation to rush him back into action on the mat by the end of the season.

So at least for the 2024-25 campaign, he’ll join older brothers Ricardo and Rafael as a coach for ETHS and will likely fall short of his personal goal to surpass them both as the two winningest grapplers in program history.

Ricardo, a 2021 graduate, won 166 matches during his varsity career and Rafael, a 2019 grad, posted 159 wins in his decorated career.

“He wants to wrestle in college and there was no reason for us to push it (and try to get him back in action for his sophomore year),” said Coach Salinas. “I know that when all good things come to an end, others begin for you and he’s going to help us as a coach. He’s already doing a good job of coaching up his teammates and he’s handling it (the injury) with a tremendous amount of maturity.”

While the Evanston coach is hoping those three incoming freshman are game-changers right from the start, the Kits’ top returnee is junior heavyweight Jeremy Marshall. He emerged as a state medalist threat last year in high school when he won 41 of 52 matches, including 27 pins, and will try to build on an All-American performance over the summer as he helped Team Illinois’ all-star squad win a national championship.

Marshall placed 8th at 285 pounds at Nationals and became the first ETHS product to earn All-American recognition at the Under-16 event for elite grapplers.

Another top returnee is Evan Potijinda, who fashioned an 18-10 won-loss record at 126.

“Jeremy really established himself over the summer and he’s looking to build on that,” said the Evanston coach. “He could have been a state qualifier (in high school) last year, but he just fell a little bit short. He keeps working at his craft and hopefully he can put it all together this year.

“He knows he belongs now (with the top heavyweights in Illinois) and now he has to focus on the path he takes through the regional and sectional. He’s always had big dreams and he’s talented and he’s putting in the hard work. Now all he needs is just the preparation and the opportunity to succeed.

“As far as our team goes, though, this could be considered a rebuilding year. We’ve got a lot of bodies, but we don’t have a lot of season veterans. We want to win as many as we can and we want to do better in conference this year. Last year was the first time in my career we didn’t win a conference dual (in the Central Suburban League South division) and that’s not the kind of history we wanted to make. We could have easily been 3-2, but we lost to Glenbrook South, New Trier and Glenbrook North by one match.”

Salinas is also in charge of the fledgling ETHS girls program, which floundered a bit due to injuries last season and only had one sectional qualifier, Fatima Gomez at 190 pounds. The list of returning starters for this year also includes senior Jereni Marshall at 235, senior Kennedy Murray, junior Kyra Rivera at 120, freshman Samantha Albaugh at 115, and senior Coco Herro at 135.

Murray, who played linebacker for Evanston’s Elite Eight girls flag football team in the fall, is coming off a 14-5 season on the mat as well. Marshall is the senior sibling of Jeremy, and even though Evanston had girls in the program before Salinas took over as head coach, this is the first brother-sister combination the Kits have had in their mat history.

“It’s great having Jeremy and Jereni in the practice room every day and I know they enjoy it,” Salinas said. “Jereni (15-3 as a junior) was the team manager as a freshman and I know she really enjoys the sport. We’re looking for big things from her. She had an injury so she wasn’t in the regional lineup last year, and she’s really learned how to express herself through our sport.

“It’s still a young sport for the girls and we’re trying to create a culture for them. More girls are getting drawn into it thanks to the PE (physical education) teachers here and (new assistant athletic director) Brittanny Johnson and this year we’re going to add a full girls bracket for the Elias George Invitational (Dec. 7th at ETHS), too.”