Editor’s note: Union-Tribune contributor Don Norcross and photographer Kristian Carreon shadowed two-time state qualifier Emilio Escobar of Granite Hills High School at the CIF Division 1 championships on Saturday. What follows is a day in the life of a high school wrestler.
Emilio Escobar wakes up on Saturday not to the sound of his cell phone alarm but to his mother knocking on his bedroom door at 5:30 a.m.
“Emilio,” his mother said, “aren’t you supposed to be at school at 5:30?”
Escobar mistakenly set his alarm for 4 p.m., not 4 a.m. The team is scheduled to leave Granite Hills High School at 5:30 a.m. for the 37-minute drive to Del Norte High School. Doors are scheduled to close at Del Norte at 7 a.m. for weigh-ins.
Arrive late and, barring a traffic accident, you’re disqualified.
Later, Escobar said: “My heart rate was through the roof when I saw the time.”
“I tell you one thing,” said Granite Hills coach Jesse Sheard. “You can’t be late to court, and you can’t be late to a wrestling tournament.”
The 5-foot-4 Escobar, who wrestles at 122 pounds, had organized his wrestling clothing, food and drinks the night before. The senior is out the front door in 10 minutes, at Granite Hills five minutes later. He weighs in at school (one pound under) and heads to Del Norte with two teammates.
With dawn breaking and a sliver of the moon still hanging in the sky at 6:35 a.m., Escobar beats the doors-closed, weigh-in deadline by 25 minutes. His anxiety doesn’t subside until he stands on an official scale and comes in one pound under.
“I get nervous every time I step on the scale,” said Escobar, who said he has never missed weight in his four years as a varsity wrestler. “Even if I’m a pound or two under, you never know. The scale might be off.”
At Del Norte, wrestlers close to being overweight spit into paper cups before stepping on a scale. Others wipe their sweaty backs with a towel. There are tales of wrestlers standing on their heads in an attempt to sweat more before weigh-ins.
“It’s a barbaric sport,” said Sheard.
Some 269 wrestlers in 14 weight classes, from 108 pounds to 287, weigh in. Twelve fail to make weight.
Having not eaten since Friday morning, Escobar opens his cooler and digs in, eating a rice cake with peanut butter and honey, plus a banana. A one-gallon jug of fluids is seemingly glued to his left hand the entire day.
Emilio Escobar stands on a scale during weigh-ins at the CIF San Diego Division 1 championship meet at Del Norte High School on Saturday, Feb. 14, 2026. Escobar weighed 122 pounds. (Kristian Carreon / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Weigh-ins over, the wrestlers warm up on all four mats. It’s controlled chaos. Some teams jog around the four mats in single-file lines, weaving around grapplers. Other wrestlers resemble gymnasts, cartwheeling and tumbling about.
Wrestlers pair off, practicing moves at light speed. Escobar runs in place, pumping his arms. He shadow wrestles, dropping to the mat for burpies and spars with a teammate.
With warmups complete, Granite Hills’ wrestlers step outside for final motivational words from a 10-deep coaching staff.
“Win and advance. Win and advance. That’s all this should be about,” said Sheard. “Be dominant.”
Then 77-year-old assistant coach Guy Gist, a crew-cut Navy veteran who cranked out 77 pushups on his birthday last week, steals the moment.
“Be there! Be there! Be right in your opponent’s face,” said Gist, his voice rising. “You’re tough. You’re gonna grind. You’re gonna grind. Don’t give ’em an inch, don’t let ’em breathe. When you get an escape, back step, down block, not necessarily for defense (but) because you’re ready to attack. Down block. Change your level.
“Attack, especially if they let down. Same way when you let a guy go. (Wrestlers often intentionally let an opponent escape so they can score more points via takedowns and near falls.) You follow him. When he turns around, you’re gonna be there. Make him think you’re a goddamn Siamese twin.”
Fired up or not, the Eagles can’t help but laugh at Gist’s last line.
Escobar steps on the mat for the first time at 9:11 a.m. He isn’t there long: 14 seconds, as he scores a takedown against a Mission Hills wrestler, then lets his opponent escape. At 51 seconds, he’s up 9-2 with three takedowns. At 1:38, he puts his opponent out of misery with a pin.
“The coaches were telling me to get some work in, so I let him escape a couple times,” Escobar said. “My takedowns could have been a little cleaner. There wasn’t much to that match.”
It’s nearly two hours before Escobar bounds onto the mat again. He passed most of the time outside beneath the Granite Hills awning, sprawled out on an inflated chair, watching Instagram videos on his cellphone.
“I need something to relax, get my mind off wrestling,” he said. “You get long breaks before you wrestle again. I like to find time to relax, something to distract myself.”
Emilio Escobar browses his phone between matches during the CIF San Diego Division 1 championship meet at Del Norte High School on Saturday, Feb. 14, 2026. (Kristian Carreon / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
His second match was quicker than the first. He scores a takedown against a Calexico wrestler in six seconds. At 43 seconds, his opponent is on his back, pinned.
“It feels good to get on the mat and get right back off with a victory,” Escobar said. “It’s kind of fun to see who on the team can get the quickest pin or quickest takedown.”
This time, Escobar has a nearly three-hour break before his semifinal match. He videotapes a teammate’s match. He goes back outside and eats half of a gonzo sandwich, squeezed with thick slices of roast beef, turkey, ham and cheese on sourdough bread. He eats an Uncrustable, a miniature peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
He hangs out with his mother, Janet, his father, Luis, and his eighth-grade brother Ethan.
Luis shares how the brothers started wrestling six years ago. Emilio hadn’t played any organized sports, in part because he wasn’t interested and because his parents didn’t want him exposed to potential head injuries in football.
“I was kind of a little nerdy,” Emilio said. “I played video games, liked being at home. I was kind of an introvert.”
But brothers being brothers, Emilio and Ethan wrestled on the living-room floor, which annoyed Luis because they’d block his view of the TV.
“A light bulb went off,” said Luis. “Maybe we could look into wrestling.”
Emilio admits he wasn’t good at first.
“I wasn’t winning a lot,” he said. “I hated losing.”
Six years later, he’s the San Diego Section’s second-ranked wrestler at 122 pounds.
Asked what it’s like watching his son at the peak of his high school career, Luis says: “It’s probably the best days of my life.”
Emilio Escobar in action with Carlsbad’s Zephyr Aubuchon during the CIF San Diego Division 1 championship meet at Del Norte High School on Saturday, Feb. 14, 2026. (Kristian Carreon / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
At 2:06 p.m., Escobar steps onto the mat against Rancho Bernardo sophomore Sid Cohen. A year ago, Escobar pinned Cohen in the second period of their CIF match.
This time, Cohen earns a victory, of sorts. He lasted all three periods, six minutes total, Escobar winning a major decision, 10-1.
“I’m disappointed I didn’t get a pin or technical fall (a win by 15 points or more),” said Escobar. “Some wrestlers, they know they’re wrestling somebody above them. They want to keep it close, try to stall out.”
“He has always been one of the best wrestlers at every tournament,” said Cohen. “He seems like a nice guy. Not cocky. A very humble guy.”
It’s nearly another three hours before Escobar wrestles his 122-pound championship match. He attacks the thick sandwich again and later falls asleep for at least half an hour outside on an inflatable chair.
“I slept pretty good,” he said. “The sun beaming down on me gave me some warmth. It felt nice.”
Granite Hills, the section’s second-best wrestling program behind five-time state champion Poway, sends 11 of 14 wrestlers into the championship finals. The team breaks out black singlets for the finals.
“It’s an important moment when the blacks come on,” said Escobar.
At 4:39 p.m., the finalists walk into the gym, forming two lines of 14 wrestlers apiece. The finalists are introduced to the packed gym. The wrestlers meet in the middle of mat No. 1 and shake hands, little to no expression on their faces.
At 4:50 p.m., Escobar walks onto the mat for the final time, facing Carlsbad’s Zephyr Aubochon. This match, too, will not be close. It’s 6-1 after one period, 14-2 after two.
In the middle of the second period, a Granite Hills wrestler asks an assistant coach, “Coach, do we each get a ring if we win?” The coach assures him he’ll be fitted for a ring.
With one second remaining in the final period, Escobar scores a takedown for a 21-5 win. The takedown gives Granite Hills a bonus team point for a technical fall.
Granite Hills wins the team competition handily with 356.5 points. Rancho Bernardo takes second with 239. Of the 11 Granite Hills wrestlers in the finals, nine earn wins, seven by pin or technical fall.
Granite Hills’ Emilio Escobar in action with Calexico’s Emiliano Arellano during the CIF San Diego Division 1 championship meet at Del Norte High School on Saturday, Feb. 14, 2026. (Kristian Carreon / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
What separates Escobar from many of his opponents is his cheetah-like quickness, experience and technical skill.
“He’s two or three steps ahead of his opponents,” said Sheard.
His record this season sits at 37-5.
There’s one other factor that separates Escobar: dedication.
While Escobar advanced to the state meet as a sophomore and junior, he has yet to medal at the state championships. Last year, in what’s called the “blood round,” when a win secures at least an eighth-place medal, he lost by one point.
So four days a week this season, after practices that routinely last at least 90 minutes, Escobar heads to a gym and runs six miles on a treadmill. He takes a picture of the treadmill readout and texts it to an assistant coach for proof.
“He wants to get on that state podium,” said Sheard. “He’s willing to work as hard as it takes. It shows his true dedication and grit.”
Emilio Escobar, holding the trophy, poses with his team, during the CIF San Diego Division 1 championship meet at Del Norte High School on Saturday, Feb. 14, 2026. (Kristian Carreon / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
At the evening’s awards ceremony, Escobar is one of two wrestlers singled out for a sportsmanship award.
Come 6:46 p.m., more than 12 hours after Escobar arrived on the Del Norte campus, it’s pitch black outside. He walks away with his mother, father and brother. His backpack is stuffed with three patches that will be sewn onto his Granite Hills letterman’s jacket: one for his championship at 122 pounds, another for the team title and the sportsmanship award.
He lugs his ever-present one-gallon jug in his left hand.
It has been a good day. But his mind is already thinking ahead to this weekend’s Masters meet. And, barring a stunning turn of events, the state meet.
“Today,” said Escobar, “was just one step closer.”