Daily Journal Boys’ Wrestler of the Year: M-A’s Eric Ruiz

Ruiz’s success on the mat relative to his inexperience drew him high praise from M-A head coach Wendy Tabaldo, who compared him to another of the school’s wrestling legends — girls’ wrestler Alexia Bensoussan, who arrived at M-A a tennis player in 2019, then discovered wrestling and developed into a two-time CCS champion, as well as the Daily Journal Girls’ Wrestler of the Year in 2022.

“Everyone knows his story,” Tabaldo said, “and it’s not so much the growth that he made, it’s his work ethic. It’s his ability to learn and to take what coach gives him and apply it, and apply it in such a way that the result is instant.”

Now, he has something else in common with Bensoussan, as Ruiz has been named the Daily Journal Boys’ Wrestler of the Year.

Ruiz’s athletic career started in classic little brother fashion. With three older siblings, Ruiz tried to take after his oldest brother Victor by playing football. Victor certainly had talent on the gridiron, moving from Woodside to a community college playing career at Foothill College. However, the younger Ruiz ultimately decided football wasn’t for him. His other brother David was also a collegiate athlete as a soccer player, moving from Woodside to the four-year men’s program at Cal State San Marcos. Soccer, though, was never little brother’s cup of tea.

So, Ruiz decided to go his own way. A lifelong enthusiast of combat sports, pivoting from the gridiron to the mat seemed like a natural move. Ruiz took his first jiu jitsu when he was 6, then moved on the MMA club Rogue Empire in East Palo Alto when he was in eighth grade. By his freshman year of high school, he had branched out to boxing and Muay Thai.

“Honestly I just wanted to better myself,” Ruiz said. “It has a lot to do with my brothers. Being the youngest of three brothers and one older sister, I’ve seen the dedication that my older brothers have put into the sports. ... I guess all I wanted was to prove myself to them. I wanted to prove I was as good as them, or even prove that I was better than them.”

After his first year wrestling as a novice at Woodside, Ruiz made the leap that would change his life, joining Royalty Wrestling Club on the campus of M-A, run by Wendy Tabaldo’s son and M-A assistant coach Royal Tabaldo.

The summer session had such an impact on Ruiz, he lasted three weeks at Woodside as a junior before transferring to M-A. His brother David having graduated from Woodside the year before had a lot to do with, as did his proximity to M-A, living just 10 minutes from campus. The fast connection with Royalty Wrestling was the main reason, though.

“Honestly, I wish I did it sooner,” Ruiz said. “I love my brothers, I love my friends at Woodside, but honestly, if I was able to get the coaching that Coach Royal and Coach Wendy gave me, if I was able to get that since sophomore year, I would have been able to improve quicker. I would have been able to improve a lot more. I would have been able to be a better wrestler in general.”

How far Ruiz has come in such a short time was apparent in the final match for third place at the CCS Masters Tournament at Independence High School-San Jose.

Matching up with North Salinas senior Jason Valencia, Ruiz won a tactical pin. He jumped ahead by scoring a single-leg takedown, turning it into an Iranian lift to gain position and executing an arm lever. When Valencia shifted his body weight, Ruiz capitalized and earned the whistle with a fall 31 seconds into the second round.

“Of course, I’m always striving for first but at the same time, a lot of these kids have been wrestling a lot longer than me,” Ruiz said. “So, my goal at CCS was to get that third, because I knew I could achieve it. ... I think I was pretty satisfied with my third-place match.”

Two years prior, Ruiz had never even heard of an Iranian lift, let alone being ready to attempt one.

“Definitely not,” Ruiz said. “At Woodside, I wasn’t really learning much besides a head and arm.”

Learning to wrestle through pain was one of Ruiz’s most recent lessons.

At the start of his senior year, during a practice in December, Ruiz suffered a ligament tear of the right thumb. He had two options — let it rest and miss a substantial chunk of his senior season, or tape it up and power through the pain. Ruiz chose the latter.

“He made the decision to finish the season and see how far he can go,” Tabaldo said. “Yeah, that was hard. ... He was pretty much being held together by duct tape.”

In advancing to the state tournament in Bakersfield for the second straight year, Ruiz was still plagued by the thumb injury.

“My thumb was flopping around during all these matches,” Ruiz said.

While he didn’t reach the podium — not one San Mateo County boys’ wrestler did this season, and Burlingame senior Lauren Aguilar, the Daily Journal Girls’ Wrestler of the Year, was the only county wrestler to do so overall — Ruiz did post a 2-2 record, despite opening the tournament facing the No. 3 seed, Pitman junior Mason Ontiveros.

In fact, Ruiz faced each of the three top seeds throughout the state in the postseason, including No. 1 Tyler Else, a Gilroy senior, at the CCS Masters Tournament, and No. 2 Dylan Pile, a Los Gatos senior, the week previous at the CCS Northern Regionals.

That’s pretty good company, considering Ruiz set foot on his first wrestling mat two years ago. The improvements, Wendy Tabado said, have been immeasurable.

“Leaps and bounds,” Tabaldo said. “The growth he made in the two seasons he was with us was astronomical. ... For him to be a two-time state qualifier is a huge jump in his time on the wrestling mat.”