Daily Journal Boys’ Wrestler of the Year: Serra’s Sebastian Garcia

“He was the first wrestler in school history to win the Sierra Nevada,” Serra wrestling coach Mike Klobuchar said. “At that point I knew, there’s something special.” 

The Daily Journal Boys’ Wrestler of the Year, Garcia started wrestling for Serra as a freshman and made an immediate impact, becoming the program’s first freshman to ever place at the Central Coast Section Masters tournament. Garcia’s wrestling journey had begun two years prior, and by high school, he had already spent several years training at the Daniel Cormier Wrestling Academy. 

Klobuchar said Garcia’s greatest improvement came between his freshman and sophomore years, where he participated in the USA Wrestling circuit.

“From freshman to sophomore year, he wrestled a lot of USA wrestling tournaments,” Klobuchar said. “He pretty much got almost 100 matches during that time.”

Garcia performed well enough in offseason tournaments to qualify for the U.S. Marine Corps Junior & 16U Nationals in Fargo, North Dakota, after his sophomore season. Garcia suffered his meniscus injury while preparing for the tournament. With the injury, Garcia lost the opportunity to compete with the nation’s best wrestlers, instead facing months of rehab and recovery. 

“Every day I reminded myself, it’s an injury and it’s a little setback but it’s never going to stop me from doing what I love,” Garcia said. “Always in the morning I looked at myself in the mirror and I told myself to push through it.” 

After seven months of recovery, Garcia stepped back onto the mat for his junior season and dominated, setting Serra’s single-season record for wins with 47, a record that had stood since 1993. In the same season, Garcia also set Serra’s record for pins with 32. 

“He’s pretty much been breaking all the school records and our program has been around for 40 years,” Klobuchar said. “He’s one in a million.” 

During the time Garcia was recovering from his injury, Klobuchar noticed Garcia’s commitment to rehabbing his injury and spending time in the weight room. 

“That little setback that I had with my meniscus changed my mentality,” Garcia said. “It almost motivated me to do my best.”

Garcia’s struggles continued into his junior season as he suffered a collarbone injury shortly after the Sierra Nevada tournament. The injury led Garcia to sit out the Doc Buchanan Invitational, losing another chance to display his talent on a national stage.

“I really wanted to wrestle at Doc B, but with the injury I was like, maybe it’s best to save myself because these matches do matter for state seedings,” Garcia said.

Klobuchar supported the decision, saying that Garcia’s willingness to protect his health for future tournaments was a testament to the maturity he’d developed throughout high school. Klobuchar said Garcia has grown not only as a wrestler but also as a leader and student.

“He said: ‘Hey, I want to go to college, I think I want to compete there,’” Klobuchar said. “You not only have to perform on the mat but also in the classroom, and for him to work hard in the classroom and get his grades to where a lot of colleges would accept him was awesome.”

Despite Garcia’s spectacular season, he fell just short of getting a medal at the CIF State Wrestling Championships, an achievement he had been working toward for several years. Garcia led the blood round match — which determined whether he would receive a state medal — on points until his opponent got a last-second takedown. 

“It was pretty hard to process that,” Garcia said. “I walked off, and I was pretty upset with myself. I tried calming myself down, and I told myself I would have to move on from it.” 

In his senior season, Garcia will have a chance to redeem his state championship loss and chase one more piece of Serra wrestling history in the process. Garcia has accumulated 103 wins at Serra, only 12 short of the school record. 

“He’s that kid that just puts in all the extra work,” Klobuchar said. “He’s always working hard to fine tune and get better. Next year, he has some lofty goals, and he’ll hopefully reach them all.”