When Javier Tapia was a freshman at Capital High School, he won the 5A New Mexico state championship, in February 2016, in the 132-pound weight class.
When he transferred to Pojoaque, in August 2016, he went up 20 pounds and competed at 152 pounds. Again, he won the state championship.
This year, Tapia’s goal is to make it to the 182-pound class, and win a state championship there.
He will drop weight divisions for certain meets, to get better competition, but he will aim for the 182-pound state championship.
This will be Tapia’s second season at Pojoaque Valley High School, where the junior is the captain of a team that has only existed for two years.
Last season was the first for Pojoaque wrestling, headed by Tapia’s father, Johnny Tapia.
He started the program, and last year, the Elks broke into the top 10 teams in division 4A. Javier Tapia was the lone state champion among the Elks, but senior John Chavez also took third place in the state in the 195-pound weight class.
“It’s kind of hard to start a program from scratch, but we will hold our own,” he said.
The signs of a recently created wrestling program are evident, even with the state champion pedigree that the Elks possess. The wrestling room is small, with wrestlers often jostling for space.
“I wish we had a bigger room, but beggars can’t be choosers,” Johnny Tapia said. “At least we have a wrestling room.”
There are a number of new wrestlers this year, and Johnny Tapia has to actively recruit athletes from around campus. The number of recent additions to the program, though, is a positive sign.
“This year, we had more kids come out,” Javier Tapia said. “So, I’m excited about that. More kids are realizing that this is a really good sport and it helps you in everything that you do.”
The program lost five seniors to graduation, but Johnny Tapia believes the Elks are still in better shape than last year.
Six wrestlers are returning this season and they bring with them, a year of experience.
“Practices got a lot easier this year, when we started off,” Johnny Tapia said. “They remembered a lot of their moves, so we could go into more advanced stuff.”
Sophomore Sebastian Rubio was one of those returning wrestlers, and he already feels the positive effects of having a season of wrestling under his belt.
Last week, the Elks had a scrimmage against Española Valley High School and Rubio discovered he was more aggressive than last year, and came out much stronger than he did in his freshman season.
“I came back feeling motivated, now that I have a lot of experience,” he said.
The Elks have a fairly full line-up, but are missing wrestlers in two weight classes — the bottom two.
They do not have anybody to compete in the 106-pound and 113-pound weight divisions and recruiting smaller wrestlers is a work in progress.
With another year of the program, Pojoaque is poised for a more confident start to the season.
They have experienced wrestlers in the majority of the weight classes and they have a captain with an undefeated record to his name.
“The guys now see what I was able to do last year, so they’re actually open-minded to what I have to say,” Javier Tapia said.