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60 | NATIONAL WRESTLING HALL OF FAME & MUSEUM LATINO WRESTLING EXPERIENCE Wrestling has endured a period of declining participation at the collegiate level as unfortunately, many institutions of higher learning have discontinued the sport over the past four decades. A quick perusal of the Latino wrestlers noted in this work clearly demonstrates this trend. For example, when writing about athletes who competed for UCLA, Utah State, Montana, Washington and other schools, it was dramatic to see how many institutions which had fielded nationally ranked programs no longer field squads. While this is a troubling trend, it does not mean that there are not significant glimmers of hope for the sport, with the role of Latinos at the high school level one such glimmer. Coaches such as Martin Segovia and David Quirino of Garden City and Randall High Schools are instructive in making this argument. Both men, of Mexican American backgrounds, come from hard working families that lived in the Garden City and Amarillo areas. Both wrestled collegiately at the University of Nebraska-Kearney (UNK) in the early 1990s, and then returned to their communities to work in education. The Garden City High School Buffaloes have had a sporadic level of success in various sports; including state titles in football and basketball. But, if there is one sport that has dominated the athletic history of GCHS, it has been wrestling, beginning with the arrival in 1985 of legendary coach Rocky Welton who led his team to six of the school's seven wrestling crowns including four consecutively from1990-1993. When Welton retired in 1999, he handed the reigns over to Martin Segovia. As an athlete, Segovia won a title for the school in 1990, and then went on to become a three time All American at 134 pounds for the UNK Antelopes from1993-1995, including two second-place NCAA finishes. After graduation, Segovia returned to his hometown to teach at his alma mater and continue the tradition of wrestling excellence. He was the head coach between 2000 and 2007 and has served as athletic director for the school since 2008. Given the demographic changes that have taken place in Garden City over the past three decades, many of Segovia's charges are of Latino (mostly Mexicano) background. Even before the transformation of the community's population, however, there had been earlier Latinos who excelled at wrestling for the Buffaloes, including state champions Al Gomez in 1974 and Joe Arellano in 1980. More recent Latino Kansas state title-holders include AJ Hurtado and Anthony Calderon in 2011. The most recent man placed in charge of this program is another Latino, Carlos Prieto. The story for David Quirino is similar, though he hails from the panhandle area of the Lone Star State. Quirino was attracted to wrestling during junior high school because of a youth program in Amarillo. He eventually came to the attention of another legendary coach, Johnny Cobb at Tascosa High School. Quirino graduated from THS in 1990, after winning a state title for the Rebels and then moved on to UNK; completing his degree and Marine Corp training by 1995. Like his friend, he also returned to his hometown and began teaching and coaching. At first, he did not meet with much success, and actually thought about quitting halfway through his first campaign. When the Rebels won their first dual meet in 1998-99, however, Quirino was on his way. The results have been impressive and include: 11 top-10 finishes at state, eight top-three finishes at state, and two state titles, in 2008 and 2009. Only Dallas Highland Park, which draws from a much larger population base, can claim such dominance in Texas high school wrestling. In 2012, Quirino was inducted into the Texas Wrestling Coaches Hall of Honor. The story of these two men is being replayed in coaches' offices and wrestling mats throughout the nation. The benefits of the sport -- the self-reliance and determination that it takes to be great -- are being handed down to the next generation. Whereas many Latinos are not of sufficient bulk or stature to participate in football and basketball, wrestling, because it provides an opportunity to compete no matter one's size, is opening the doors for athletic competition for the generation of Spanish-surnamed young men and women who are moving into "newer" areas of concentration in places such as Kansas, Iowa, and elsewhere. The sport of wrestling does have a bright future, and Latinos (and Latinas) will surely be a part of it. University of Nebraska-Kearney DAVID QUIRINO MARTIN SEGOVIA University of Nebraska-Kearney DAVID QUIRINO MARTIN SEGOVIA