Started from the bottom

Senior Dylan Moreno shares his passion for wrestling throughout his four years at Downey High School. “I use to play football but I stopped just to wrestle,” Dylan Moreno said.

Mia Dixon-Slaughter, Co-Editor-in-Cheif
February 11, 2015

Senior Dylan Moreno has worked his way up the totem pole since his freshman year in wrestling and is now ranked 13th in the state in the 160 pounds category.

Moreno started wrestling his freshmen year and was not very good since he was coming from football and had no experience in wrestling. In his very first tournament he only won 1 out 4 matches.

“At first I thought the sport wasn’t for me since I came into the room after football season and didn’t know anything,” Moreno said, “so I struggled a bit.”

After slowly improving more and more as the season progressed, Moreno found that he just needed practice. With the help of his coaches, the wrestler now has skills in wrestling.

“At practice, I definitely work a lot harder; that’s where I work on all my technique and get stronger,” Moreno said. “I constantly drill the same moves and different situations for two hours.”

Senior Carlos Rivas practices with Moreno and says that he is always excited to get to work and motivate his team.

“He’s really energetic,” Rivas said. “He’ll even do a back flip occasionally to warm up, and he’s the kind of guy who will push the people to try harder.”

After becoming one of the top wrestlers in the team his junior year, Moreno became co-captain along side his teammates Andrew Lopez and Carlos Rivas, who are also co-captains.

At the end of Moreno’s junior season in wrestling, he was given an honorable mention by The California Wrestler. Soon after that he beat two state-ranked wrestlers and was ranked 27th in the state in his weight class. Since then he has been moving up ranks and is now 13th in the state.

The wrestler is excited to get his achievements recognized by being added to Downey High’s hall of fame in the B-building hallway but has to wait to show off his picture on the wall.

Principle Tom Houts jokingly taunts Moreno with the idea that his picture is going up on the wall, just not yet.

“He’ll get his picture on the wall after he graduates,” Houts said, “just like everybody else now.”

Moreno is excited to finish off his final season in varsity wrestling this year, hoping to move up even more in the state ranks. He aspires to get an offer from a school to wrestle so that he may continue his wrestling career in college.

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About the Contributor

Mia Dixon-Slaughter, Co-Editor-in-Cheif

Mia Dixon-Slaughter, Co-Editor-in-Chief of The Downey Legend, stepped into the world of journalism 3 years ago as a sophomore. After a great deal of persuasion from her two best friends, who were on staff at the time, Dixon-Slaughter submitted her application at the semester and was welcomed shortly after. “I love writing and always have,” Slaughter said, “but I’ve always stuck strictly to literature so branching out into a different style and type of writing has helped me develop as a writer.” Although writing essays and covering stories can be polar opposites, the writer adjusted without much trouble. During her time at The Downey Legend, she has covered numerous stories, fiddled with the camera, and established the newspaper’s credibility on social media. She is competent enough to know what it takes to have efficient deadlines; all Slaughter has to do now is to guide her staff in that direction.

If the writer is not covering stories happening around school, she is still somehow always somewhere on campus. Juggling AP classes, an ASB position, and her role in newspaper, Slaughter often finds herself with a hectic schedule. This being said, when genuine free time presents itself, she takes full advantage of it. “I love getting lost or ending up in places spontaneously because it feels so great to not have an agenda sometimes,” Dixon-Slaughter said. While the senior is busy getting ready for college and balancing out the rest of her responsibilities, she hopes to provide the staff with an exemplary example of the amount of greatness that can rise from commitment.