Seymour senior wrestler peaking in final season

January 30, 2019

Gabe Ramirez said he enjoys getting on a wrestling mat and battling an opponent for as long as it takes to get a win.

“I enjoy the competition,” the Seymour High School senior said. “I’m really competitive in a lot of ways. Wrestling is one of those sports that’s based on my own ability and it just allows me to go as far as I can based on my own ability.”

Ramirez began wrestling as an eighth-grader.

“In eighth grade a couple of my football buddies wanted to try it out, and that is when wrestling pretty much started for me,” Ramirez said.

He sat out his freshman year, then due to sickness and other problems he didn’t get to wrestle as many matches his sophomore year as he was hoping to.

He moved into the varsity line up at heavyweight (285) his junior year.

This Saturday, he looks forward to wrestling in the Jeffersonville Regional for the second straight year after being a sectional champion last Saturday.

He was a No. 1 seed entering the sectional.

“At the start of a match I normally feel my opponent out,” Ramirez said. “It’s more of a mind game than anything, especially at heavyweight because all of the guys you wrestle are pretty much going to be stronger than you, and you can’t let that get to you.”

Ramirez said he was able to score points before his opponents in 24 of his 28 regular-season matches this season.

Ramirez, who tops the Owls in pins with 13 (entering the sectional), said his favorite pinning move is a crossface.

He has won 23 matches this season, which makes him one of the leaders on the team. With the experience he enjoyed last year he was able to start out this season with more confidence and more success than he did his junior year.

He said at the end of last season, “I got to my offense a lot more toward the end of the year and it just really worked out for me. This year I’ve definitely improved on my offense so hopefully I can go a little further (than last year).”

Ramirez said he and the team have wrestled a lot of good opponents this season, especially at the Mooresville Classic.

“At Mooresville, especially at the heavyweight class, it is a very tough tournament,” he said. “I wrestled a lot of good heavyweights. I went overtime with the No. 1 seed. The schedule was improved a lot from last year. We wrestled a lot more competitive teams, a lot more tougher teams. It’s helped our team get over a mental barrier.”

He feels that practice leads to success.

“I’ve been preparing a lot, I’ve been working hard,” Ramirez said. “I like the bond you build with the guys. We’ve all been through the sport. It’s a tough sport and you really can’t get through it without support.”

Ramirez enjoyed serving as a team captain this season.

“It’s a nice feeling to be able to be a captain, especially in this program because this program is going to be good. We have a lot of young talent this year,” Ramirez said.

“I’m definitely going to look back on a lot of the tough defeats just because it’s something that I don’t like. I don’t like losing, but it’s going to be in my mind that it made me work harder in the long run, and I’m definitely going to look back on the bonds I’ve made with these people.”

He has enjoyed being a student at SHS.

“Some of the classes are challenging. Since the teachers are nice, you’re able to get through them,” Ramirez said.

[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”Ramirez file” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]

Name: Gabe Ramirez

High school: Seymour

Parents: Melinda and Carlos Ramirez

Siblings: Aiden, Rachel, Manuel

Sports: wrestling 3 years

Athletic highlights: 2019 sectional champion, 2-time regional qualifier, semi-state qualifier in 2018, undefeated at Brown County Invite

No posts to display