Sunrise Mountain wrestler Alex Herrera looks to avoid bizarre injury bug
Senior wrestlers have different goals. For most, it’s win a championship. Some try to earn a scholarship, some with injury history try to get out of the season with their limbs intact.
Alex Herrera is simply trying to finish the season.
Sunrise Mountain’s senior standout has had freak injuries end his previous three seasons prematurely, and it’s stunted what could have been a decorated career, one he resumes Friday when the Miners start their season.
“Hopefully this year he doesn’t get anything, everybody knock on wood,” teammate Jose Lara said with a chuckle. “We’ll put bubble wrap on him in the last week.”
Herrera’s career began with a promising freshman campaign that earned him a call-up to the varsity squad for the region tournament. Or it would have, had a case of shingles not put him on the bench.
During his sophomore year he came down with ringworm at the region tournament; that prevented him from competing in the state tournament.
Last season, it wasn’t a skin disease that sidelined him, but a concussion when a teammate’s knee came down on his head during warmups. It was the final match before the region tournament, and he didn’t see the mat for the rest of the year.
“You see a kid that’s really put in work and done all the things you’ve asked of him, to be cut short for something he can’t do anything about is devastating,” Sunrise Mountain coach Derek Lopez said. “It’s absolutely bizarre. It’s like not again, no way, seriously? There’s no way that just happened.”
On top of that, he had surgery to repair both labrums after his sophomore season. He tore the right one in his freshman year and did not know it until a year later, and he tore the left during track season pole vaulting.
“Yeah, I made state with a broken shoulder,” said a grinning Herrera, who this year will compete at 170 pounds.
Herrera leads a Sunrise Mountain team looking to continue an upward trajectory. The Miners annually finish near the bottom of the Class 3A Southern Region standings, but have increased their region meet point total each of the past four years. They had four state qualifiers last year, with two of them returning, and that doesn’t count Herrera, whom Lopez believed would have qualified.
“It’s going in the right direction, just slow steps,” Lopez said.
While the Sunrise Mountain program won’t rely on Herrera for success, he might be its best chance of having the first state placer in school history.
With three seasons ending early, it’s natural to worry what could go wrong this year. But Herrera has developed a positive attitude and said he’s just happy to be on the mat.
“When I started the preseason this year in the summertime, I was a little scared,” Herrera said. “But right now, I’m looking at it like I’m having fun, because when you’re scared and you’re wrestling really scared is usually when you get hurt.
“Whatever happens, happens. I’ve put in enough work, a lot of work, so if I get to win, if I don’t, let’s do it. I’m just here having fun.”
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Contact Justin Emerson at jeme
