By Andrew Fierro, Managing Editor

After an incredible season, St. John Bosco wrestling now looks to individual tournaments, as the wrestlers prepare for the CIF, masters and the state championship.

After a long and hard season, the Bosco wrestling team came out as Trinity League champions and finished the season with triumph. Though the season for the team may be over, for the individual wrestlers, it is just beginning. Now, each wrestler will turn his focus to the three tournaments that will determine the 2022 state champion for each weight class.

Going into these tournaments, Braves wrestling program looks to make a statement, as many wrestlers are going in well prepared and extremely focused. Each wrestler going into these tournaments wants to win, and they each know exactly how hard they must work in order to accomplish this goal. Though luckily for these wrestlers at St. John Bosco, hard work is a point of emphasis, and all of the wrestlers going into competition will be ready for what’s in store.

One great example of hard work and dedication is demonstrated by senior Oscar Aranda. He worked hard his entire life leading up until this moment, and he now looks to win a state championship. He knows that there is nothing left for him to do but go out there, wrestle and leave it all on the mat.

“I feel as though I have nothing to lose. I plan on letting it fly, as my coach would say, in these next few tournaments,” said Oscar.

Though he and the rest of the wrestling team may have put in all the work necessary to compete well at these tournaments, it does not take away from the fact that the competition they will be facing is some of the toughest in the nation. For these wrestlers, working hard doesn’t stop on the mat, as they have to make changes to their lifestyle away from practice in order to stay on top of their game going into competition.

“I will change my diet and eat healthier foods. I cut out most sugary drinks and drink lots and lots of water. When practicing, I start to slow the flow of the drilling down. Lastly, I focus on one match at a time,” said Oscar.

Going forward, there is nothing but confidence from the team as each wrestler believes that they can accomplish what they want if they put their effort into it. Though the competition is high, the talent in the wrestling program mixed with the incredible amount of preparation that they put in makes it so that Bosco wrestling has a great chance every year of creating state champions.

“I believe that our energy and all the hard work we have been putting in will allow us to be successful in our tournaments to come. I believe that my whole team has the capability of winning a state title,” said Aranda.

Fellow wrestler, junior Nicco Ruiz, also feels that the team is in a great spot to succeed going into these tournaments. Not only does the team already reflect a strong contender, but they are consistently improving as well.

“I believe that the Bosco team is going to do great. We keep getting better every day,” said Nicco.

Though this may be an exciting time for each wrestler, it is also very difficult for many of the seniors who know this will be their last time wrestling for the program. Even though many of them go on to have prestigious college wrestling careers, leaving St. John Bosco is a big step that is hard for many of the athletes. The same is the case for senior wrestler Abraham Galicia.

“Obviously I’m sad that these are my last couple of tournaments for high school, but I am going to continue wrestling in college so I’m excited for that,” said Abraham.

The wrestlers will be competing this weekend, in the CIF tournament where the top five will move onto the masters, and the top nine from masters will then move on to wrestle for a state championship.

by Ian Cook

St. John Bosco adds on to an already impressive year of athletes signing as they have four more young men sign their letter of intent during Winter Signing Day.

After a successful 2021-2022 season, St. John Bosco Football continues to send more of their student athletes to four year insitutions. Here are the four Braves that will be continuing their athletic and academic careers at the next level:

Defensive Lineman, Jairus Satele-San Jose State University

Cornerback, Tayvion Beasley, Jackson State University. 

Wide Receiver, Chedon James, United States Air Force Academy.

Wide Receiver, Colin Chase, University of St. Thomas. 

These four athletes were a part of the winter signing day which was held at eight A.M. in the gym at Bosco.

With many recruiters, press reporters, and scouts continuing to say Satele is overlooked and underrated, Satele was able to accomplish his goals of continuing his career at San Jose State University after recently decommitting from the Naval Academy. 

“I know I had a great senior year, and it sucked having no offers and looks. But, I just kept trusting the process and supporting my team and where they all committed too, and now it’s paying off,” said Satele. 

In addition, Tayvion Beasely, a three star senior cornerback for the Braves is headed to Jackson Mississippi. To play for football legend Deion Sanders and Jackson State University. 

Beasely had many Power Five schools offering him from his sophomore year all the way to his brief junior year. However, his recruiting stalled due to the extra year of eligibility given to the NCAA Student-Athletes after the 2021 collegiate season. 

After having a great senior season, the Head Coach of Jackson State, Deion Sanders, reached out to Beasely and continued to build a relationship with him which ultimately led him deciding on Jackson State.

“They weren’t even on my list of offers before my season started but put me on the radar. But, the day before signing day Deion Sanders called me and took his chances on me. So, I’m really excited and just thankful to be where I am at,” said Beasely. 

Colin Chase, a two Star wide receiver signed with The University of St. Thomas and was another overlooked athlete similar to Satele. After averaging 32.9 yards per game and three receptions per game, Chase turned the eyes of many scouts and reporters after having to sit out  his first five games due to transfer rules in the fall. 

“I was honestly nervous and surprised about how I was going to perform this season, especially after missing a lot of the games that were against the best teams in the country. But, I just went out there, and did what I could do and was just fortunate to be a part of Bosco football, and am looking forward to St. Thomas in May,” said Chase. 

Last, but certainly not least was wide receiver Chedon James. Chedon in many people’s opinions including his own teammates, coaches, and fans might be the most “underrated player”, they have ever seen. 

Chedon averaged a head turning 68.5 receiving yards per game, and had nine total touchdowns this season. The five foot nine inch senior wide receiver was able to prove many scouts wrong that doubted him because of his size. 

“I think I am one of the better wide receivers in the state. But, at the end of the day I just put the recruiting in God’s hands so that I can make the best decision for myself and I think this was the best route for me and my family,” said James. 

Chedon is headed to Colorado Springs to play for Troy Calhoun and the Air Force Falcons.  

With many St. John Bosco student athletes still uncommitted in a variety of sports, many of them will continue to trust the process and will soon find a place to continue their academic and athletic careers for another four years.

by Ethan Gibbs

Bosco wrestling has continued its dominance with strong individual tournament and team duel showings, which have resulted in a Trinity League dual championship.

On January 22, 2022, Bosco faced off against Orange Lutheran in the JV Trinity League Duels. Bosco came home with the victory with an ending score of 48-33. Giving Bosco the title of Trinity League JV dual champions. 

Shortly after, on January 25th, 2022 Bosco varsity wrestlers faced off against Servite. Junior Nicco Ruiz started a pinning streak which was continued by seniors Oscar Aranda and Abraham Galicia, sophomores Grigor Cholakyan and Mark Ayala and freshmen Joseph Antonio and Nicholas Sahakian. These pins secured another win for Bosco with a score of 48-33. This victory made the Bosco Wrestling program the Trinity League Champions of the 2022 season. 

Though not only has the team as a whole been dominating, as individual wrestlers have been bringing in medals as well. In the Five Countries Invitational, held January 14th-15th, three Bosco wrestlers won titles, Oscar Aranda, Nicco Ruiz and Nicholas Sahakian all placed first in their respective weight classes. These athletes helped Bosco place 2nd as a team at the Invitational. 

These Bosco wrestlers were also crucial in the dual against long-time rival Mater Dei. There was a lot of tension going into this duel but our athletes stepped up to the mat and threw down. The dual ended in a huge victory for Bosco ending in an astonishing 72-6. Going into the match, the Bosco wrestlers were all well prepared and had practiced exactly what they needed to in order to ensure the victory. 

“Nothing really was tough about the dual. We came in prepared and dominated them,” said senior Abraham Galicia.  

Over the break, the Wrestling team worked hard at practice, duels and tournaments. Bosco wrestlers trained hard and consistently during the Winter break in order to stay ready for the upcoming important tournaments and duels. The wrestling team had practice every day and most of the team practiced multiple times a day. They improved conditioning, techniques, takedowns, pinning combinations and were able to find what takedowns work best for each wrestler. 

When facing off against a challenger, Nicco Ruiz reflects on his hard work. He has been wrestling all his life and wants to pursue his wrestling career in college, where he hopes to win an NCAA championship.

“I worked for this. No one can stop me. I put too much time and effort into this,” said junior Nicco Ruiz. 

The wrestlers will now look towards the state championship tournament where they will hope to bring in more prestigious awards to the program.

by Aydn Morris

The Los Angeles Rams took on division rivals, the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC (National Football Conference) championship Sunday where the winner would head to the Superbowl to face off against the Cincinnati Bengals.

The last matchup of the 2021-2022 season for the two California rivals ended with a victory in favor of the Los Angeles as they finally get a win over the 49ers after being swept this season. In previous season matchups the Rams have struggled with defeating the Niners but finally got over that hump with a victory when they needed it most.

The quarterback for the Rams, Matthew Stafford, had a great performance and did an amazing job limiting his turnovers while only throwing one interception in the game which happened on the first drive. He had 337 passing yards on 31 of 45 completions with two touchdowns. This performance may not seem the greatest but there were a lot of miscues in the game with a few dropped passes and one that was a wide open touchdown pass to Ben Skowronek. 

In the week 18 game Stafford didn’t perform as well, he threw for three touchdowns, 232 yards but with two key interceptions including one to seal the game for the 49ers. Stafford has had this target on his back on whether or not he can be a quarterback for a championship caliber team ever since he got to Los Angeles.

Stafford has now silenced the doubters recently with this game and his previous playoff game against Tom Brady and the Buccaneers. Where he threw two touchdown passes for 366 yards and led the Rams on a 63 yard game winning drive with only 42 seconds on the clock resulting with a Matt Gay field goal.

 This was one of Staffords most historic performances because not only did he eliminate Tom Brady and have a game winning drive, he seemed to have played flawlessly throughout the whole game and didn’t cause any turnovers. This is what Rams fans were hoping to get from Stafford again in the NFC championship and they got it.

Rams wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr., was the key determining X factor for the Rams. He had 113 yards on nine receptions and although he had no touchdowns he made countless big plays for the Rams on third downs averaging 12.6 yards per reception. Which was second highest for the Rams behind Cooper Kupp’s 12.9. Kupp had 142 yards on eleven receptions and got the Rams two touchdowns. 

In the Niners perspective their determining X-factor varied through many players as it has for most of the season whether it was the usual Deebo Samuel and George Kittle show, the big run game offence or just a pure defensive game for them. 

“When the Niners play the Rams they focus on the run game, so Deebo Samuel and Elijah Mitchell will have a good game, but our X- factor will be Brandon Aiyuk,” said lifelong 49er fan Nathan Corkhill. 

Mr. Corkhill said the X factor would be Aiyuk due to Deebo limited by Rams cornerback, Jalen Ramsey. Kittle has to block Aaron Donald, Von Miller, Leonard Floyd etc, which then leaves them with the third receiver Aiyuk to have the breakout game. 

Aiyuk may not have had a breakout game but he certainly did show up for the Niners with four receptions for 69 yards. Although Aiyuk had a good game, Deebo Samuel was still the dominant receiver in the game with four receptions for 72 yards.

Not only did Deebo have a good receiving performance but he also led the niners in rushing yards with seven carries for 26 yards and behind him is Elijah Mitchell with eleven carries for only 20 yards. The Niners had a poor run performance which they were somewhat expecting but it was a key factor to the result of the game.

Since the run game never showed up, all eyes were on Niners quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo. “Jimmy G” has not been the best quarterback in the playoffs, but he still held a big role for the Niners, as does every NFL quarterback does for their team. Garoppolo needed to focus on not turning the ball over against the Rams defense and this was one of Jimmy’s biggest tests this season while having to face the pressure of the Ram’s powerhouse defensive line it may have been what he needed to shut the haters up, but he was on the wrong side of the biggest plays of the game.

Even though the stakes were high for both teams the Niners fan base was just happy to have simply been in a deep playoff run after just barely making it in with the big week 18 win over the Rams which made this game even more special than it already was. 

Niners fans viewed this season as an overall success so far after dealing with their many key injuries but still would have wished to have finished it off with a Superbowl appearance.

The build up to the matchup was filled with conflict due to the new policies that had been rescinded that would limit the attendance to residents of Los Angeles to go to Sofi Stadium. This policy was originally set because there was an astonishing amount of Niner fans at Sofi in their last regular season game meeting in week 18, while the Rams supposedly were to have home field advantage. 

“The Niners had more fans in attendance because they still hold one of the top Los Angeles football fan bases with the Raiders, because of their team’s history here,” said senior Rams fan Isaac Aguilar.

Although the Niners may have packed Sofi Stadium with their fans, Rams fans still felt confident and ended up getting the win.

The Rams however view this season as a ring or bust season, after they just traded away maybe their whole future for five seasons all into this one season, there will be no better way to end it than with a championship.

by Aeden Alexander, Sports Editor

On January 8th, Brave standouts Rayshon Luke and Earnest Greene III announced their college commitments at NBC’s annual All-American Bowl game.

This All-American Bowl game, held at AT&T Stadium in Dallas, Texas, showcases the top 100 high school football players from across the country. While at the game, many of the top players in the country, who didn’t already decide, got the chance to announce their commitment. St. John Bosco, being a national football powerhouse, had two players attend and announce their futures: Rayshon Luke and Earnest Greene.

Coming off of a great year, Greene was ranked one of the top offensive linemen in the country. He had scholarship offers from almost every school. He took his time to make his decision by starting off with a top ten, top four, then finally making his decision at the bowl game. 

Earnest’s top four consisted of the University of Georgia, University of Alabama, University of Texas and Ohio State which were all ranked in the top 25 the previous year. 

Greene declared that he will attend the University of Georgia before the game began, where he had a fantastic outing where he made holes and opportunities for his running backs, such as his fellow Brave, Rayshon.

“I want to go to a school that can go and compete year in and year out for a national title. All my top schools are ones that can do that and are led by the best coaches in the country. But ultimately, it came down to where I felt most comfortable and able to help, and for me that was Georgia,” said Greene.

Rayshon Luke was the star of the show that night in Texas, where not only did he announce his commitment, but he also had one of the best performances of his career.

Rayshon was one of Bosco’s playmakers, someone who they looked to during big moments, and almost always delivered. He was unstoppable and helped lead the team to a deep playoff run, where they fell short to Servite.

Before arriving in Texas, Luke had announced his top four in University of Arizona, University of Louisville, UCLA and San Jose State. “Speedy” announced he would be furthering his academic and athletic career at the University of Arizona, home of the Wildcats. 

Rayshon Luke destroyed the East Coast’s defense, ripping off multiple runs for more than 50 yards and scoring multiple touchdowns. He was awarded one of the greatest honors: the All-American Bowl Most Valuable Player.

“It was a great honor to be named All-American Bowl MVP. There’s a lot of great guys and talent out here, so for me to take the trophy is mind blowing. I’ve worked my butt off for this and deserve this. All glory to God, because without him I wouldn’t be able to do any of this,” said Luke.

Earnest and Rayshon helped lead the West squad to win the game in dominant fashion, by a score of 34-14, again demonstrating why the west coast is the best region for youth football. 

Earnest and Rayshon head different ways, as Greene graduated early from Bosco to get on campus in Georgia, while Luke will finish off his final semester at Bosco before starting his journey in Arizona.

Furthermore, at the National Signing Day on December 15, Braves who officially signed their Letters of Intent include Nate Burrell (University of California, Berkeley), quarterback Katin Houser (Michigan State University), Logan Booher (Cal Poly San Luis Obispo), Jalen Woods (University of California, Los Angeles), Tyson Molio’o (Boise State University), Elias Archie (Brown University), Sione Hala (Boston College), Maicah Talavou (Army West Point) and Malachi Finau (University of Hawaii).