Quality of teams, wrestlers, is unique

"I lost to Jon Volpe from Amphi," a grinning Portillo recalled. "He beat me 7-5."

Even in 1985, the then-19th annual Flowing Wells Invitational was already a proud tournament that hosted Southern Arizona's elite wrestling teams.

Portillo has since traded in his Sunnyside blue singlet for an Amphi green sweatshirt and the title of coach.

The two-day tourney, which begins today, has changed a little bit, too. It's gotten tougher.

Instead of the best teams from Tucson, now it's the best teams from the entire state. In fact, last season's team state champions in 5A-I (Tempe Corona del Sol), 5A-II (Sunnyside), 4A-II (Cottonwood Mingus) and 3A (Safford) will be represented this year.

Then there are teams like Montwood and Socorro high schools from El Paso, and Silver High School from Silver City, N.M.

The Star chatted with three local head coaches to get their take on what makes the Flowing Wells event so special.

• Tim Berrier, Ironwood Ridge: "It's a lot of good teams and a lot of good individuals. You get some weight classes that are kind of crazy with the amount of talent. A lot of the people in the wrestling community view it as more prestigious than the state tournament. At this time of the year, it's a great confidence-builder going into the postseason - if you can do well. You get some of the real good small schools and some of the good big schools.

"It's nice because it's not only the schools within your classification."

• Bobby DeBerry, Sunnyside: "It's been going for so long. It's one of the premier high school tournaments in the country. The competition that comes in, it's the lower teams we don't see all the time, and even teams from the other divisions that we just won't see unless we go to Flowing Wells.

"It's a good gauge for state. Every year is up for grabs."

• Sam Portillo, Amphi: "It's not the quantity, it's the quality of teams that are there. Not just anybody is invited. They get the top 30 teams there. I had a kid place sixth (at Flowing Wells) and win state that year.

"There were six state champions in his weight class. People like Cain Velasquez, Thom Ortiz, Eric Larkin and Nate Gallick have wrestled in it, to name a few.

It's real viable for the younger wrestlers - even if they go two and out, they get to watch the better wrestlers and improve on their technique and kind of established their identity."

IF YOU GO

• What: 45th annual Flowing Wells Invitational

• Who: More than 30 teams from three states

• Where: Flowing Wells High School

• When: First round begins today at 10:30 a.m., with the quarterfinals set for 7:30 p.m. The semifinals will be Saturday at 10 a.m., and the finals will start at 6 p.m. Saturday.