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Family legacy motivating Webley
It's really not a surprise that Breck Webley is such a good wrestler.
After all, he is the youngest of six sons born to Bruce and Mary Ann Webley, and all five of his older brothers were grapplers.
As such, Breck took some good-natured poundings growing up from his older brothers. But he didn't mind too much. He took pride in the fact that his siblings were doing so well on the mats, learned a few techniques along the way and used those memories to make himself a championship-caliber wrestler once it was his turn to wear a Quincy High singlet.
"They toughened me up," Webley said about his brothers. "What they did on the mat was something that they expected me to live up to. They sort of set the tempo for our family.
"There's a big gap between me and my closest brother, so I wasn't really focused on their matches. But I feel like my intensity level is probably most like my oldest brother, Shane. And then I've heard I wrestle like Clint a lot."
Shane (class of 1996), Brett (1998), Cole (2001), Clint (2003) and Stace (2005) all had varying degrees of success for the Jacks, and Breck is now certainly doing his part in keeping the family tradition alive.
Last year as a sophomore, Webley went 30-10, won the district tournament and advanced to Mat Classic, where he lost his two matches.
At the start of this season, though, Webley missed some time with a shoulder injury that he sustained during the football season.
"After that he came back, but was not wrestling up to his potential because of the mat time and conditioning he had already missed," said Quincy assistant coach Greg Martinez.
Later in the season, Webley had to overcome a knee injury that robbed him of several more weeks of mat time. But he recovered, repeated as district champion with three wins last weekend in Wapato and heads into tomorrow's regional tournament in Ellensburg as a top seed.
"He's getting back to where he was before he got injured," said Quincy coach Manual Ybarra earlier in the season. “He’s about the same size (as last year), but much stronger. He should be right on up the there."
Webley injured the joint during his Jan. 8 match against Selah's Noble, a 16-8 win for the Viking grappler.
"Afterwards it was big and swollen," Webley said. "The week before during practice, it was a little bruised, but once the match started, at about the middle of the second round, I could feel it. It hurt a lot worse than what it usually did. But I didn't notice it had swollen until after the match."
He was diagnosed with a strained exterior cruciate ligament, but the injury wasn't deemed severe. Webley rebabilitated the injury with a lot of stationary bike work and medication.
"Breck's had a tough year," Martinez said. "But he was able to overcome it, and he is on his way to wrestling to his full potential. His conditioning is coming back up, and he is putting in the work and effort he needs to be the wrestler he can be.
"I believe part of the reason Breck has been able to over come so much is because of his hard work in the offseason. Breck is a big part of our weight room and has done some out-of-season wrestling to further his skills."
He missed two tournaments and two dual matches in January and finished with a regular-season record of 14-4. As a result of the time he missed, he was seeded third at the district tournament.
That didn't matter too much to Webley. He knew what he was capable of no matter what seed he was given. He proved that he's still at the top of the CWAC's 160-pounders with three wins via pin, including the his second-round match against Noble and the championship tilt against top-seeded Chris Davidson of Ephrata.
"It felt pretty good (to win districts)," he said. "It felt good to beat (Noble) after losing to him earlier. I wasn't able to wrestle that much, so I wasn't able to get a good seed. (Winning districts) was one of my goals. I was able to (win) last year, and I felt that even though I've been injured, I could still wrestle better than anybody once I got healthy."
Now Webley has his sights set on a return trip to the Tacoma Dome. As a district champion, he has a top seed at regionals, and a potential championship match with Riverside's Jacob Desroches, the Great Northern League's top seed who took second in state last year, looms as a possibility.
"The No. 1 goal is to be No. 1," Webley said. "I have a good seed, so it's all about wrestling at my level and sustaining it through the full tournament."
Webley's match against Davidson in the district final showed what kind of wrestling tactician the Jack grappler has become.
In the first period, Webley quickly scored on a double-leg takedown, a move that involves a wrestler grabbing his opponent with both arms around the opponent's legs while keeping his chest close, and using the position to force the opponent to the ground.
Not too long after scoring with the takedown, Webley ended the match with another of his favored moves, the cradle. That move involves a wrestler grabbing the neck of his opponent with one arm and wrapping the elbow of the other arm behind the knee of the opponent. The wrestler then locks both hands together. That way, the cradled wrestler finds it very difficult to escape.
Webley executed the cradle to perfection against Davidson to record the pin.
There's no doubt that Webley is a skilled and talented wrestler, but he's not exactly sure what makes himself so good on the mat.
"That's a tough question," he said, laughing. "I'm determined. I believe in myself a lot."
Being a tough and determined wrestler makes Webley fall right in line with the rest of his siblings, who should be very proud of what their little brother has accomplished.
Contact Doug Flanagan at reporter@qvpr.com or through Facebook:
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