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Wrestler Magana shines despite injury
During second period of the 119-pound match of the Quincy High School wrestling team's dual match with Ellensburg on Thursday night, the Bulldogs' Liston Idler grabbed Carlos Magana's left arm and wrapped it around his back for several seconds in an attempt to get Magana to the mat.
Being in that position would be awkward and painful for just about anybody. But for Magana, being in that spot was a little more risky. The fact that he was able to escape from the hold, record a quick takedown and eventually pick up a decisive 11-2 victory underscored just how much Magana has gone through this season and how much he's been potentially willing to sacrifice.
Magana, a senior, has been wrestling all season with torn ligaments in his left shoulder. He sustained the injury last summer at a wrestling camp at Eastern Washington University.
During his final match of the camp, he allowed his attacking opponent to grab his left arm. Magana didn't give in and continued to leave his arm in a vulnerable position. Eventually the shoulder popped out of its socket.
"The guy was tugging really hard on me, and I wouldn't give it up," Magana said. "So it was my fault, too, I guess."
Quincy coach Manny Ybarra took Magana aside during the ensuing injury time-out. "It's just a summer camp," Ybarra told Magana. "You don't have to finish."
"But," Ybarra reflected months later, "he said, 'No, I want to finish. Let's go.' And he finished and won. He's a tough, tough kid."
Magana had a magnetic resonance image taken on the shoulder, and it was determined that he had torn ligaments. Surgery was recommended, but Magana decided to put off the operation until after the wrestling season.
That says just about anybody needs to know about Magana's passion for the sport, his dedication to his teammates and coaches and his desire to improve.
"I'm trying to stick through the rest of the season and after that I'll get surgery on my left shoulder," he said. "I just wanted to see how far I could go. It was my last year, so I thought what the heck."
Magana's decision has paid off. He's been healthy for the majority of the year, although Ybarra decided to hold him out of a couple of tournaments earlier in the season. With the win over Idler, Magana ran his record to 13-7 (4-3 league), including three forfeit victories.
Another one of Magana's interests is boxing — his stepfather, Marce DeLaRosa, runs a local boxing club, and Carlos has been boxing for several years.
It's obvious that his boxing training has helped Magana on the wrestling mat.
"He's a quick wrestler," Ybarra said. "He's a takedown guy. He's like a mongoose. He's real quick, and he just keeps going."
Just because Magana has decided to put off the surgery, though, doesn't mean that the pain has temporarily gone away.
Before every practice and match, Magana wraps a black athletic brace around the joint to provide stability, but any protective measure he employs doesn't make it any less painful.
"Sometimes it's a real intense pain," he said. "Every once in a while when I really push it, I'll feel it. I just try to keep going. It hurts, but I'm not going to stop. The adrenaline's pumping, so I don't really feel it."
Watching Magana intently from the edge of the mat, Ybarra can tell when his wrestler is hurting.
"You can see his face ... twinge when his arm gets hooked or his shoulder is bothering him," he said. "But he goes through pain and finishes. He just loves to compete. It's his senior year and he wants to go to the state tournament."
At the same time, though, Ybarra knows that things can change in a hurry when it comes to damaged joints.
"He tries not to do too much with the shoulder," he said. "We're praying it holds up. We're walking on ice with him."
Magana has the talent to advance to state, but there are several obstacles in front of him. Besides dealing with the injury, he's got to overcome the fact that his opponents, after seeing the brace, could repeatedly aim for his left side in an effort to attack his vulnerability.
"There's nothing I can really do about that," Magana said. "Some guys don't (go for the left side). It depends on the person, I guess."
Also, Magana's weight class is a tough one — it includes Othello's Jake Smith, who finished seventh in state last year at 112 pounds; Julian Romero of Toppenish, who finished third last year at 119 pounds; and Ephrata's Anthony Bush, who finished eighth at 112 pounds.
"I'm not sure what we'll do with him," Ybarra said. "We could move him. We'll have to wait and see."
But if Magana is able to advance to state and achieve his goal of wrestling under the lights of the Tacoma Dome, all of the pain he's endured this season will have been worth it.
"I'm just hoping I can get far the rest of the season and hope to make it to state," he said. "Hopefully. We'll see."
Contact Doug Flanagan at reporter@qvpr.com or through Facebook:
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