How Morro Bay tournament became a destination for high school wrestlers in California

Across the mats in the small gym at Morro Bay High School, wrestlers grappled for dominance in each of three circles, filling the room with constant noise and action.

On the sidelines, others jumped up and down, headphones on, readying for their looming matches, while coaches knelt along the edges, shouting commands to their athletes.

In the middle of it all was Marcelino Maytorena.

In his black referee polo with a green and red armband on each wrist, he peered intently at the two high school wrestlers jousting in front of him.

Suddenly, Maytorena blew his whistle. Both wrestlers stopped, stepped to the middle of the mat and shook hands before Maytorena raised the left arm of Kaden Pryor of Atascadero, signaling a victory for the Greyhound.

It was a full circle moment for Maytorena.

Thirty-seven years prior in 1987, the wrestler-turned-referee competed in the California Invitational Tournament in Morro Bay. He secured the 189-pound championship against a wrestler from Atascadero, the same school he now crowned the victor of a first-round match at the tournament nearly four decades later.

Now, he was back in the same spot, scoring matches and declaring winners at the prestigious event, which attracts nearly 1,000 athletes from all around the state every year and has become one of the biggest wrestling tournaments on the West Coast.

Maytorena is only one of several people with long ties to the event, whose history dates back nearly seven decades.

Another is wrestling referee Jimmy Gin, who sat near the scoreboard waiting for his next match while Maytorena officiated.

Gin is an Arroyo Grande native whose family immigrated from the Guangdong province in China to the Central Coast, where they opened a Chinese restaurant. After competing as a wrestler at Arroyo Grande High School and Cuesta College, Gin turned to officiating to stay involved in the sport.

He’s now one of the longest-tenured referees on the Central Coast, with 48 years of service.

“It’s probably one of the most difficult sports to officiate,” Gin said as he pointed to the match in front of him. “As you can see, there’s so much judgment involved.”

This year, 80 teams made the trip to Morro Bay to compete in the California Invitational Tournament, or CIT, on Jan. 19 and 20, competing in 14 weight classes over the two days.

It was the latest edition in an event that has built a storied history at the school for the past 68 years. From coaches who formerly competed to referees who return year after year, everywhere you turned, Central Coast wrestling lore filled the walls of Morro Bay’s main and secondary gym on the beach-side campus.

Several local schools were among those who showed up to compete, and in this year’s tournament, Chance Evans of San Luis Obispo secured first place in the 190-pound weight class. Dominic Martinez of Paso Robles finished second in the 126-pound division. Evans and Martinez were the only two SLO County representatives to place out of 996 wrestlers in the CIT.

How Morro Bay wrestling tournament got its start

The CIT was founded by Vaughn Hitchcock in the 1950s.

Hitchcock served as Cal Poly’s head wrestling coach for 23 years and led the program to eight NCAA Division II national championships in the early 1970s and late 1980s. Eventually, the tournament was relocated to Morro Bay by businessman Sam Boyd.

At the time, Boyd was one of the only people on the West Coast who sold wrestling mats. He used his sales connections to bring schools from up and down California to Morro Bay to compete.

Decades later, the CIT remains one of the most competitive tournaments in the state, said Albert Garza, current boys and girls head wrestling coach at Morro Bay.

Garza competed himself in the tournament in high school. He won his weight class during his sophomore and junior years at Sanger High School in Fresno County.

“I never thought in my wrestling career that I would be tournament director of the same tournament where (Hitchcock) and Sam Boyd became tournament director,” Garza said. “They had ties with everybody in California. You talk about wrestling mats, you knew Sam Boyd. If you talk about wrestling in the ‘70s and ‘80s, you knew about Hitchcock because of his career.”

After graduating from Sanger, Garza wrestled at Cal Poly before moving onto coaching positions with San Luis Obispo High School and Righetti. He joined the Cuesta College wrestling staff as an assistant in 2004 and has been with the program ever since.

The difference Garza notices with the CIT compared to other wrestling tournaments in California is the involvement of the community in Morro Bay.

“If you look at the two biggest tournaments in the Clovis district, they’re run by the district themselves,” Garza said. “I think ours is different in that a lot of it is run by kids.”

With a student body of just under 800 students, Morro Bay Principal Scott Schlade said, there were more wrestlers in the tournament than students at the school.

Many students helped to put on the event, by directing athletes and coaches into one section of the gym to prepare for matches while spectators sat on the other side along with parents and staff members.

From 1986 to 2005, Dan Duclos was Morro Bay’s wrestling head coach and served as tournament director of the CIT. He recalled having to run the tournament on his own.

“It was rough,” Duclos said. “I really didn’t get much help from anybody but my parents.”

Duclos now has officiated at the CIT for 36 years and has seen the tournament continue to expand.

“Nowadays everyone’s (helping) on their own, which I think is a phenomenal thing,” Duclos said.

Morro Bay’s location in the middle of the state right on the coast serves as a great selling point for the tournament.

In just over a minute walk from the gym entrance, the beach sits steps away from where people parked their vehicles. In between matches, wrestlers strolled on the sand with their shoes off, while families admired Morro Rock in the distance.

Garza pointed out that people know about Morro Bay relative to Pismo Beach and San Luis Obispo, but they don’t truly know the place.

“For us to bring in close to 2,000 people for this weekend, they can sightsee and get to know about Morro Bay,” Garza said. “The whole community gets to be seen as one as opposed to just a high school tournament.”

Duclos remembers officiating Garza when he competed at the CIT. He said Garza was the only wrestler he’s ever seen who avoided a takedown from an opponent by leaping over them.

“I’m not kidding you,” Duclos said. “(Albert) leaped over (his opponent) as he was trying to put him down. I don’t know how the guy missed him, but Albert jumped over him and took him down. That’s the only time I’ve ever seen that in my entire life.”

Garza, however, has no recollection of performing that move in the match.

“It’d be nice if I could remember it,” Garza said. “That would’ve been a cool memory to have.”