Pueblo East's Sully DeHerrera strides to be the best on mat
Pueblo East High School wrestler Sullivan "Sully" DeHerrera has steadily improved on the mat each year as an Eagle.
This season, he is looking to have his best season yet.
DeHerrera has wrested for six years. His older brother, who wrestled at Canon City High School, encouraged DeHerrera to get into wrestling.
DeHerrera's brother serves as constant inspiration.
“My big brother was a wrestler and looking up to him, I always wanted to wrestle," DeHerrera said. "So, I got into it in 6th grade.”
More: Pueblo South wrestler has the 'Ultimate Warrior' mentality on the mat
DeHerrera says he enjoys the grind of wrestling. He enjoys that each day he has to go in and put in the work and effort to improve.
"Every day...just working hard...you got to love it,” DeHerrera said. “Going into that room...just the tension in the room...going hard with your partners...it's great.”
DeHerrera believes that all the hard work that he puts in at the weight room and in the practice room is a big reason for his success thus far.
However, it was not always the case in his career.
There was a time that DeHerrera was ready to call it quits on the sport he grew to love.
“Last year, I got down on myself,” DeHerrera said. “I was weighing 195 pounds and I had to cut 25 pounds down to 170. It was tough, I just wanted to give up at that point. I didn’t want to wrestle anyone.”
Weight cutting is up there as one of the most difficult things to do in the sport of wrestling.
Luckily for DeHerrera, he had his teammates by his side to pick him up and help him get through a low point in his career.
Through a group chat, his teammates encouraged DeHerrera to stick it out and told him to come to practice and they would help him overcome the weight cut. They did and it worked.
DeHerrera was eventually able to make weight.
“You’ll wrestle with us,” DeHerrera said his teammates told him through a text message.
DeHerrera has many supporters backing him in his journey to be the best this year.
Already off to a great start, posting a 20-5 record including eight pinfalls, the Eagles junior is looking to stay ready for any challenge that may lie ahead of him this season.
“My goals are to stay lifting and to help the boys if they need to lift,” DeHerrera said. “I got a gym in my basement.”
The self-proclaimed “gym-rat” enjoys working out and getting better at his skills at wrestling as well. He hopes to instill that same kind of mentality to the rest of his team.
More: Pueblo County's Zion Mares seeks to summit state wrestling podium
A state championship is a goal of DeHerrera’s as well helping his team win a state title this year and next.
That’s something he wants to show to his older brother.
“He thinks I'm great,” DeHerrera said. “He thinks I can do something with wrestling like go to college, so he's a big supporter of mine.”
Christopher Abdelmalek is a sports reporter for the Pueblo Chieftain and can be reached at cabdelmalek@gannett.com or on twitter @chowebacca
This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Sully DeHerrera looks to be the best on the mat
