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OTHELLO -- They were just 4 years old, these two kids, when they stepped on Ruben Martinez's wrestling mat for the first time, but even then they were hardly uneducated newbies to grappling.
Reuben Lopez's mother, Karo, loves to tell the story of her son -- all of 9 1/2 months -- tottering about the house and his father, Hector, shouting out "shoot," and Reuben lunging forward and sprawling to the ground.
Amando DeLeon wasn't much older when he started chasing after big brother Andy and all their cousins. And when Beatrice and Amando Sr.'s oldest son started wrestling, so did their youngest.
"I grew up with Mando's dad and Reuben's dad," said Martinez, Othello's head wrestling coach since 1995 and himself a big part of the Huskies' grappling tradition. "Both of them promised me when their kids were younger, they would bring some medals home."
Boy howdy, have they.
Even before they ever set foot on a mat as high school competitors, Reuben, now a junior, and Amando, a sophomore, fulfilled that promise with their parents making long hauls to tournaments throughout the West.
As the first 4-year-olds in Othello's Little Guy Wrestling program, Lopez (four) and DeLeon (six) combined for 10 titles at the Jason Crawford Memorial, the age-group championships for Eastern Washington.
As freshmen, they each placed at state and earned a spot on Othello's wrestling wall of fame alongside guys named Schutte and Cantu, Kondo and Villarreal, Flores and Ontiveros.
Lopez made it all the way to the state finals at 130 pounds as a sophomore, losing 5-2 to Selah's Carlos Torres.
Both Lopez and DeLeon pointed to a key moment five years ago when they went down to a big national tournament in Reno, Nev., and found out just how little the pond was in which they were the big fish. The memory still draws chuckles and a pair of pained expressions.
"We were dominating, taking first in every tournament," Lopez said, "and we got dominated there."
"I went 0-2 and you were what, 2-2?" DeLeon added before elaborating on his experience. "I wrestled a triple-crown winner, Lee Munster from Illinois. I got pinned 30 seconds into the second round."
They came home on a Sunday, and by Tuesday the fifth- and sixth-grader were back on the mat, re-educated, refocused and rededicated.
"We came back and knew we had to throw extra time into it," Lopez said, with DeLeon adding, "I wanted to be as good as Lee Munster. I wanted to be like him."
Like him and like so many of those kids pictured on the wall. They're chasing Othello legends like Ross Kondo (four-time state placer), Freddie Flores (two-time state champ), Phillip Ontiveros (state champ) and Alex Torres (state champ and three-time placer).
"That makes us want to work harder," Lopez said, "do good so we can catch those guys and then say, now let's do better."
Both wrestlers have started the season 18-1 -- Lopez at 135 and DeLeon mostly at 152 as he works his way down to 140 -- and they have definite ideas how they would like to finish.
After coming so close to winning it all last year, Lopez said flat out only one thing will make this a good season: "State title -- I'm not shooting for anything lower. I put in the extra time in the summer and in cross country, Sunday's after tournaments, because I want that title."
DeLeon, who placed fifth last year, hedged his bet a little, saying he'd be happy to wrestle in the finals to set up his junior and senior years. But, he added, "I'm wrestling to be a state champ."
Martinez, himself a three-time state placer and state champion in 1978 who went on to wrestle at the University of Montana, has coached six state champions and won a team title in 2004. And he doesn't doubt that state titles will be in the kids' futures.
He has never had reason to question their ethic in the wrestling room, calling them two of the hardest workers he's had in his 14 seasons as head coach. And he doesn't hesitate to hold them up as an example to all of his freshmen.
"Your picture can be up there, too," Martinez tells his rookies. "But it just doesn't happen by showing up."
Not even if they showed up almost before you could walk.
