'Pillars of Wrestling': How the Colts' seniors helped the program expand from 7 wrestlers

Pueblo South was at one point in time one of the greatest wrestling teams in Pueblo, posting team championships and individual state title winners in the early part of the 2000s.

However, over the past decade, the program has seen a downturn in talent and bodies. Four years ago, the now senior class of the Colts wrestling program, stepped into the wrestling room with a staggering seven members on the team.

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Now as they proceed to enter their final year, the core group of seniors has helped bring the program back from seven wrestlers to almost thirty, and have the Colts slowly looking like contenders again.

Antonio Martinez, Braden Medina, David Murillo, Kenshin Siffring, and Bryan Marquez were the main core of Colts wrestlers who came in as freshmen. Murillo injured himself his freshman year and could not participate in the season and Martinez and Marquez joined the Colts after their freshman year.

Medina and Siffring were all able to complete their freshman year and from there started the process of trying to bring the Colts back to prominence.

“It’s crazy to see where the program went from when I started,” Siffring said. “It was a seven-wrestler team, and then we lost DJ (Murillo) to injury, so it was only six of us and it was COVID year, so we all had masks on and none of it made sense. Now we got way more bodies and a lot of talent and it's crazy to see how far the program has come.”

Medina, whose father is now the head coach of the program, not only grew up with wrestling, but his father used to be an assistant coach for the Colts for many years.

“This program has been everything for me,” Medina said. “Growing up, coming here as a kid, now going to all the practices and being able to be here all four years, is great. We grew every day and got stronger all the time, to see how much it’s grown from COVID-19 till now, our team is getting bigger, everyone's talent is getting better, and the whole team is helping each other. It’s a great program,”

Murillo did not get much action his freshman year after hurting his shoulder early in the season; however, he does remember what it was like when there was very little leadership on the team.

“It was crazy being a freshman and looking up to the couple of seniors we had on the team to now, it’s way more than we used to have,” Murillo said. “I think our team will continue to get better from here on out.”

Martinez was one of the few who started a bit after Medina, Siffring and Murillo, but has still had a major impact on the growth of this team.

“It's been pretty fun to see these four guys grow up and wrestle,” Martinez said. “It’s cool to have them to talk to, both in and out of wrestling. To grow up with these guys has been great.”

Now, these five seniors, along with several others who have joined along the way, are looking to leave the Colts program in better shape than it was when they first joined.

“All five of us have different ways of leading,” Medina said. “We all take our own path in instilling what this program was before and what we are trying to make it again and I think that's what makes it really amazing.”

When it comes to being a vocal leader, Siffring has that spot locked down.

“It's not a one-man show, everyone leads a little differently,” Siffring said. “I yell at everybody, I'm vocal, if we are out on the mat, I tell people what to do for warmups, when we are setting up, I'm yelling, not out of spite, but that's how I lead. Even though I take the vocal side of it, it takes all of us to lead, some others may do it in a quieter way than me and that may be something that that wrestler needs. So, it’s important that we all lead in our own way.”

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As Siffring said, the leadership on this team comes in different ways, and it also comes in the form of maturity as well.

“I’ve realized I have to stop playing around so much,” Murillo said. “I have to set an example, and between the five of us we can do it.”

The bottom line is that these seniors know they must set an example for the younger classes if the Colts look to get to the level of competition they are used to.

“For us, we have that pressure on our back, we need to show that our team is good, and we need to show the underclassmen that we can do it,” Marquez said. “If they see we can do it then they realize that they can do it as well.”

With the program now at 27 wrestlers, it’s safe to say that these seniors have done what they can to help bring the program back to life, it will now be up to the skills and leadership left behind to bring the Colts back to their winning ways.

Christopher Abdelmalek is a sports reporter for the Pueblo Chieftain and can be reached at cabdelmalek@gannett.com or follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @chowebacca. Support local news, subscribe to The Pueblo Chieftain at subscribe.chieftain.com

This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Pueblo South wrestling has grown since 2020, thanks to these seniors