Pueblo West hopes Joe Gonzales can bring stability to wrestling team as new head coach

Pueblo West High School has new leadership at the helm of its wrestling program as Joe Gonzales takes over as the new head coach of the Cyclones.

Gonzales, an ESS teacher, has been a part of the program and has been involved with wrestling for several years leading to many experiences in life that have guided him to this new adventure.

From wrestling at South High School to walking on at Southern Colorado State College (now Colorado State University Pueblo) as a wrestler to joining youth programs as a volunteer coach, Gonzales has had many opportunities to be involved with wrestling.

He even became an official for the sport and was involved with that for many years.

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After getting his degree and completing the requirements to become an ESS teacher, he joined Pueblo County School District 70 which led him to eventually work with Pueblo West.

“Coach Purvis brought me on to coach on the high school level, and over the last few years it’s transitioned to different coaches until I got my turn this year,” Gonzales said. “It's a sport that I am very passionate about and the reason is because the life lessons that coach (Jerry) Sisneros and Tim Urenda instilled in me have paid huge dividends beyond I can measure.”

Gonzales detailed one of the biggest life lessons he has gone through that helped him become a better man and a better coach.

“When we had twins and we were told that we weren't sure one of them wasn’t going to make it out of the hospital, I thought back to the lessons I learned as far as the sport of wrestling,” Gonzales said. “Because I had to go from having to wrap my head around my son possibly not being with us but also to try and provide and be strong for his twin brother, our older son, and my wife. The individual part of being on the mat helped me get through that part, but it also helped me to understand the team concept.

“Yes, it is an individual sport when you are on the mat, but it’s a team thing. I try to instill that in my wrestlers that yes there is a team, but there is an individual part that if you aren't strong enough by yourself you aren’t strong enough for your team.”

Now at the helm of the Cyclones program, Gonzales is hoping to bring some consistency along with a winning culture.

“I mean, I’m the third coach in three years,” Gonzales said. “Really, it's just about consistency and the drive and the hunger and the blue-collar mentality. There's nothing in this that you're going to get easy. Even I don't believe there's such a thing as an easy win, because you have to prepare for that easy win.”

Gonzales went on to say that he doesn’t try to overdo it with the kids either — they need to understand that he can give them all the answers to a test but they still have to study to pass, and in the weight room he can give them all the answers to win, but they still have to put in the practice to actually do so.

One thing that Gonzales hopes to instill in the wrestlers in his program is the idea that just because there have been champions in the room in the past, that doesn't mean winning will come automatically.

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“The room as a whole was there to see Thomas Mayer take state champ last year and what he brought to the room and what he had to do to accomplish that,” Gonzales said. “Getting them to understand that just because you were there doesn't mean it's going to fall into your lap. You have to consistently work out. But we also have to promote the practices and the game plans and the standards for them.”

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 West wrestling head coach Joe Gonzales hopes for consistency