Ozuna has no time for pain

The surgery had been finished for only a few hours when Jake Ozuna received the bad news.

“They were saying, 'No wrestling,’ ” Ozuna recalled.

Ozuna had heard those words before. The three-sport athlete missed his sophomore and junior wrestling seasons at Foothill after twice tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee. Now, Ozuna’s senior season — and final chance to wrestle with his brother, Josh — was in jeopardy, too.

“Just sitting out and watching, knowing I could have been there or done this, it’s hard,” Ozuna said. “I can’t stand watching sports just because I love to be in it. And missing two years was like heartache.
“I was determined to wrestle.”

Five months after his second reconstructive knee surgery, Ozuna was on the mat when the Falcons started practice in November. And when the Sunrise Region tournament begins at 3:45 p.m. Friday at Rancho High School, Ozuna will be one of the favorites in the 182-pound division.

“It’s pretty impressive how far he’s come not being on the mat for two years,” Foothill coach Ryan English said. “The easiest thing in life to do is quit, and he doesn’t do that. He doesn’t take shortcuts. He doesn’t take the easy route. Honestly, the kid is just a class act.”

Ozuna tore his ACL for the first time as a sophomore in August 2010 during a preseason football scrimmage. He underwent surgery two months later, but the linebacker reinjured the knee during a varsity football game early in his junior year.

Rather than having surgery immediately, Ozuna waited so he could compete on the Falcons’ swimming team.

“Basically, my entire junior year, I was walking around with no ACL,” Ozuna said.

Ozuna set a school record in the 100-yard backstroke and finished sixth at the Sunrise Region meet despite the injury. He also was a part of two school-record-setting relays. But the decision to delay surgery until last June meant less time to rehabilitate.

“Even my (physical) therapist, he said I’d be lucky if I could wrestle this year,” Ozuna said.

Ozuna made it back two months ahead of schedule and has thrived. He enters the Sunrise Region tournament 50-2, with both losses coming against Abel Gomez of Rancho.

In the 182-pound final of the Las Vegas Holiday Classic on Dec. 22, Ozuna led Gomez 4-2 after the first period before he tired and dropped a 14-4 decision. Ozuna hasn’t lost since.

“You could see, talent for talent, they were very close until the conditioning came in,” English said.

Ozuna also has been a positive influence on his younger brother, a sophomore who wrestles at 195 pounds for the Falcons and is Jake’s practice partner.

“This reminds us of the olden days,” Josh Ozuna said. “We were finally able to roll around, and that’s when the competition started. We butt heads and push each other really hard.”

Added Jake Ozuna: “I think me sitting out the extra two years gives me that extra drive that he doesn’t have yet. And I’m trying to push that on to him, trying to get a spark on him.”

Jake Ozuna, who turns 18 on Friday, is on track to be class valedictorian — he carries a 4.8 grade-point average — and will attend UNR in the fall with plans to become an anesthesiologist.
First, though, he has designs on winning the Division I state title.

“I’m hoping to try to take it. That’s my new expectation,” Ozuna said. “Now that I’ve seen how far I can push myself, I’ve got to set my goal higher now. I’m not going to settle for anything less.”