Attitude. Effort. Aggression. These are the core values assistant wrestling coach and alum Derek Torres instills in his athletes. A few years prior, these principles were taught to him in the very same spot at the high school.
Torres, who graduated from the high school in 2020, competed on the boys varsity wrestling team for all four years of his high school career. This year, Torres decided to return to his alma mater, only this time as the new assistant coach of the wrestling team.
Torres wrestled at Keystone College for one year and then transferred to the University of Massachusetts Boston. When he found out the high school needed a wrestling coach, he jumped at the opportunity.
“I got a call a couple weeks before the season that said they needed an assistant coach,” Torres said. “So I decided to lace the shoes back up and give it back. Because I feel like giving back to something, a program that gave me so much love.”
According to head coach Brandon Bruttomesso, Torres’ experience as an athlete on the high school team gives him a unique advantage in coaching and has allowed him to collaborate well with Bruttomesso.
“It’s really cool to have somebody who’s been in the program before because they have a different perspective of what the program’s like and what it’s like to actually be a student at BHS,” Bruttomeso said. “It’s just a wealth of knowledge that’s been incredibly helpful for me as a coach, to make my life a little bit easier and to make sure that we’re giving a really great, well-rounded experience for all our athletes.”
Senior and captain Julian Ricco said Torres’ enthusiasm and understanding of the team is reflected in his coaching and has brought him closer to the wrestling community.
“We have a way we wrestle; we’re always looking to get better, and he’s been through that work ethic, so he expects a lot from us and that really contributes to our development,” Ricco said. “It does give him more passion for the team. He really wants us to do well, and it shows in his coaching. He sees himself in each of us.”
According to Torres, he is trying to implement the skills and techniques he once learned into the training of the athletes he now coaches.
“Mindset wise, wrestling wise, all the technique I’m teaching them is everything I’ve been taught,” Torres said. “The mindset I’m giving them is a chip on their shoulder that they’ll be able not only to be great wrestlers, but great young men who go on to do great things.”
Bruttomesso agrees with Torres’ coaching philosophy and said that they are building their team with similar mindsets.
“We both have a similar approach to the sport in that there’s a lot more to gain outside of the sport than within the sport, and we just both want to use wrestling as a tool to really help prepare our athletes for life,” Bruttomesso said.
Torres appreciates the community that the wrestlers had created and said they made it easy for him to become a part of it.
“The kids accepted me right into it without really knowing me that much,” Torres said. “I would say we have a nice community. We’re almost like a little family in the wrestling room.”
