Strake Jesuit Wrestling Sends 3 Wrestlers to UIL State Championships

For the first time since the 2010-2011 season, the Strake Jesuit Wrestling team will be sending three wrestlers to the University Interscholastic League (UIL) State Championships on February 18-19, 2022. Seniors John Gabbanelli (170lb) and Kent Stovall (182lb) as well as junior Chico Holt (220lb) will all be representing Jesuit on Texas High School Wrestling’s biggest stage. 

Though the stage is big, it isn’t unfamiliar for senior Kent Stovall. Last year, Stovall advanced to State Championship in March in a drastically different looking 2020-2021 wrestling season due to COVID-19. “After being injured my sophomore year, coming back my junior year and qualifying for State and then qualifying again my senior year has meant a lot to me. It shows that all of the work that I have put in through the years have paid off and I am accomplishing my dream — becoming a state champion.” Unlike most wrestlers that come through Jesuit, Stovall has been involved with the sport for many more years than his teammates. “As a kid, I’ve always had a dream to become a high school state champion and compete at the highest level.”

Not all Jesuit wrestlers come in with as much prior experience as Stovall does. For senior John Gabbanelli, competing for a state championship is the culmination of four, hard working years of dedication to the sport. “Starting as a freshman, I would have had no idea at all that I would take Wrestling to this high of a level. I thought of it as something I could do for fun but I grew into the sport a little bit. I remember later on in my freshman year going to the Varsity District tournament and seeing all of the really good guys placing first and thinking that could be me by the time I was a senior.” Gabbanelli went on a 24 match pin streak to start his senior season and hasn’t slowed down since. Gabbanelli currently holds the most wins out of all of the members on the team and will be entering the State Championships with a 43-3 record. “When I was a freshman I was only 106lb and I would have probably laughed if you had told me that I would be wrestling at 170lb my senior year so it’s really cool that with all of my hard work I was able to take Wrestling to this high of a level.”

But not all of Jesuit’s state qualifiers have much wrestling experience at all. Junior Chico Holt, who primarily plays tight end for the Football team at Jesuit, has only been wrestling since November. Holt, who at the time of writing, holds three NCAA Division 1 Football offers, made the decision to Wrestle in his junior year to help better himself for Football. “I got talked into it by Coach Hebert,” Holt explains. “He said it would help me with Football which I believed in. I was looking for something new to try, a challenge, and I decided to wrestle.” It’s not only the physical attributes that Holt was looking to hone, but the mental ones as well. “Wrestling is one of the craziest endurance sports that I have been a part of. When you’re in the third period and you’ve been wrestling for five minutes you just have to keep pushing and I haven’t been a part of a sport like that. In Football, you have a lot of on and off time between plays and you don’t really get that tired, but in Wrestling you just have to keep going no matter what and that’s been really good for my mindset.”

The UIL Wrestling State Championships will be held Friday, February 18th and Saturday, February 19th at the Berry Center. Matches can be live streamed with a paid subscription from NFHSNetwork.com Friday and Saturday. Follow Strake Jesuit Wrestling on Twitter and Instagram to stay up to date on everything Strake Jesuit Wrestling.

AMDG