With 10 seconds left in his match, Holyoke’s Juan Santiago knew he needed to make a move, and quick. 

Santiago was grappling with Marlborough’s Kevin Desena in the championship match of the 220-pound weight class at the Western Mass. Division 2 Tournament. The senior thought that the score was tied 5-5 and he wanted to avoid overtime at all cost. With the crowd counting down behind him, he went for a big move and got a takedown as the clock expired to secure the win.

It wasn’t until later that he found out he was actually trailing 6-5, and needed that takedown to secure his first Western Mass. championship. It was a dramatic end to a wildly entertaining match, and it was something that came as a complete shock to the Holyoke wrestler.

“I was in shock,” Santiago said. “My favorite moment was seeing the crowd's reaction after the win in sectionals. The coaches were jumping, screaming – that was my favorite moment.”

Santiago’s senior season was anything but easy – the Holyoke wrestler tore his meniscus during a practice his sophomore year, and sat out his junior season after undergoing surgery and performing extensive physical therapy to recover. Coming back his senior year, he still grappled with the injury as he wrestled – the tear was in an unusual place, so he still had to deal with it even after the surgery and PT.

Despite all the obstacles thrown at him, Santiago earned a Western Mass. title and added one win in the MIAA Division 2 Wrestling Tournament, earning him the Daily Hampshire Gazette’s Wrestler of the Year Award. 

“I knew Juan as a middle school student. And to see that the road that we thought he was capable of (going down) become a reality is tremendous, and it's gonna leave a legacy here,” Holyoke wrestling coach Vin Silano said.

It was Silano who first encouraged Santiago to get into wrestling. He was a physical education teacher at Santiago’s middle school, and encouraged him and some of his friends to join the sport once they got to high school. Santiago decided to give it a try, and quickly realized that he was hooked. 

“The bond you build with the coaches, the energy they give off – it felt like a place you could call home,” Santiago said on what drew him to the sport. 

After finding another home in wrestling, dealing with his torn meniscus was especially tough for Santiago, who struggled watching his teammates on the mat while he had to sit on the sidelines during recovery.

“During the process... I wasn't really showing up to practice as much because I really wanted to wrestle but I couldn't,” Santiago said. “I had to go through physical therapy, had to recover, get back mobility. It was a little hard of a process because it wasn’t a regular surgery, I had to do other things, too. The process took a little longer and watching people wrestle, it was hard because I really wanted to be there.” 

Silano saw how defeated the injury made Santiago, but the Holyoke student used that as fuel for his senior season. After not getting on the mat as a junior, he wanted to make his final year in the Paper City one to remember.

“I came back hungry,” Santiago said. 

Hungry he was, and he and his coaches tackled his senior year with a more measured approach. They were focused on his longevity, honing in less on the short term and more on the long term to make sure he was successful throughout the winter.

“We try to treat our athletes like young adults, as they are, and keep it real with them. If he's banged up, we're kind of like, ‘listen, it's best that we ice and roll and stretch and do something different rather than beat you into the ground and expect it to be a different result,’” Silano said. 

Thanks to the bonds and coaching he received from Silano and the rest of the coaching staff, Santiago was able to finish his senior season on a high note. His impact on the school’s wrestling program is one that will be felt long after he graduates.

“He's not exactly the rah-rah guy… he is definitely someone that's like a silent leader, and that's what we needed most this year,” Silano said. “We've had a lot of chatter in the past… you walk the walk, not just talk the talk and that's been the old-school saying we've been living by with Juan's leadership style this year.”

Santiago hopes to continue wrestling after high school, looking at places like Springfield College as potential landing spots. He hasn’t yet made a final decision on where he’ll end up, but wherever it is, he’ll continue to walk the walk that’s made him the wrestler he is today. 

FIRST TEAM ALL-STARS

Javion Cabrera, sophomore, Frontier 

Wyatt Finch, Frontier 

Mateo Henriques, Smith Voc 

Conner Hoffman, senior, Frontier

Keagan Hollister, senior, Northampton

Jake Mattson, senior, Frontier 

Alex Martinez, junior, Smith Voc

Forrest McSweeney, senior, Smith Voc

Quane Randall, senior, Northampton

Juan Santiago, senior, Holyoke 

Matthew Small, Smith Voc 

Alex Willard, senior, Hampshire

SECOND TEAM ALL-STARS

Adin Clifford, junior, Hampshire 

Aiden Dearborn, freshman, Hampshire

Jake Erali, Smith Voc

Elijah Gilbert, junior, Gateway 

Luke Johndrow, junior, Hampshire 

Logan Luis, South Hadley 

Taylan McColgan, seventh grade, Hampshire 

Conor Stiles, senior, Northampton

Schuyler Trapani, senior, Northampton

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