The only thing that gets Ruben Villarreal’s motor running more than wrestling is . . . well, getting a motor running.
The Plano senior is shooting for his third Class A state championship, but when he comes off the mat–win or lose–it will be the end of his competitive career.
Wrestling is recreational for Villarreal. His passion is cars, and he is almost always tinkering with one. Sometimes it’s his 1986 Mustang. Other times it’s his 1992 Cadillac Sedan de Ville. Or sometimes it’s someone else’s ride.
The bottom line is that he’d rather be under the hood than on top of a mat, and after graduation he wants to become a master mechanic.
“I just like to know how things work,” Villarreal says. “You put gas in there and it combusts and everything works. It’s weird. Right now we have a vocational school, and I go there to learn how to do things.”
Soon it will be off to Universal Technical Institute in Glendale Heights for 11 months, followed by another four months for Audi or Mercedes-Benz training.
“I just love Audis,” Villarreal says. “They are awesome cars.”
If it hadn’t been for a 7-5 loss to Sterling Newman freshman Clayton Norberg in last year’s Class A 152-pound quarterfinals, Villarreal would be in line for a fourth straight title. He rallied from his loss to take third place in the consolation matches.
When the medals were awarded that night, Villarreal stood on the third-place step, looking up at champion Norberg, currently unbeaten at 171. He didn’t like the view.
“I had beaten him earlier in the season,” says Villarreal, whose brother Jose is in his first year coaching the Reapers. “I went in thinking it wouldn’t be any trouble. I underestimated him, and that’s a bad thing to do. When you do that, you don’t go in with the mind-set that you’re going to win.
“You go too easy and you can be beaten.”
Villarreal, who is 26-0 at 152 pounds, started wrestling when he was 6 years old for the Plano Little Reapers and then joined the Fox Valley Wrestling Club, where he was a teammate of Naperville North state champions Brian Dyer and Eric Tannenbaum and former West Aurora three-time state champion Israel Martinez.
While he has had considerable success–he was seventh in the world as a 7th grader and won state titles as a freshman at 130 and a sophomore at 140–he hasn’t wrestled in summer freestyle competition since junior high.
“Since I started so young, I felt like I needed a break–no nationals or summer stuff,” says Villarreal, who has a 137-2 career record going into Saturday’s Interstate Eight conference meet at Coal City. “I’m doing it just for fun. This is my last year in high school, my last year in wrestling, so why not work as hard as you can and do as well as you can?”
Making his final campaign a little extra special is having his brother around. Jose Villarreal, a state champion for Plano in 1994 at 125 pounds, is in his first year as head coach. Jose, who was second in 1992 at 112 and third in 1993 at 119, replaced Steve Long, who left for a teaching position at Oak Lawn.
“I had never expected this,” says Jose, who also works in concrete construction. “The job was open and they couldn’t find anyone to fill it. This is what I always wanted to do. I wish I could have coached all four years.”
Brother coaching brother is not uncommon in wrestling, but it can be a tricky situation. For the Villarreals it has been no problem.
“We have a common bond,” Jose Villarreal says. “I’m very comfortable coaching him. He’s very respectful of me and I treat everybody the same. I’m pretty tough on everyone, and they realize I do it to help them.”
Ruben has been tested only a few times this season. Tannenbaum, a boyhood workout partner, also wrestles at 152 but in Class AA. There appear to be few challengers in Class A.
But that doesn’t mean Villarreal is looking past anyone. After last season’s upset, which ranks among the biggest in tournament history, he knows he must take each opponent as a threat. Every opponent is a potential Norberg.
“This season I take everyone like they are the best kid out there,” Villarreal says. “I just go out there and wrestle as hard as I can.
“This is it.”
