Dougherty hosts the Battle of The Axe

DVHS+wrestling+hosts+the+annual+Battle+of+the+Axe+competition%2C+marked+by+its+unique+prize%3A+an+axe.+

Daniel Lee

DVHS wrestling hosts the annual Battle of the Axe competition, marked by its unique prize: an axe.

On January 25th at DVHS, the valley division schools MVHS, SRVHS and California High competed in the 2023 wrestling duel “Battle of the Axe”

The Battle of the Axe is a wrestling competition between the mountain side division schools. The tradition started when the current DVHS football coach Roberto Clemente suggested the idea in 2017. The winner of the division gets to add their name onto a plaque, donated by the San Ramon Valley Fire Department and takes the axe home. 

Last year, DVHS won the Battle of the Axe and thus hosted the event this year. The weekend before, DVHS had already dueled SRVHS and lost. 

“My goal for this event is to have all of our players compete and wrestle tough,” stated Huy Nguyen, head coach of DVHS Wrestling.

At the wrestling meet this year, DVHS competed against Monte Vista and California High School. After a tough struggle and some intense matches, Dougherty lost to both schools 35-39 and 12-60 respectively.

Unfortunately during the duals, DVHS was forced to forfeit some of their matches against the opposing schools because of a lack of available players.

Despite this Dougherty Valley put up a fight and made the other schools earn their points. If Dougherty had enough available wrestlers to compete, they could’ve reasonably beat Monte Vista.

“Our long term goal for the season is to bring home some section medals,” said Nguyen.

Some future wrestling events to look forward to would be the EBAL wrestling championship taking place February 11th, at Dublin High School. At the event you can expect a multitude of wrestlers competing for their weight class.