Tales from the Mat: Lincoln’s Olmos Wrestling Dynasty

In the world of wrestling, “Olmos” is not just a name–it’s a brand.

Still reeling from the excitement of Haven Olmos’ second consecutive win at CCS and 5th-place finish at CIF, the family has little time to celebrate. Instead, the Olmos siblings–Michelle, Sarena, Haven, Mia, and Kyndra–with the exception of brother Ryan–and their father gather in the gym for yet another round of practice.

Carrying on the tradition, Haven is the third in her family to claim a Central Coast Section wrestling title, but first in Lincoln’s history to take first place at CCS for two consecutive years. This year, Haven had the burden of upholding her title as the returning CCS champion. To defend her ranking, she took initiative and worked even harder than she had the previous year to maintain her status as #1. 

“My older sister who’s now my coach, Michelle, she had started wrestling way back in the day. I forgot how old I was but I remember I went to my very first wrestling match when I watched her wrestle,” said Haven. “I didn’t know what it was at the time but I just knew it smelled really bad and people were sweating. Freshmen year, first tournament wasn’t the best. I didn’t place. Second tournament I took first. And from that first place I just worked and I got better and that’s what made me the wrestler I am today.”

“The second CCS win was pretty shocking actually because when I won I didn’t know that I had won…I could’ve slipped up this year and lost,” said Haven. “I had a lot of coaches help me, I made a lot of changes in my routine, I learned a lot of new moves. I actually started off pretty high in the season at 137. I had to wrestle 137. I messed up on my hydration and after that I just pushed myself to get back down. And just messing up that one time, that was the only mess-up I wanted to make and since then I just improved by going all the way down to 120 once again.”

Considering the success her older siblings had in wrestling, it seemed only natural that Haven would one day take her place on the wrestling mat, and subsequently the banner bearing the names of Lincoln’s CCS champs. But before becoming the athlete she is today, Haven got her start in the martial art of judo.

“It was my wife [Karen Olmos], she was the first one to get everything started with the judo,” said Ralph Olmos. “She had this idea that she wasn’t going to have any girly girls. And I remember her telling me that she wanted to get the girls into a judo program and there was a coach–David Williams–who was willing to take them on.”

First to make the jump from judo to wrestling was Michelle Olmos, the oldest of the Olmos siblings.

“I started my freshman year of high school here 08-09. My grandfather was actually a wrestling coach and wrestling wasn’t too big a part of my life until I started high school,” said Michelle. “Once I hit high school I knew there wasn’t any judo with the high schools around here so I did the closest thing to that which was wrestling. From there I started incorporating judo [into] wrestling and became very successful from it.”

This year, Michelle became the head girls’ wrestling coach at Lincoln. With years of experience on her side, Michelle hopes to be able to lend her expertise to hopeful young wrestlers and make a name for herself as a woman coaching one of the most demanding sports for athletes.

“My daughter Michelle, she’s a female, she’s gone above what she is called on to do for this team,” said Mr. Olmos. “She’s so knowledgeable of the sport that you know there are wrestlers out there on the mat and…she’s the one that knows the statistics like who’s they’re fighting, what’s their record, what their strengths and weaknesses are so that’s what she works on. She’s such a technical worker…she was that way in judo and she’s that way in wrestling as well.”

Following in Michelle’s footsteps was sister Sarena Olmos, second-oldest and fellow CCS champion. Earning the title while only a freshman, Sarena was hopeful about a career in wrestling after high school. After signing with King University in Tennessee, Sarena was ready to compete at the college level, but a medical diagnosis put her dream on hold.

“I was diagnosed with endometriosis and I was put on medication. It hit me hard and as soon as I got to nationals I was ten pounds underweight. My body was fragile…it was weak and I was crying—I was in pain. I came out as an All-American but the worst part of it was accepting that I couldn’t go to my dream school, I couldn’t compete, I wasn’t a wrestler anymore. I could’ve been and I still can be but the challenging part is accepting that no wrestling college wants a broken wrestler.”

Despite this setback, Sarena refused to let this obstacle stop her from being a part of the wrestling world. Moving past her illness, Sarena decided to take up coaching the sport.

“This year at UFC Gym I coach a bunch of toddlers and I work with 20 or so little munchkins on the mat. Obviously that’s a lot of patience and with toddlers, they’re still learning everything. It took them a month to realize my name was Sarena and not Phyllis.”

“The most rewarding thing is just watching them grow. Sometimes they cry and I ask them ‘do you want to wrestle anymore because if you don’t want to wrestle anymore, if this isn’t the sport for you can take another class.’ And they get back up and wipe their tears and say ‘I want to keep wrestling.’ To me that’s just unbelievable and touching,” said Sarena.

From a young age, most wrestlers have to learn the tenacity and unwillingness to give in that builds strong competitors. While everyone’s wrestling journey is different, the bond between wrestlers with a passion for the sport is something that is vital to success.

“So during the season Coach Delgado would take us on a run. It’d feel like forever honestly,” said Haven. “I run with my sister [Mia] side by side because I had to make sure she didn’t get lost on the way if she got tired. We’d run for like 45 minutes, then come back and get straight into routine.”

“Once practice was over…me and my sister Mia we’d do this thing where we’d stay and wrestle afterward even when everyone’s leaving and taking their shoes off. We’d wrestle one last match or even 5 matches live just to see who wins and to get that extra workout in…everyday was a precious day. [It’d be] one day away from League and Sections and all that so we had to give it our all in practice before we left.”

So what is the secret to building victorious wrestlers? Clearly, the Olmoses have seen tremendous success in wrestling; their father credits this success to a humble philosophy he’s passed down to his kids.

“Humility. Honesty and humility those things are probably the two things I try to focus on. Church is a major part of our family, [too.] It make our family complete. And that actually comes with humility and you know…to get on the floor and say ‘thank you for my family, thank you for the food we have’ and that’s the kind of mentality we’ve always kept.”

With a strong familial support system and genuine devotion to the sport, Haven’s future promises many more victories. The two youngest siblings, Mia and Kyndra, also hope to uphold the family tradition–something that will last for years to come.

After such a strong season, there is little left to be expected from Haven; however, she already has plans for an even more fruitful year in competition.

“I want to be a 3-time CCS [champion.] If I place at State that’d be really cool too. Next year I want that same thing: I want to do more, I want to be undefeated, I want to be state champion. I don’t want a single loss. I don’t want to take that my senior year. College, I want something there.”

*Note: Video will be uploaded Monday, March 14