Coach Lopez and the Selma Boys : Speakers & Interviews

selma has heart and we back down from no coward named tirapelle with coach sam or familys involved with this team we stand down from no one bring it on

chris hansen is bad news agreed!!
sam is a nice guy but nice guys dont win we in selma dont put up with losing this coach doesnt have the mentality to do what it will take to win a state chamnpionship as a team

chris Hansen from buchaon is the liar tirapelles are in bed with him

I would first like to say one thing I wish the team the best of luck next week ...cause in my heart I will always b apart of this brotherhood.....go bears!! Now about Sam ...I will first like to apologize to Sam being a former member of the team after wrestling for six seasons for Selmai was in this line of fire and now how things are behind closed doors...Sam had no input on what happened nor does he deserve critisism.....it is extremly hard to gain the trust and maintain the same level of intensity after a coach change....and it hurts me to hear the discumfurt with the heavywights knwing I was one of them the last four seasons .......yeah I knw I did not have the best training but hey I made it wrk and just to let you all knw my parents only showed up to dials and meets.. I am not at all desapointed with what I accomplished ...I helped the team when I could with points I wasn't the best but I fought to b....plus I started in seventh grade not in my mothers belly if u guys get me..... And if you ask me who deserves all the credit he was with us actually they were with us when niegther of you were even here ...coach diego quintana and archie tovar......archie starts them young and diego mad them men.......just look what he did with me .......my second year I lost only twice all season and took TOC in only my second year.......if it was not to diego I probly would have never wrestled .......and you all need to lay off brian ....if anything letting him go was the biggest mistake....he made nick better ,archie a state placer and a collage bound wrestler...able better at times LOL just playing and me better he gave me confidence and best of all he made Pepe better...and ur seeing it this year...and ben bakka made justin better ....say what you want but just ask the athletes there lies the truth.....and if the old coaching staff was so bad why have so many flocked to be apart of a team that was never noticed.......pena....cisnaros they saw a solid program up and coming with good coachs built on tradition.....why would the come if other wise......so go back to tradition and having fun cause if your not having fun your not happy and this team does not look happy........this is high school people .......not a life time job.....you need to understand that yeah you can be competitive and stride for the next level but when the days over....it still is just a sport and not a career.......I'm I saying you can't have one no !!!!!.....I'm saying ur son/doughter is in high school and they want to have fun!!!!!! How can you do somthing you don't love.....you can't and you can't like somthing that isn't fun......wrestling was my passion...... my escape.....not my life it is and foreverwill be a sport!!!!!.........so bring the fun the tradition back stop fighting over this and that cause when it's all said and it's not about you it's about the kids and that is final......so heads up team work hard and get ready cause I knw u guys will kick @$$ at state and trust me I'll b there so let's go and Cary the tradition.......... GO BEARS!!!!!!!!! Sencerlly mocco

If i moved to selma whats the problem, You do not count.

you just moved to selma from kingsburg, you dont count.

I love the Raiders, all selma parents are fans of them.

We will rise again...

Lets see, A heyana, Lizard, chipmunk, a fat butterball, and a mint twin, together hanging out eating as a pride, at the zoo.

The Big wigs lied to the old coach , there even lieing too u!There willbe a change watch and learn!

Flo should follow selma and make a reality show out of it. The ex coaches and cry baby parents would make for great TV

according to the upper big wigs....he's here to stay.

is he going to coach the raiders next week

Why don't you ask him if he is coming back next year.

Sam is doing an outstanding job.

It's no problem, I understand that there are folks out there that don't agree with everything (you can't please everyone). I just wanted to say some kind words to a club is doing well and is on the right track. I think Sam is doing a good job. I'm related to one of the parents of a Selma Wrestler. I have lots family in CA (Bakersfield, Gilroy, San Jose, etc...) and I like to see kids from CA at national level events. Anyhow, good luck to Selma Wrestling at CIF States in 2009. I will see some of you at Fargo this summer.

A positive video clip, then people come on here and trash the new coach. Sam Lopez is the new head coach and it sounds like the wrestlers and the parents are happy with him. These posts are going in circles. Someone gives the new coach a compliment and then someone replies that the old coaching staff was the reason for selma's success. Selma people are screwed up!

You need to understand that sam already inherited the program when the old coaches been there when selma was at the bottom. they stayed when no one wanted to help, so as far as mentoring that was done, by the old coaches,selma is at the peak right now, it does not matter who coaches them, they will win, and they will dominate, P.S. jim were was sam 7 years ago whan selma was down and out, whers was the other coaches. Look no offense but sam just got lucky, and good luck to him and his new coaching crew and the selma boys, no matter what selma will dominate this year, because of the hard work everyone put in, yes including the selma parents and the old coaches, as for the new coaches just sit and enjoy the ride because The hard part was already, about 7 years ago.

I'm aware of what happened in the past with the program and put honestly it does not matter. What matters is that Coach Lopez is there right now and he is doing a great job mentoring the kids that are there right now into future CIF State Champs, NCAA wrestlers and Olympic hopefuls. Any wrestling coach wants to see his/ her kids get to college (that is our goal). When you get college it's up to the next coach to mentor you to the next level. When a coach from a program 3000 miles away notices a good club, it's a complement to the hardwork and dedication to all of the kids and coaches. Let's keep one thing in mind, Coach Lopez is the designated leader of that program and is his responsibility. Let's give credit where credit is due.

Let them wrestle and let the current coaches, coach.

I love that, truth of the matter the parents did a good job raising their kids the right way, and spend numerous hours and money helping there kids achieve success in wrestling, but the coaches are the ones that guided them, modivated them, stuck with them through the thick of it, shaped them up, got them ready, to go to battle, and thats the thanks we get. Parents stop already, move on let go of your child let them be men, its ok to love them, but we coaches love your child too. All we want is the best for them, and thats the truth. Ex coaches,and current coaches we all want the best for your children and thats for real.

Lets all face the truth, neither the new coaches or the old ones have nothing to do with the succes of the team. Realistically the Parents are the ones who realy trained these kids.They derserve the credit. But not all the kids (Jose mendoza) excluded and a few more.There really is no hard feelings from the ex- coaches just let everything drop.If there was any wrong doing by school officials it will all come out in the end. So good luck to all the wrestlers this year. Because every year there seems to be an new change

I think your Rolls Royce just ran out of gas.

Come on guys. If any Selma parents really cared about the old coaching staff they would post with their real name. No one wants the the old coaching staff back. Why would anyone want a old bike when they just got a Rolls Royce. Lets see who really cares about the old coaching staff. Let see one parent post a positive post about the old coaches with their REAL NAME.

Coach Sam Lopez....YOU DA MAN!!!!!
The former coaches are just haters, because they can't take credit for this years team. To be honest, they really couldn't take credit for last years team either. Name a wrestler that they actually coached that showed some success on the mat? BeT Ya CaNt!!

I second, to that after what happen to the old coaches.

Selma parents/coaches "Two Birds Of a Feather Flock Together" Get the point you are evil, deceiving, ungrateful, and have no morals to wrestling.

who were the ex coaches that did any coaching? all i remember is them talking crap. face it "lies", a monkey could have done a better job than any of the ex coaches. why is that? because the monkey would have been much smarter that the ex coach.

selma parents did not like the ex coaches, they knew the coaches ran the program, so what they do, fabricate a big lie to cover themselves to hire a new coach to run all over him period, and thats the truth.

The old staff did their job, its parents like you that make selma look bad. Sam did not do anything to help these wrestlers but sub for the real coaches, period.

Coach Lopez had to clean up the mess left by the old coaching staff and their undisciplined ways. If you don't practice, you don't wrestle. The old coaches didn't devlop any of the Selma wrestling stand outs. They inhertited a lot of studs who put in plenty of work in before they even reached high school and put in more time during the season to make up for the lack of coaching that they rcived from the old staff.

A coach (Sam Lopez) and staff are responsible for all the wrestlers that came out this year! All kids need guidance and encouragement from their coaches, none of that has been shown to the heavyweights at selma high! You can all say what u want- Sam Lopez u dropped the ball" no one else"! Sam Lopez as coach , you are respnsible for those kids and U let them down! None of the parents that are coaching in that room are rresponsible, they weren't the ones hired to run the program!

that was funny

"Anonymous coward" its not lady like to give nagative commits. I am shocked

Ok, I have an ideal maybe ex-coaches should hire "Whiny Parent Fan" as their lawyer. Apparently their current lawyer does not know what he/she is doing. Oh, yea their will be a coaching change when? Move on

Go Selma Bears stated they have a full line up. Did he say anything about all of them being at Five Counties. Did you know that they are also had another varsity tournament on the same day. Belittling heavyweights were last years coaching staff, do you want me to specific? Again for the last time we are happy with the new coach. You don't see anyone trash talking him. Oh by the way Selma High School wrestler will be doing freestyle this year. Something else they have not done in years.

I am not mad. Selma just took 2nd at one of the toughest tournament in the nation. My comment about the new coaches having more discipline and structured practices than the previous coaches is an opinion. Flowrestling does a nice video piece on Selma’s accomplishments at five counties and once again certain people come on Flo and belittle Selma’s accomplishments.

As for the person’s post that “so called parents coaches have no clue on high school coaching” Was this intended to parent of the number 1 ranked kid in the state or the kid who placed 6th in the state as a freshman or intended to the parents of the three other kids who all placed 4th at this tournament. All of these kids I mention were trained by Selma’s wrestling club “Team Selma” which were coached by me, David Cisneros and Gerald Pena.
Coach Lopes knows he was handed a good team. Watch the video he states “he was handed at great team with a lots of talent” Selma decided to hire a new head coach and yes like someone said 75% of the parents are happy with the decision which I fell it’s more like 99%. What do people who are posting negative comments about the new head coach and parents want? If it is respect you’re not going to get it, you need to earn it.
I wish the best for Selma’s Ex-coaches. I hope you find a new High School and prove me wrong on your abilities.

I did'nt see a full lineup at five counties !! What team were u looking at? How can u belittle Heavyweights when u have none! If u know so much about legal proceedings you should be a lawyer, rather than a whiny Selma fan!

The fact are that the last few years you had heavyweights that should have competed at the state level and they did'nt. This year Selma have a full line up, which we did not have when the so call great coaching staff was at Selma. You probably say where are they. If they miss practice they don't compete or they go to our other tournaments that we have on our schedule. Did you happen to see the wrestling schedule? Selma actually have wrestling tournaments for the junior varsity and freshmen unlike the past years and junior varsity getting to compete at varsity tournament, what a great ideal. You are the one that is not making sense. Are you talking about the heavyweights that the old coaches used to make fun of and belittle or are you talking the about the ones that never went to practice. Stop trying to bring down Selma Wrestling. Again, Selma parents are happy with Sam Lopez and the coaching staff, but the old coaches are not. Let me give you a little legal advice, court preceeding take years. Get over it, the old coaching will not be back. Get a new coaching job.

Hey Up In Central Section your talking about last years Heavyweights being ruined!! Thats funny " Where are your heavyweights this year"? Their u go again with no common sense again! Heavyweights last year, no heavyweights this year? Your way to funny ! iIf your gonna argue a point at least make sense!

OK Cseye or the Hawk. Talking about fabrication. Will the Real Eddie Gomez from Carauthers please stand-up.

Why do you keep on and on with your comments on the ex coaches. Elias why are you so mad. Do you have a kid that wrestles at the high school.I forgot you are the master trainer, stick your noise out of the Koolaid, let the coaches do there job.

exactly u parents are the most ungrateful people in selma, always fabricationg lies about the ex coaches, you guys. and girls always sticking ur noise were it doesn't belong. Keep up with ur comments that do not make sense, the only real problem was the selma parents about 75% of u guys, because in reality there is a hand ful of the other parents that were real parents that let the coaches coach, but the other so called parents coaches have no clue on high school coaching.

A good coach can coach any weight. What did last years heavyweight coach teach them. From my understanding last years coaches had the same three uppers for 4 years on the varsity level and they still were not able to get them to the next level. Sam is doing a great job and the parents are happy with him.

Good Luck to all wrestlers in california see you in March.

Selma parents,Reading these posts sounds like a bunch of B.S. I know Sam Lopez is a good coach, but it seems that the old coaches were fine last year, in fact they had a young team last year and did pretty good, this years team is more mature and suppose to do even better, the problem is you parents trying to run the show. Look it doesn't matter if its Sam or the old coach let the coaches do their job, and you parents be supportive toward your child, and your coaches. You guys have an awsome thing going do not ruin it.

Selma is much better off now, no doubt about it. The kids respect their new coach, that says a lot.

Stan Green is not a coach at Selma High. He stops by from time to time thats it! Stop using his name so loosely! Look at all the coaches u have listed , their all lightweight coaches. "Hm" its funny none of them look are sound like middle an upper weight coaches to me!

Sam developed these Selma wrestlers more in one year than nasser and his crew did in 8 years. it's too bad that under achieved former upper weight selma wrestlers come into the practice room and all they do is criticize the program on this forum. perhaps they are upset because they have been cheated. if they had been in a real program they might have placed in the state tournament as opposed to only being a qualifier after four years. i've heard that coach lopez and crew are doing a good job with their boys.

What you mean, sam kids over the years have developed as season athletes, when this is his first year at selma, and those wrestles not one he developed. Maybe Buana Park, But not any of the selma wrestlers.

Congratulations to the Selma Wrestling on a fine showing at five counties. Seems like a tight group that will continue to improve throught the season. Continued success thru your hard work.

Since when did Gerald Pena and Stan Green , become part of the coahing staff?

Anonymous Coward I know who you are, you are a joke to selma, learn how to wrestle before you coach. Second of all no matter what happens we all want the best for the selma wrestlers thats all, Last year no parent ran the program but the coaches, but things have changed so that is what you want then Good Luck. P.S. Proud of Nathan Zarate for making grades, and doing a fine job at five counties.

Coach Lopez,

I've been watching your kids over the years develop into seasoned athletes, I think your program is doing just fine under your leadership. If you are ever in Florida (Disney World is 1 hour east of us) with your boys or you just want to get away from California for something different we have some good competition for the boys and your welcome to come and train/ compete with us. Again, great job and best of luck at States. Coach Jim,

I want to thank Sam Lopez, Nicky Quintana, Gerald Pena, Joey Arellano, Andy Munoz, Diego Quintana, Erik Mares and Stan Green. You guys are doing an amazing job and are taking these kids to the next level.

P.S. To whoever is posting the negative posts about Selma, I recommend that you attend one of Selma's practices to see what a great job they are doing.

What are you talking about? Let put it in simple English, Naser and Brian. Naser does not care about anyone but himself and he probably does not even remember the names of last years heavyweights. It is because of him that Selma does not have upper weights that are at the level of Pena, Cisneros, etc. He did not pay any attention to them at all. But that is going to change. Sam can coach heavyweights better than last year’s heavyweight coach and Naser does not know how to coach at all. The kids that are on the team right now want to work and the few that left never wanted to worked hard nor did they go to practice, but the were still allowed to wrestle under Naser. With Sam, kids that don't practice do not wrestle come game night. Ok, let’s give a kid a Valley Ring that never comes to practice, quits three times during the season, because you don’t have the B*ll to stand up to his parents and you want to win at all cost. Great Coach.

When u mean old coaching Staff "Who does that entail" be more specific?Joey Arellano who is still on staff or Ben Baca who's current team is number 1# in Selma's section. Alex Cisneros was good before High School everybody knows that.No suprise there!!Had nothing to do with Sam! Elias your not even a coach ,what do u know about structure! The upper weights quit because they had no coach" bottom line"! I would quite to if i was being ignored! P.S.Who's the real coach of Selma Gerald Pena or Sam Lopez???

If this old coaching staff is so great, why isn’t there a line of schools wanting to sign these guys up?

The only thing I agree about what the old coaching staff said was that 3 upper weight kids quit the team. They quit because they weren’t used to to hard work and following rules. Last year coaching staff had no rules and no structure.

Actually Selma High was not invited to Doc B because of our old coaching staff. That was told to me by the Clovis coaching staff themselves. So Selma would have never won Doc B. Sad to say... but true. Selma wrestlers have improved tremendously under this new coach. I for one am very happy to have Coach Lopez as my son's coach. The wrestlers that have been placing at top tournaments in the past from Selma have done so because of their own efforts. There are some kids coming up from the feeder program, and thanks to Coach Lopez they will make an impact in the high school scene. The old coaching staff had NOTHING to do with my son Alex Cisneros, and other teammates that I won't mention performing at these top tier level tournaments. Any wrestling fan that knows the Selma program could vouch for that. It takes more than spending 4-5 months, when the coaches show up, on the mat to have a successful program. Thanks to Coach Lopez, and staff for helping this program work towards a successful wrestling season. We may not be state champions this year, but it is a goal that this team will always work towards.

Coach Lopez is a good coach, but the truth matter of fact selma was already good, the old coach and his assistants were the cause of this great team, but this team will go away in a couple of years when they have no one to produce, because there ain't much more talent in the feeder program.

This was the year that selma suppose to win it all, thats why there uppers quit on them, three of them that would of won five counties. This team was inherited to coach lopez, He is only a sub, but the true fact is the old coaching staff would of won Reno, Five counties, Doc B and more. Any one can come in to selmas program and succeed, they were already produced, Thanks to the old coaches.

big difference between this coach's interview and the last selma coach's interview. selma always had the wrestlers they just needed the right coach. this team kicks %@#

8 guys might be the number the put through to state so its not like they were down 6 kids...

This is the team model we should all be shooting for. Work hard, have fun and become a family. I like the fact that Sam knows there is room for improvement even when they are on top. Go Selma

Coach Lopez is all class. He is an awesome coach, a role model, and Selma High is very lucky to have him.

Alex Cisneros has a really light voice. whatever, he'll beat the hell outta me.

The selma crew is Great. They wrestle hard and have great attitudes. I cant wait to see what they do come California state time. You are doing a great job coach Lopez. It seems like you have a fun squad. Good luck guys. I will be watching from the east coast.

Midlands, Shmidlands, or actually MidCals.

only an 8 man line up. wow