Switching Up Seeds: How junior Jahir Contreras’s support system helped him win state

No one expected him to win the state championship. Junior Jahir Contreras had lost every match the past two seasons to Olathe North’s Joe Triscornia — including sub-state where he placed second. 

He felt like quitting. He complained about going to practice and when there, he didn’t try as hard when working on single sweeps.

“That [loss at sub-state] kind of tore him down a little bit,” Javier, Jahir’s older brother, said. “[Jahir] had lost to him before and he just built in his head that he could not beat him anymore.”

So his brothers showed up. 

They pulled him aside after the sub-state match — you can only be beaten by somebody so many times before you figure them out, they told Jahir.  

“My brothers would constantly tell me rankings don’t matter, you just go in there and beat the other guy,” Jahir said. “And actually, throughout the years that’s helped my mentality grow stronger.”

Jahir knew beating Triscornia wouldn’t be easy. He was the number one seed in the state and had beat Jahir all three times they’ve gone against each other. That’s when his brothers told him to develop a champion mindset — he could only win if he believed he could. Jahir comes from a family of wrestlers. Both of his brothers, Armando and Javier, have placed at state, Javier winning state his senior year at Olathe North. 

Filing into the bleachers at almost every one of Jahir’s wrestling meets, his brothers spring out of their seats when Jahir wins a match — as if it were them on the mat themselves. 

“They were always there at every meet, they were always there taking time out of their day to come see me and tell me what to do during wrestling matches and everything,” Jahir said.

In the week between sub-state and state, his brothers came to three of Jahir’s practices, helping him with his pacing and offensive game — specifically the leg attacks.

Head Wrestling Coach Chip Ufford sent Jahir videos of his sub-state match against Triscornia where he was taken down from Triscornia’s leg attacks. They knew where he could improve. So they got to work.

“When we have losses, we go to work and try to close the gap on our opponents and give ourselves a chance,” Ufford said. “And [Jahir] did, he closed the gap and gave himself a chance to win.”

He went into state as the sixth seed in the 126-pound weight class, but Jahir didn’t let that discourage him. Using the tight-waist ankle move techniques he practiced that week, Jahir grabbed Triscornia’s ankle in the final few seconds at the state match — preventing Triscornia from escaping and pinning him down. 

But Javier wasn’t surprised by how quickly his brother picked up on the move. He’s a fast learner, Javier says. 

Watching in the stands, Javier was nervous, but confident — he knew Jahir had all the tools needed to beat Triscornia, he just needed to believe in himself like his family believes in him.

“Once I finally got to see Jahir [after he won], I picked him up and I told him, ‘All the tears and the hard work that you suffered through paid off, man, and they paid off because you fought and didn’t give up,’” Javier said.

Since Jahir won the state meet, Javier no longer calls his brother “Jahir” — just “Champ.” 

“They all push me,” Jahir said. “They help me out with everything I need to do. My family was always pushing me when I was down, my coaches telling me, ‘It’s just another match, you’ll do good’ — I feel like all that is the reason why I won.”

They all cheered as he took his place on the top of the podium, holding the poster of the state bracket — “Contreras” written on the line labeled “champion.” The poster now hangs in his room as a reminder to everything it took to win state.

Looking across his room at the poster, Jahir recalls the moment the whistle screeched victory as he leapt into his coaches’ arms and they lifted him up. And when they set him down, Jahir pointed up at the bleachers to his family, who were jumping around and pumping their fists.

“[After I won,] I was just saying thank you because they were all congratulating me,” Jahir said. “Definitely in my mind I was like, ‘Dang, I’m so glad for all the people who played a role in me winning state.’”