It’s never polite to stare, but Josh Julagay can’t help himself. It just happens when he sees the Tacoma Dome.
“Every time I pass it on the freeway,” the Timberline High School senior said, “I just stare at it.”
Julagay is hoping Tacoma’s moniker of being the City of Destiny holds true for him this wrestling season. The Tacoma Dome is the annual site of the Mat Classic – the state high school wrestling championships.
Julagay has gone every year since he entered high school – except only as a spectator.
He plans to once again make the trip to this year’s tournament, but wants less watching and more participating this time around.
“The goal has always been to place at the state tournament,” Julagay said. “I’m hoping all the hard work I’ve put in will pay off.”
Julagay, who wrestles in the 132-pound weight classification, has advanced to the postseason in each of the last three years, but he has yet to secure a berth into the state tournament. He made the 3A regional round his first two seasons – with his sophomore season ending in the match to determine the state alternate in the 113-pound division.
Last year – the Blazers first as a 4A member since 1999 – ended at the Narrows 4A tournament.
“I was upset at first,” Julagay said about last year’s season-ending loss. “But I have since swept it under the rug and got over it. It’s now my number one motivator.”
Julagay is one of eight senior wrestlers on Timberline’s roster this season, but is the sole four-year member on the team as half the seniors are wrestling for the first time ever.
“There’s a lot of new faces. I talked a couple of them into turning out,” said Julagay, who also plays soccer and runs cross country for the Blazers. “They now say they wish they had been here since their freshman year.”
If that had occurred they may have had the same experience Julagay had as an incoming ninth grader who was brand new to the program.
“It was actually a little bit scary for me that first year,” Julagay said. “I remember seeing Stone Hart in my first practice. He was something.”
Hart, who just completed his sophomore football season at Harvard and is one of only two Timberline wrestlers to win multiple state championships, was a rare breed, possessing equal parts smarts, athletic ability, likability and enthusiasm, and what he accomplished, winning state titles, at 220 pounds, in 2011 and 2012, has set the benchmark for every Blazer wrestler.
In Timberline’s mat room, a board is present displaying the name of each and every Blazer who has placed at the tournament. Hart’s name appears three times as he also finished sixth in the 215-pound classification his sophomore season.
Julagay hopes his name is the next to be added to the board.
“He just works hard and learns well. He goes out there and battles every time he’s had a match. He’s ended up having a really good season so far,” Timberline coach Jeff Birbeck said about his senior captain.
“In wrestling you have to be smart when you’re out there,” continued Birbeck. “You have to be aggressive and know what you’re doing and what positions you’re in. Plus you have to think while you’re out there and he’s one of those kids that can keep track of what he is doing when he’s competing unlike a lot of kids who just go out there and battle and don’t know what they are doing.”
A Taekwondo student during his elementary school years, Julagay started wrestling in middle school. He had hoped to continue both, but due to time constraints, he had to select one.
Wrestling won out, and while he began his freshman season as a member of the JV team he soon found himself wrestling varsity and was the only freshman in the 113-pound division to place among the top four finishers at the Narrows League tournament, earning his first trip to regionals.
The next season, also at 113, he finished second at the Narrows League tournament, losing by default to teammate Miles Hart.
Timberline moved up to 4A the next year where Julagay was joined in the 120-pound class by his freshman brother, Jake.
“It definitely gets interesting. There’s been a few practices where we got mad and just went at each other for an hour and a half, two hours just straight wrestling,” said Julagay, who actually eliminated Jake from the Narrows League tournament last year. “As soon as practice is over it’s like, ‘What do you want for dinner?’ It’s great having him on the team. He understands what I’m going through. It helps.”
Help which could result in Julagay realizing his high school-long dream of wrestling in the Tacoma Dome.
“I just need more work in the mat room,” Julagay said. “The goal is don’t lose two (at a tournament) and just get as far as you can.”
