Latest news with #Balmeceda
Miami Herald
23-06-2025
- Sport
- Miami Herald
Retiring South Dade wrestling coach honored with Miami Herald Lifetime Achievement Award
He helped create the most dominant wrestling program in Miami-Dade County history, and it's become one of the best in the nation. After 29 seasons, South Dade's Victor Balmeceda decided to call it a career this past March. And what a distinguished career it was. The Bucs won 20 state titles in 32 years, including 18 championships in Balmeceda's 29 seasons as a head coach. Add to that numerous more individual state champions and hundreds more wrestlers he mentored over the years. For his vast accomplishments, Balmeceda is one of the Miami Herald's 2024-25 Miami-Dade Lifetime Achievement Award recipients. Balmeceda, 54, remains at South Dade High teaching special-needs kids, but departed his role as coach after the Bucs extended their Dade-record active streak of 12 consecutive state titles. 'It's great when one of your wrestlers jumps into your arms after winning state, and you know you helped him reach his goal,' Balmeceda said earlier this year. Balmeceda made the decision in order to spend more time with his wife of 29 years, Susan, and their family. They have two sons, Brevin, 24, and Gavin, 18, both of whom were state champions at South Dade. Brevin was a four-time state champ and won two NAIA national championships at Life University in Marietta, Georgia. Gavin, who won one state title at South Dade, is currently a wrestler at Life. In addition to his teams' accomplishments on the mat, Balmeceda helped numerous wrestlers overcome difficult home lives as a father figure to so many. Many of them included former state champions, Eric Diaz and Kendrick Sanders. Diaz posted on Facebook after Balmeceda announced his retirement: 'Your words of wisdom helped me in dark times. You unselfishly gave so much to so many, and all that you asked was for us to give you our best. 'Just know that you have earned the gratitude, respect, love and loyalty from us all!' Added Sanders: 'I wanted you to be my coach so much that as a kid I would sneak and put on my older cousin's singlet just to see what it felt like to rock that 'S' on my chest. 'You inspired me, and you have impacted so many lives. You instilled confidence in a boy who was lost at times. There were countless times when we couldn't afford to go to a camp, and you spent out of your pocket to make it happen. 'You provided structure. You held us accountable, and you loved us like we were your own sons.' Balmeceda also made the decision knowing the program is in good hands. His long-time assistant coach, Humberto 'Duck' Reyna, replaced him as head coach. 'Duck is half the reason we have the dynasty we have,' Balmeceda said in March.
Miami Herald
27-03-2025
- Sport
- Miami Herald
Mater Lakes' Neifeld and South Dade's Balmeceda are the Dade Wrestling Coaches of the Year
Mater Lakes' boys made school history. And South Dade's boys added to their already historic state championship run while their girls got close to their first title. Both wrestling programs won state championships this past season in both the duals and individually-bracketed tournaments in their respective classes. As a result, their coaches - Brandon Neifeld at Mater Lakes and Victor Balmeceda and Gamaliel Duran at South Dade are the Miami Herald's Wrestling Coaches of the Year for Miami-Dade County. Neifeld and Balmeceda share Boys' Wrestling Coach of the Year honors while Duran wins on the girls' wrestling side. After coming close in recent years, Neifeld led Mater Lakes' boys to its first ever state duals title in Class 1A and the Bears followed that up with a dominant performance to capture the 1A title in the individually-bracketed tournament earlier this month in Kissimmee. Mater Lakes totaled 212 points to finish clear ahead of second-place Zephyrhills Christian's 149. The Bears placed six wrestlers in the championship matches and five came away with state titles, including Kellen Mesina (113), Keagan Mesina (120), Ethan Tran (126), Kalias Nazario (165) and Damian Soto (190). Christopher Greene finished as state runner-up at 132. 'This team has been around for four and five years. It's been the same group of guys,' Neifeld, who has been the school's coach for 13 years, said at the state meet. 'We should have won last year but we lost a tough one at the end. This year we just knew it was going to be our year and it's been incredible.' Balmeceda, meanwhile, directed the South Dade boys to another stellar season that included state titles in both formats once again. South Dade now has 27 wrestling state championship trophies having also won its seventh Duals state title earlier this year. The 20 IBT titles is the most for any Miami-Dade program and trails only Brandon High's 28 on the state's all-time list. The Bucs won their 12th in a row, which is the second-longest title streak in state history behind Brandon's 16 in a row from 2001-2017. South Dade placed nine wrestlers in the finals and came away with six individual champions, including Guillermo Jaramillo (126), Jovani Solis (138), Elvis Solis (144), Armand Williams (150), Tyree Graham (157) and Willie White (165). 'Realistically, anyone would have been happy to get four or five guys in the finals, but we went 18-0 on Day 2 with the quarterfinals and semifinals,' Balmeceda said after the state IBT meet. 'They answered the bell.' On the girls' side, South Dade had its own successful season under Duran's tutelage as they tied for the second-most points in the state (106) behind Flagler Palm Coast's 150. Willow White led the Bucs at 120 pounds by completing an unbeaten state championship season.
