Warriors Set Eyes on National Championship

June 13, 2023

By Francisco Claudio

After another year of experience under their belt, the Westcliff Surf team is just a couple of days away from competing for a second year in the 2023 NSSA National Interscholastic Championships.

The Warriors are having an epic season after collecting their first-ever NSSA California state championship earlier in the year sparking lots of confidence and motivation to get the big one.

"To be a part of any nationals contest is a big deal and a great accomplishment," Surf Head Coach Kyle Rouse said. "With a full team this year, we're excited to show what we can do on some of our home "turf" here at Salt Creek."

Even though Westcliff finished in the top five last year, they feel that unfinished business needs to be taken care of and were ready with a fully loaded team, ready to dominate this season.

"This year's main difference is our full roster and the internal competition, which helps raise the bar for everyone," Rouse said. "The other main difference is just having one year under our belt and seeing how well we can compete with the field at each contest.

"Once this group gained that confidence, you could tell their expectations for themselves increased."

Since the start of this season, the expectations and aspirations of the entire team were to compete and have a chance at winning a state and a national title.

"The field is so talented with Point Loma, UCSD, Saddleback, UCSB, etc. so we knew it would be tough but with the roster and talent we have we knew we had a chance to be in the top," Rouse said. "We love to see just the growth and the relentlessness of the surfers we have.

"One accomplishment of winning a state title is checked off this year which is great, but I know their eyes are really set on winning at Creek for a national title."

Jordy Collins is coming into this event having led the team to their first individual state title and will try to make it back-to-back to end the season.

Silke Martinez has had a good year with multiple top-five finishes and won an individual contest as well.

"We know she wanted to finish better at state so we know she'll be coming in wanting to make a statement at nationals," Rouse said.

Lucas Taub is another member of the team that brings lots of experience since he won a national title in the past with Saddleback, and knows what it takes to win it.

"He's looking to add another one under his belt and make a nationals final heat as well," Rouse said.

Having so many talented and hard-working athletes has become one of the best motivators for this team.

"This team is very competitive and even when they had a solid event but didn't get the finish they wanted, they knew they had to go back to the drawing board and figure out what they could do differently moving forward to get the result they wanted. They are very internally driven when it comes to competition and with the great leadership from Lucas, Jordy, and others, the culture is great for them as a group," Rouse said.

With only a few days left until the event starts, Coach Rouse wants the team to focus on being present and not be comfortable.

The Warriors accomplished something great by winning the state title, but this will be a different beast of its own.

"Ideally, we want to use the knowledge and grit we had from state to build on that result to hopefully lead to another great result," Rouse said. "Team surf contests are an interesting beast because it's a lot of individual results but the dynamic of the scoring system is very team oriented.

"Ultimately, it's great because each surfer can contribute in different ways each round and we know that all of our surfers are motivated to do so at nationals"

This year's NSSA National Interscholastic Championships will take place across three days, June 16-18, in Salt Creek Beach located in Dana Point.

In surfing, it's hard to call someone having home court because of how crazy the conditions can be for both teams.

But the Warriors are definitely happy to be able to compete in their backyard and with the opportunity to reach the final day and celebrate with their home fans.

"Our goal is to take the national title, and have our A and our B team both finish in the top five to really make a statement to end the season," Rouse said.

Below is the schedule for Day 1, on Friday:

Men's:

Heat 5 (8:00 am): Keaton Slack

 Heat 6 (8:15 am): Blaze  Roche

Heat 7 (8:30 am): Robbie Crist

 Heat 8 (8:45 am): Bryce  Mattox

Heat 9 (9:00 am): Jake Shiroke

 Heat 10 (9:15 am): Cole  Futak

Heat 11 (9:30 am): Jack Hopkins

 Heat 12 (9:45 am): Eduardo  Galindo

Heat 13 (10:00 am): Lucas Taub

 Heat 14 (10:15 am): Jordy  Collins

Women's:

 Heat 1: (10:30 am): Sofia  Freyre

Heat 4: (11:15 am): Chelsea Taylor Ehlen

 Heat 5: (11:30 am): Silke  Martinez

Heat 5: (11:30 am): Ninon  Mattei

Longboard:

 Heat 2: (1:50 pm): Bryce Mattox

 Heat 3: (2:10 pm): Jordy Collins