Season Preview: Bridgeland High School

This is the first in a series of preseason articles on high school wrestling in the Houston, Texas area. Houston area schools are divided between Regions 2 and 3, and consist of schools in the following counties: Harris, Montgomery, Fort Bend, Brazoria, Galveston, and Brazos. 

Region 2 includes District 7 schools from the Klein, Waller, and Bryan school districts (7 schools), as well as District 8 which consist of Montgomery County schools from Conroe and Willis (7 schools). Each year, these schools travel from 205 to 258 miles to compete in the Region 2 championships at Allen HS

Region 3 is entirely made up of schools in the Houston area, divided into District 9, 10, 11, and 12. Nine Katy schools are in District 9; Twelve Cy Fair schools make up District 10; Twelve schools from the cities of Houston, Humble, and Kingwood are in District 11; and District 12 includes nine schools from League City, Richmond, Friendswood, Clute, Clear Lake, and Lamar.

The school that will be covered in this article is Bridgeland High School, the most recently opened school in the Cy Fair ISD, opening just after Hurricane Harvey hit the area in 2017. All twelve of the Cy Fair high schools are in Region 3, District 10.

Coach Vahan Subarian is entering his 9^th season as the Head Coach of the Bridgeland Bears Wrestling team. He led the Bears to their best season ever last year, finishing 2^nd in the District, sending six wrestlers to the Region 3 championships.

All six of those wrestlers are returning this year to build upon their successful results. Leading the way is Sebastian Santibanez, a senior, has qualified for Regionals twice. He was the District 10, 150 lb. champion last year. Over two varsity seasons Santibanez has accumulated a 69-26 career record. He is working towards improving his 6^th place regional finish to qualify for the state tournament.  He recently finished 3^rd at the Texas Super 32 Early Entry at 157 lbs. In his consolation finals match, he met the wrestler who sent him to the consolations, Jayden Cardona, last year’s UIL Region 2, 5^th place finisher at 157 lbs. Santibanez got his payback with a 10-5 decision for bronze.

Next up for the Bears is Breyden Jeffries-Arndt, a 3-year varsity wrestler, and a two-time regional qualifier. Breyden brings a 105-55 record into his senior season. He is the only Bear who qualified for the UIL tournament last season; finishing 3^rd in District and 4^th at Region.

Other Regional qualifiers include: Ian Calvillo (31-16), a 12^th grader who was 3^rd at District at 113 lbs.; Sebastian Garcia (28-15), an 11^th grader who was the District runner-up at 106 lbs.; (Joshua) Cael Kemp (33-19), a sophomore who was 3^rd in District at 120 lbs.; and Thomas Kartalis (18-11), a junior who was also 3^rd at District.

Two other wrestlers who lettered last year, but did not qualify for regionals are junior Micah Yu (19-22) and senior Gunter (26-31). Yu had a 5^th place district last year, and Gunter has finished 6^th and 5^th over two varsity seasons.

A final addition to the Bridgeland Bears is the incoming transfer of Rueben Castro from Amador Valley High School in the East Bay area of California. Rueben was one of the leaders on his squad, and over the last two seasons, he has built a record of 85-20 with 49 pins. His coach at AVHS, Travis Chubb says that Rueben is one of those wrestlers that has a true love of wrestling, and is a student of the sport, and is constantly working to improve. Coach Chubb will surely miss Rueben this season, but he has no doubt that he will continue to be impressed as he continues his journey to the top. Castro has also been involved Brazilian Jiu Jitsu for five years, both GI and NOGI.

Just by looking at the numbers of returning wrestlers, the Bridgeland boys should be on all of the other Cy Fair schools’ sights as one of the team to circle on their schedule, including Cy Ranch, last year’s District Champs.

All talk of the Bridgeland Girls wrestling squad begins with Genevieve Seiffert. In 2024-2025, Seiffert was a different wrestler from the previous year where she did not place at District. Her off-season commitment to becoming a better wrestler produced profound results. In 24-25 Seiffert won the District 10-6A title, the Region 3 title, and lost only one match at UIL in the 165 lb. weight class. Her record for the season was an impressive 35-4. She has again been in the gym during the summer, and we will soon see if she improves at the same rate that she did last year. If she has, watch out.

Two other wrestlers to keep an eye on are girls who also qualified for the Regions with 4^th place District finishes, are senior Keila De Leon Zapata, and junior Giggi Youngblood. They are still relative newcomers, as both only have two years of experience, but with hard work and commitment positive results should occur.

When asked about duals and tournaments that are big on the Bears’ schedule, Coach Surabian mentioned duals against three Katy schools: Tompkins, Seven Lakes, and Mayde Creek, as well as wrestling against Kingwood and Cy Ranch. Tournaments they are looking forward to are the Cy Ridge Classic, the CyFair ISD Invite, and a travel tournament to Euless Trinity for the Trojan Classic.

Coach Surabian could not say enough about the impact that Assistant Coach Chris Potter has had on the development of the Bears’ wrestling skills and psyche. Potter, a former DIII national champion, and a head coach at several other schools, most notably, Cy Ranch, is helping build the Bridgeland program to be not only District and Regional champions, but producing successful, motivated, and goal-driven young adults. Both Surabian and Potter were recognized last season as District 10 Boys Wrestling Coach and Assistant Coaches of the Year.

I want to thank both Coach Surabian of Bridgeland and Coach Chubb for their input for this article. All of the District 10, 7 and 8 coaches have received requests for input.