It takes strength and agility among the many things needed to become a good high school wrestler.

However it takes a least one more thing, which has taken Legend senior Treyson Valdez a while to realize.

Valdez, a 170-pounder who was ranked fifth by On The Mat rankings on Feb. 19 in his Class 5A weight class, has learned you have to be smart to win the close matches.

“I do think that I don’t use just my muscular memory as much this year,” said Valdez. “I’m wrestling a lot more smarter.

“I just started doing it this year. I’ve been trying to learn how to think during a match rather than just using my muscle memory. It was pretty difficult, just looking back at film and just thinking about the little things I did to lose. So this year I felt I needed to change and I made that happen.”

Legend coach Nick Rider claims Valdez is a better wrestler this season.

“Back in the day, he kind of, for lack of a better term, would make dumb mistakes,” explained Rider. “He’s just gotten a lot smarter. He’s wrestling smart matches. He’s doing good.”

Valdez saw this abbreviated 2021 season interrupted for two weeks by a COVID quarantine. He practiced with his older brothers James and Gage during the shutdown and worked out to improve his strength.

And being smarter in his matches has helped.

“It (wrestling smarter) has improved my wrestling quite a bit.” added Valdez. “It gives me a lot more confidence that if I do what I should do, I shouldn’t lose. It’s just like that one little step I needed.

“I’m doing good, I’m in a good solid place right now. So far my record is pretty good. I’m in a pretty good spot right now.”

Regional competition is set for March 5-6 and Legend will compete in Region 2 with two wrestlers from each classification advancing to the state tournament which this year will be held at the Southwest Motor Events Center in Pueblo.

Valdez feels he will be ready for the challenge of the regional tournament.

“I’ll be keeping it the same, just wrestling smart and making it my match,” he said. “So I will just go in and do my stuff. Then I think I will do fine.”