Highland's Villegas brothers make mark in basketball, wrestling
Gabe Villegas says he looks up to his brother, Jon. He says it's a blessing to have a highly respected family member a grade ahead of him at Highland High School.
Gabe Villegas says he looks up to his brother, Jon.
He says it's a blessing to have a highly respected family member a grade ahead of him at Highland High School.
He just doesn't like his older sibling's game.
And the feeling is mutual.
"He's the basketball player, I'm the wrestler," Jon Villegas said of the unique sports situation between the brothers.
This has been a banner winter sports season at Highland, as the girls' and boys' basketball teams each have won Tri-County Royal Division titles (with a combined record of 23-1 in division play) and the wrestling team went 17-2 and took second place in the division.
The Villegas brothers have been right in the middle of the action on the boys' side, with Jon Villegas serving as a senior captain of the wrestling team and Gabe Villegas emerging as a top junior point guard for the basketball team.
It's certainly not unusual for brothers to make an impact on a school's success in sports. But it's rare when they play different sports in the same season.
"You just don't see that," Highland boys' basketball coach Joe Lewis said. "The crazy thing was, the other day in the paper, you had one story that mentioned Gabe doing something in basketball and you turn the page and there's Jon doing something in wrestling."
Jon Villegas has been wrestling since middle school, when he joined the Highland junior program. He's been a four-year starter at the varsity level and a valuable contributor at 182 pounds this season for one of South Jersey's top teams.
His victory in the final bout of the match clinched Highland's win over Haddonfield in a Jan. 16 battle of two of South Jersey's top teams.
"He's been a good wrestler for us for four years," Highland wrestling coach Mike Davidson said. "He's a great kid in school, a good character kid who is a role model for a lot of other students."
Davidson said it's no surprise that Jon Villegas plays a different sport than his younger brother.
"If you ever saw Jon play basketball, you'd know why he wrestles," Davidson said.
Gabe Villegas said he considered wrestling as a winter sport a few times in grammar school and middle school, mainly because his older brother was involved in the activity.
But basketball always was his main game.
"I just love basketball," Gabe Villegas said. "That's always been something I loved to do. I tried wrestling. It was OK. But it wasn't basketball."
Gabe Villegas is a first-year starter, but his emergence as an outside shooting threat and ball handler has been instrumental in Highland's run to the program's first conference title since 2001.
Gabe Villegas is averaging around 13 points per game. He went for 25 the other night against Pennsauken and scored 20, making six three-pointers, as the Tartans clinched the division title outright Tuesday night at Triton.
"For a little guy, he's big out there," Lewis said of the 5-foot-7 Villegas, who has made 68 three-point shots. "He's been lights-out for us."
The brothers regularly attend the other's events. Jon Villegas said he's always proud to see his little brother excelling on the basketball court.
"He might be little, but he's got the biggest heart out there," Jon Villegas said.
The brothers both are good students, although Jon Villegas admits his brother is a "little more focused" on schoolwork.
"He's always studying," said Jon Villegas, who plans to attend Camden County College and hopes to transfer to a four-year school and pursue a career in engineering.
The brothers say they draw their inspiration from their father, Jon Villegas, a regular in the upper corner of the stands at basketball games and wrestling matches.
"Their father videos every basketball game and every wrestling match," Lewis said. "You can always find Mr. Villegas, looking for a spot in the corner of the bleachers to set up his camera."
The brothers say their father has been recording their sporting events since before high school and they spent a lot of time at home watching the replays.
"That's what we do," Jon Villegas said. "He'll be watching basketball and I'll be watching wrestling."
Asked if his older brother offers any advice on basketball, Gabe Villegas said he wouldn't listen anyway.
"I'm the basketball player," Gabe Villegas said. "I tell him, 'You stick to wrestling.' "
@PhilAnastasia