By Adrienne Hill
At first glance Virgil Locket, a 5-foot-3-inch, 133-pound kineselogy major appears to be serene and reserved, but once he is on the wrestling mat, complete with his dragon-eyed tattoo watching his back, his silent fury is unleashed upon all opponents.
As one of the captains on SF State’s wrestling team, Virgil Lockett has one main goal for this season – to become a champion at the NCAA Division II National Championship.
If the last name Lockett looks familiar, that is because Virgil’s older brother who placed first in last years California Collegiate and third in the national championship is Donald Lockett.
As the younger brother of the SF State record setting champion, Virgil is not too concerned about competing with the legacy that his older brother established. “I don’t think that I’m in the shadow of my brother because my style is different, more conservative. I’m more technical and I shoot to score,” said Virgil.
According to coach Lars Jensen, Virgil is not treading in his older brother’s footsteps; instead he has created a new path of his very own. “They have two different wrestling styles. Donald was more about take-downs and Virgil drains his opponents with his aggressive upper body strength,” said Jensen.
Virgil agreed, stating that he does not go for the pin, but rather he comes at his opponents with a barrage of moves to gain points.
Liberal studies alumnus, and assistant wrestling coach at SF State, Donald Lockett, looks out for his younger brother. Although he thinks Virgil is a good wrestler, always the big brother, Donald thinks he could be much better. “He’s been wrestling with me, and I think that he has all of the physical tools for wrestling, we just need to get him there mentally,” said Donald.
To prepare for each match mentally, Virgil runs sprints while focusing on the match and imagines his opponent sleeping while he trained. In Virgil’s mind, having more physical endurance is what gives him the mental edge over his opponent.
After practice, Virgil runs an additional five miles around Lake Merced to improve physically and to keep his weight down. He knows all too well, how much weight he can gain in a short time if he does not train. “Once I gained a total of 11 pounds just three hours after making weight,” said Virgil.
Besides making weight, one of the biggest obstacles during wrestling season is juggling his social, academic, and athletic life. Virgil recalled words of wisdom handed down to him by his wrestling coach, Braumon Creighton, at Skyline College, “When you are a student athlete, you have your academic, social and athletic life, but you can only be good at two.” With that in mind, Virgil stated during wrestling season his focus is on school and wrestling.
It is that kind of maturity and motivation that pushed this first year transfer student to the top of his game with a record of 23-10. Jensen described Virgil as a hardworking, quite, and dedicated team leader. “He is like a quite storm. You know, it is the quite ones you have to worry about the most.”