On the football field, Coronado’s defensive foursome of seniors Evan Kay, Zeb Foster, Lotoni Afuhaamago and junior Ryan Strabala all could join forces to stop a runner or receiver in his tracks.

On the wrestling mat, they take to their battles individually, but seem to have brought that winning gridiron attitude with them.

“Ever since last year when we won the state title in football, we’ve been accustomed to success,” said Kay, a senior who has a 21-5 record at 182 pounds. “We have carried that over to wrestling. We hated losing in football, and we don’t want to lose in wrestling.”

Each took second at last weekend’s Colfax Smackdown, helping Coronado to the event’s team title, one of the few tournaments the Cougars hadn’t won during a legendary run highlighted by a 5A state championship in 2011.

And perhaps the silver lining behind a shorter football season – Coronado won state in 2013 but fell in the first round in November – gave the Cougars a better, fresher start that has the team thinking big things heading into the season’s home stretch.

“Obviously, we wish we could have kept playing,” said Foster, a linebacker and running back who has accumulated a 17-6 mark at 195. “But it was definitely good for us. We got in the wrestling room almost right away after football and started training and conditioning. We were in good shape for the beginning of the season.”

That was the opposite of last season, when a banged-up contingent of football players, fresh off the school’s first state championship, needed extra time to heal and essentially ran out of time before getting into true wrestling shape.

“Last year was just a mess,” longtime Coronado coach Matt Brickell said. “We didn’t get anyone out until after Christmas. This year, they had a good football season, and I know they wanted to go further, but those guys have helped us with an earlier start.”

Back in middle school, Kay, a two-way lineman who leads the team with 12 pins, tried to recruit longtime friend Foster to take up wrestling. The work finally paid off when the two were freshmen.

“Evan talked me into it,” said Foster, who placed fourth at the regional tournament last year but lost a chance to advance to state after losing in a wrestle-back match. “I wasn’t so sure when I was younger, but after meeting the team and coaches, I wanted to be part of the program. Now, I want to be on the podium at state to help the team.”

A more seasoned Foster proves that football players can make good wrestlers, and vice versa.

“They both go hand in hand,” Brickell said. “If you have a kid that wrestles and plays football, you know that kid will compete. The big thing is that you can’t coach intensity. A kid has it or he doesn’t. When you can take that intensity and make them control that, that’s wrestling right there.”

Afuhaamago, a heavyweight and two-way lineman who moved to Coronado late in his sophomore season after his family was stationed in Germany, made his long-awaited debut at the Colfax Smackdown after suffering a broken foot in the last game of the football season.

A second-place individual finish wasn’t a bad place to start.

“In Germany, I made it to the equivalent of the state tournament here, and I finished fourth and learned so much,” Afuhaamago said. “My goal now is to be a state champion. In football, there were times where the clock is ticking and you have to make a stop or score to win. It transfers to wrestling. Sometimes, you have to pin the guy or else you lose. There’s that concentrated adrenaline, and that does carry over.”