When Lompoc three-sport star Masson Blow was named the Male Athlete of the Year by the Northern Santa Barbara County Athletic Roundtable at its annual awards dinner last week, he was nowhere to be found.

Blow was participating in the annual Every 15 Minutes Program. Earlier in the day in front of an assembly of fellow students, Blow dramatized taking a field sobriety test. During the dramatization, he fails the test and is arrested.

He then spent the night away from his family. Other students, such as scholar-athlete nominee Courtney Stumpo, went through the program as a fatal accident victim and were kept away from their families overnight.

While he missed the excitement of winning the award, he felt being part of the Every 15 Minutes was very important.

“It helps to get the message across to my peers about how drinking and driving can impact a person, the family, the friends and the community,” he explained about his participation. “I wanted to be a part of that to help my friends.”

And even though he missed the dinner, he was thrilled to receive the honor.

“At first I thought that my mom might have been confused with the athlete of Lompoc High School,” Blow said. “Then she told me I got it for the whole Northern Santa Barbara County and I was pretty happy with that.”

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It was a remarkable school year for the senior who will attend Cal Poly on a wrestling scholarship in the fall. In football he was a running back and a defensive back. Then after a league championship and state qualifying wrestling season he went into to a CIF qualifying track season.

Going to San Luis Obispo, Blow will work solely on wrestling, and even though he will miss aspects of the other two sports, he is confident with his decision.

“I'll miss it,” he said about football and track. “But wrestling is my true passion and what I want to excel in.”

And excel he has. This year, Blow won the league title, won the CIF title at 152 pounds, finished fourth in the Masters and qualified all the way to the state tournament where he went 3-2.

“Making it to the state tournament in wrestling was my biggest accomplishment in high school,” Blow said.

He has been wrestling since he was 5 years old and still loves being on the mat.

“I like the physical aspect of it,” Blow explained.

Blow probably could have ended most bouts early, but at times worked on his skills instead.

“With some guys you can go and get the quick pin,” he explained, “but the coaches wanted me to work on my moves, because that is what you are going to learn from.”

Of course, he followed his wrestling performance with a triple jump win in the Los Padres League and again reached the Masters level.

Blow thanked his parents Michael and Cozetta for all of their support.

“Sometimes they push me harder than I push myself,” Blow explained. “They are really supportive and they really help me out.

“In wrestling if I needed to cut (weight), they helped me buy healthier food and they would take me to tournaments.”

Blow liked the small town atmosphere of growing up in Lompoc, “you get to know a lot of people,” and he will miss the close-knit student body. But Lompoc High is not finished with the Blow family. Younger brother Marcell is a fine wrestler who just completed his freshman year and Siarra (his third-grade sister) will be there too, soon enough.

June 1, 2008