Badesire Lubala makes history as first Stephenson High School gold medal wrestler

By Mark Brock

DCSD Athletics Specialist

MORROW, GA–Stephenson High School Jaguar junior wrestler Badesire Lubala made history for the DeKalb County School District (DCSD), winning the first wrestling gold medal for Stephenson on Feb. 12 in the GHSA State Wrestling Championships at the Morrow Center.

Lubala faced off with Calvary Day School’s Brexton Bell in the Class 3A 175 championship match. Bell reached the finals with a technical fall (21-3) victory over Luella’s William McNair who had defeated Lubala twice this season.

Lubala made short work of Bell with a takedown and pin at the 1:46 mark in the first round of the match to claim the title.

“Badesire missed out on the 2025 county, region and state championships following a car accident that ended his sophomore season,” said Stephenson wrestling coach Derek Vaughn. “He came back this year laser focused and with the goal of winning state.”

Lubala, who finished fifth in state as a freshman, opened the Class 3A championships with technical fall wins over Troup’s Kameron Huzzle (17-1) and Adairsville’s David Coon (19-2) to reach the semifinals.

Lubala moved into the semifinal round to take on Mason Boykin from LaGrange who had breezed into the semifinals as well. Boykin jumped out 10-4 on Lubala putting the Jaguar wrestler in a big hole after the first round.

A pair of takedowns by Lubala in the second round pulled him within 11-10 heading into the final round of action. A takedown and a near-fall garnered Lubala seven points and despite an escape by Boykin propelled the Jaguar into the state championship match with a 17-12 victory.

Wins at the DeKalb County William Venable County Championships and at the Class 3A State Sectional are also on his resume this season with an excellent 48-3 record on the year.

Lubala’s championship helped the Stephenson squad to a 26^th place finish in Class 3A field of 47 teams.

Stone Mountain finished 35^th as lone wrestler Torrey Caraballo went 2-2 in the 106 division. Caraballo won his opener 12-6 over Charlie LaMotte of Mary Persons before falling to Gilmer County’s Deyson Lopez by a pin fall to drop into the consolation bracket.

Carraballo advanced another round with a reversal and pin of Cairo’s Henry Nguyen before falling to Jerek Giles of West Laurens to come up short of the consolation semifinals.

Class 1A

The McNair Mustangs finished 28^th out of 58 teams in Class 1A state competition at Morrow led by Houston Simmons.

Simmons opened the tournament with wins of 19-3 (Technical Fall) over Abraham Contreras of Pelham and pen fall (6-1) over Cayson Wadley of East Laurens to reach the 138 weight class semifinals. A tough pin fall loss to eventual state champion James Sievers of Social Circle dropped  him into the consolation semifinals.

Simmons came up short against Keyvan Gresham of Oglethorpe County in a tight 6-4 loss to drop into the fifth place match to face Wadley for the second time in the tournament. Simmons held off Wadley again with a 5-1 decision after building a 5-0 lead heading into the third round.

Towers finished 41^st as a team with only Caleb Derival competing at state. Derival reached the third round of the 126 weight class consolation bracket.

Story and photo by Mark Brock,  Athletics specialist for the DeKalb County School District. 

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