Robles brothers take it to the mat

Zach Robles was furious, and his older brother couldn't believe his eyes.

It was last February when the captain of Central's wrestling team, then a junior, suffered a 1-0 loss to District 12's No. 1 wrestler in the 106-pound weight class.

A win against Father Judge's Tim McCall - who had topped Robles in each of their previous five meetings - would have been a shock. However, in defeat, Robles shocked his brother, Ricardo, in a different way.

"He was just so mad," said Ricardo Robles. "Zach doesn't get mad. Whether he wins or loses, Zach just says nothing. But that day, I saw a change. He just took his headgear and slammed it.

"That was the first time I've seen him actually show emotion, and I think that's when he really turned a corner."

The brothers' bond, like Robles' wrestling style, has evolved over the years, with Ricardo coming on as an assistant coach at Central. Ricardo Robles, 23, wrestled for three years at Edison and notched 40 wins.

Before Zach Robles even set foot on a high school mat, Ricardo Robles already had a goal for his younger brother.

"Get to 100 wins," Ricardo would tell him repeatedly.

That goal was realized last Friday at Southern, when Zach Robles became just the second wrestler in Central history to win 100 matches. Robles is tied for the school record with Eric Bibeau, who graduated in 1988 with 104 wins. Robles is five wins away from the Public League record of 109 wins.

"My brother basically said 100 wins should be a goal," Robles said. "And then the record of 109 wins for the Public League, he said I should break that from my freshman year on, and he's been pushing me through to achieve all this."

Although he is technically an assistant at Central, Ricardo has been his younger brother's primary coach and practice partner throughout his four-year career, according to eighth-year head coach Jeremy Julien, who wrestled at Central from 1997 to 2000.

At 6-foot-3 and 210 pounds, Julien is not the ideal sparring partner for the 5-3, 113-pound Robles. So Julien has given the 140-pound Ricardo Robles full rein to train his brother.

"It's got to be a really unique experience to have a sibling coach you and push you and really want you to do your best for four years," Julien said. "When they go at it, Ricardo's pretty relentless. He'll beat the crap out of his brother, basically.

"Zach's definitely a better wrestler than me," said Ricardo Robles. "If we were the same size, he would kill me. But I'm bigger than him, so I still get to big-brother him."

The brothers started wrestling in 2007, when their father, Carmelo, a Marine and former amateur boxer, took them to the Port Richmond PAL. Nine years later, the brothers are still hooked.

Robles, who has anywhere from 12 to 16 matches left this season, has a chance to become the Public League's all-time wins leader, and his brother could not be more proud to be along for the ride.

"He has more pins than I had wins," Ricardo said. "He's at 49 pins now, and the Public League record is 50 pins. So he's going to get that in a couple more weeks.

"He's just breaking all kinds of records, and I'm speechless."

rallysports@phillynews.com