LJ wrestling: Update

Early action against the Saints. La Jolla wrestler on left.

(Photos by Ed Piper)

First-year head coach Kellen Delaney says he's learning the administrative side of coaching wrestling, while continuing his technical work with his staff of coaches and wrestlers on the La Jolla grappling squad.

In previous seasons, including the 2012-13 Western League championship season in which the Vikings sent several wrestlers through the City Conference and CIF Section levels of competition, Delaney served as one of the assistant coaches, along with his friend and roommate Ryan Lennard.

Lennard has gone on to pursue his passion besides wrestling, which is strength and conditioning, as the coach in that area on the La Jolla High campus. So he's pretty occupied with that, though cognizant of what's going on in what is now Delaney's wrestling program.

"We don't have any varsity wrestlers," Delaney confided at the Vikings' dual meet at St. Augustine Jan. 21. "They're all newcomers."

In other words, against other teams, wrestlers are put into the varsity lineup of weight classes to carry on dual meets. But as far as skill level and experience, even the boys put on the varsity are novices and just learning their craft. Others compete as the junior varsity.

La Jolla is rebuilding the program after the number of experienced wrestlers dropped a year ago. The great thing is that every one of the wrestlers who showed up on the St. Augustine campus two weeks ago for the Vikings got to wrestle in the dual meet, either at the varsity level or on the JV's. That is what high school sports are for--to learn and grow. Why can't it be an incubator for kids to learn new skills?

Head coach Kellen Delaney (R) and assistant use body

English to communicate moves to their wrestler.

Action was on St. Augustine High campus.



I had never attended a pre-meet weigh-in before. Each wrestler, in turn, for each team had to stand on the electronic scale and have his present weight recorded. If he didn't meet the maximum weight for a weight class, he had to "wrestle up" at the next weight class.

Coach Walter Fairley, who is assisting Delaney and who formerly was an assistant principal at La Jolla High until he retired two years ago, explained a fact about CIF rules on weight. At that point in the season, a wrestler got two pounds allowance for growth--I think the initials on the weight recorder's clipboard were "GW" for "growth weight". That's kind of cool. There's nothing like that in the sports I played eons ago, basketball and baseball.

Delaney is the right kind of guy for the coaching position temperament-wise. While personable, he is calm, steady, though highly motivated during matches, which can be seen in his intense shouting of instructions to the wrestler grappling at the time. Fairley and the other coaches present themselves in the same way. Great models for our young people.

There is another aspect to the wrestling culture, which I began to learn about during Timmy Cundiff's years, his graduating in 2013. Timmy and his family are friends of our family. You can see this brotherhood, family atmosphere. Not macho. Connected. The guys hang around one another. They are humble, even if they're really good at what they do on the mat. They look out for one another.

In this respect, I really like the practice before each wrestler's match in which the whole team gathers around him, lays on hands, and shouts his name in unison to send him into competition. It's a visible sign of unity as well as support for the individual. Very cool.

Kellen Delaney says that by next year, with a year of experience, there will be wrestlers on the team at both the varsity and JV levels. It keeps building. Stay tuned.


Copyright 2015 Ed Piper