LJ wrestling: Fraternity

By Ed Piper, Jr.

"Wrestling is a brotherhood that stays together." Walter Fairley, Jr.'s statement Sat., Jan. 28, during the Holtville Invitational is one the long-time coach and former wrestler embodies himself.

After an arduous day navigating the 125 miles to Holtville High through powerful gusts of wind on the Interstate 8 alongside banks still covered with snow from the previous weekend's storm, then eight hours of competition consisting of hundreds of matchups among the 350-plus high school athletes taking place on five mats simultaneously, Fairley and his fellow coaches from La Jolla High took a well-deserved break for a late dinner in nearby El Centro.

"You're coming to dinner with us, right?" asked Fairley of a neophyte Holtville observer, only in his second year visiting the long-running regional tournament. Fairley has been attending for years.

In fact, Juan Vasquez, a fellow La Jolla coach, was making the trip for the 21st year--ever since he placed fifth at 104 pounds as a Viking sophomore in 1997. Vasquez won the division the following year, before taking down the "Outstanding Wrestler" award for the lower weight classes as a senior in 1999 by winning the 114-pound class.

It was quite an honor for the non-wrestler to be welcomed to a seat at the table with Fairley, a former vice principal at La Jolla before he retired; Vasquez; current head coach Kellen Delaney, in his third year at the helm; and Chuck Pieritz, a first-year assistant coach making his initial trip to Holtville. Pieritz is a former wrestler and MMA fighter recently moved from Illinois. Missing from the usual team was Ryan Lindenblatt, a math teacher at La Jolla High, who was attending a military event during the weekend.

The coaches, after the first day of bouts, still had two wrestlers active in the tournament bracket. Junior Elliot Austin, at 128 pounds, would go on to place fourth Saturday night.

Isaiah Torres, a large freshman at 197 pounds, was working hard on his learning curve as a new wrestler but he mainly owed his still being alive in the winner's bracket to the paucity of entrants in his weight and the resultant bye he enjoyed in the first round. Torres quickly joined the other seven Vikings making the trip in the Hard Luck Bracket the next morning.

Back to Fairley, he is an inductee into the Wrestling Hall of Fame for his years of service to the sport. He and his colleagues at the dinner table enjoyed ribs and other barbecue delight, getting back to their motel around midnight. The following day's activities began early at 7 a.m. with weigh-ins, followed at 8:30 by a resumption of wrestling.


Fairley and his colleagues were knowledgeable about not only their own student athletes, many new to the sport and learning their way, but also the tendencies of individual referees and the potential effect on calls they made.

The assembled coaches represented quite a panoply of roots and life experience from across the U.S. While Pieritz, the first-timer, hails from his native Illinois, Delaney, the head coach, grew up in Kansas City, Missouri, and wrestled at Simpson College in Iowa. His ancestry on one side traces back to San Luis Potosi, a central colonial state in Mexico.

Fairley, who came out of retirement last fall with former fellow LJHS administrator Bev Greco to help guide Lincoln High, grew up in Mississippi. "I moved to San Diego June 12, 1963," he said at dinner, remembering the exact date. "I was 12 1/2 years old. I attended Gompers (as well as other schools). Gompers was the first integrated school I ever attended. Schools in Mississippi weren't integrated yet."

Was it an adjustment at Gompers? "It didn't make any difference to me." Fairley is always a man of calm and moderation.