LJ wrestling: Hall of Famer

Walter Fairley Jr. (right), an inductee into the National

Wrestling Hall of Fame, shares some pearls

during the meet Wed., Feb. 3. (Photo by Ed Piper)

By Ed Piper

"I've mentored a lot of coaches," Walter Fairley Jr. says, not immodestly.

Fairley assists with La Jolla High wrestling. That's an understatement. The former LJHS vice principal has pretty much done that ever since he came to La Jolla in 1996--16 years while VP, three since his retirement from teaching.

But the statement about helping develop wrestling coaches comes after a long discussion among fellow Viking coaches after a meet, as only colleagues can do. In other words, Fairley is modest. He didn't volunteer information about his background--he had to be asked in detail.

Then the big one, unbeknownst to a local writer: Coach Fairley was inducted into the California chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2014 with a Lifetime Service Award.

Wow.

Through a selfless career of teaching, coaching, and administering at six different schools, four of them local high schools, he has mentored and influenced not only a number of coaches, but also countless young men and women.

The compact Fairley, who starred as a 112-pound wrestler at San Diego High from 1966 to 1969, served as head coach at Crawford High for 12 years, from 1980 until 1992. He was also the Colts' ASB advisor and Attendance Coordinator (in the days when the attendance person drove to truant students' houses to roust them out of bed).

He also was an assistant coach at Lincoln High, Serra High, and Grant High in Sacramento, besides La Jolla High over the span of an education career of 38 years. He also served as a vice principal for three years at Stanley when it was still a junior high (grades 7-9), helping convert it to a middle school (grades 6-8) before his move to LJHS.

"My hire date was 2-10-75," remembers Fairley of his start in teaching and coaching at Lincoln. "I didn't do a single day of substitute-teaching." He immediately went to work helping prepare Hornet wrestlers for  CIF competition that started soon after his hiring.

His connection with Lincoln was "Uncle Ivan" Olsen, who was his actual coach while he was wrestling for the Cavers. After school, he would travel over to the Lincoln campus to practice under Olsen. San Diego High had a coach who performed the administrative functions of the position, but who was not an experienced technical coach.

Olsen was later inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame after becoming an institution at Lincoln.

"I have the actual trophy from the Ivan Olsen Tournament," says Fairley. "It is in the La Jolla wrestling room. During my years as vice principal at La Jolla, I kept it in my office." He explains that for years, the Olsen tourney was suspended after being started at Kearny High. So, in order to safeguard the trophy, he took it under his wing once the Vikings won the tournament one year, and is keeping it until a better place is found.

Fellow wrestling assistants Ryan Lindenblatt and Ryan Lennard (the strength coach on campus) attended Fairley's induction in Laguna Hills in April 2014. All having been head coaches, either at La Jolla or elsewhere, they all work together on the Viking staff with present head coach Kellen Delaney. Juan Sanchez is another member of the staff who served as head coach.