The UC High Wrestling Team came out undefeated this year, with a season record of 16-0 and the title of Western League Champions. Wrestling Coach Mark Harrington has been named this year’s Commander Coach of the Year.
Harrington is in his second year as a coach at UC High, though he began coaching back in 1985. He coached Serra High School’s softball and wrestling teams, and he coached wrestling at Mira Mesa High school for 15 years. Harrington also wrestled in both high school and college.
According to Harrington, his most memorable moment of the season was the victory at La Jolla High, a Big Five school, on January 18. “It was 7-7. Daniel Tsai got the credit for pinning the last guys, but it really was all 7 guys on the team, too, to win 36-34,” said Harrington.
“I treat each kid differently. Some respond to yelling, and others respond to slaps on the backs and ‘thata boy’s’. Each kid here at UC is different,” stated Harrington. “Hopefully the guys on the team want to win. We are trying to change the atmosphere around UC about wrestling. We are trying to teach them to win with dignity, and trying to push them to limits they’ve never reached before.”
As far as the training goes, Harrington is pretty straightforward. He explained that for a match just six minutes long, the wrestlers must train for 18 minutes. The team will run two to four miles, sometimes using the UC Track teams’ routes. Harrington added, “If they want to cheat on runs, they can cheat on runs, but it’s going to show in a match. When you’re dead tired and it’s 3-2, and you have no energy left because you had cut your canyon run, it’s going to show in your performance.”
Other coaches that help the team include Coaches Eddie Hernandez, Mark DeGiso, and Daniel Quinn. DeGiso and Quinn both wrestled at Mira Mesa when Harrington was the coach. All four coaches manage about 48 students, including the Freshman, Junior Varsity, and Varsity Teams.
Senior Joseph Charles, fifth place wrestler in the San Diego Section, said, “We really worked as a team and practice was great. We performed better and did better statistically than we did in other years. He [Harrington] was a great coach; he brought the whole team together. He made us believe in ourselves. He told us that all we needed to do was believe in ourselves and that we could actually make things happen, we were good enough, and we had the technique to win and do well.”
“He [Harrington] is really good individually. He takes a lot of time working on my partner, James, and I together,” said Senior Roman Tyler, sixth place wrestler in the San Diego Section, “He really has turned UC around in two years.”
Harrington plans for another good season next winter. “Next season is going to be tough; La Jolla is coming back strong. The guys here have to put the time in during the summer. It depends how much weight they put on over the summer,” Harrington chuckled, “Some of our teammates have got to stay out of trouble and not get kicked off the team or get kicked out of school.”