I had the honor to be an Assistant Coach with Coach Koch from the 1992-93 season (we went 14-1 in dual matches that year) until the 2002-2003 season. During this period the team won CIF championships in 1994, 2002 and 2003 and finished 2nd in 1993, 1995, 1999, 2000 and 2001. During much of this time the team was also racking up academic honors as well. The Ramona wrestling team was a periodic California Academic State Champion and perennial runner up in the California Academic Team Championships. Team academic titles are awarded to varsity teams regardless of size of school who have the highest cumulative grade point average in their sport among over 1,000 high schools throughout the state.

While all this was going on the team changed practice locations almost yearly, the most “unique” was called the Pig Barn, a large metal tool shed in the FFA area that was adjacent to the pig pens with all their glory and odors. In 1994, leading up to the CIF divisional championships the team had to practice outside in the winter due to space conflicts with an in-door varsity sport team. The fury that came out of that adversity propelled the Ramona wrestling program to its first CIF Championship since San Diego Section records have been kept. The team won due to superior conditioning (coaches from other teams told their wrestlers not to let those kids from Ramona off their backs, because they would end up pinning you in the last period since they would not stop), and having the depth that allowed us to wake up a sleepy JV wrestler at 4:30 in the morning to replace the top seed Varsity wrestler who could not go due to family issues. The team margin of victory from 1st place to 2nd place that day in 1994 was 13 points, mostly the points earned by that young JV wrestler pinning his way to 3rd place. The same factors in 1994 that led to that first championship were evident in this most recent championship in 2012.

Even with all my experience,I learned from Coach Koch. I have had the opportunity to have coached wrestling in California, Georgia and West Virginia with a student athlete winning a state championship in each of those states. One of those student athletes I coached was my oldest son, who started it all in 2002 with the newly created Ramona Wrestling Club, or more appropriately….. The Pound. As the team “mascot” during those early years he travelled with the team as we drove farther and farther away from San Diego County each year in search of tougher competition and challenges. My son got a few team wedgys along the way, but what left an impression on him most was seeing Coach Koch’s teams in action. He learned valuable lessons in hard work, camaraderie, sportsmanship and academic achievement that have served him well as an adult. I wish my son had the opportunity to have been on one of Coach Koch’s teams.

Ramona wrestling may not be a dynasty yet, but the legacy that Coach Koch has created has left a positive and lasting impression on hundreds young adults all over the country, an impression that has impacted their character in the best way possible. Regardless of the number of championships won, the legacy of his impact on his student athletes is Coach Koch’s greatest achievement. As Tambo quoted John Wooden; “Winning takes talent, to repeat takes character”

Coach Craig Raine, formerly known in Ramona as Coach Pain