Los Gatos Wrestling History
The wrestling program began at Los Gatos High School in 1951 with Bill Crosby and Ted Simonson. In 1952 Paul Ferris became the head coach and with Ted as his assistant, built a program that would produce many individual champions. He stepped down in 1959 when Larry Mathews took over to win the school’s first title in 1961.
In 1966, George Talman replaced Eric Holcomb. In his three years, George would win two league titles, a CCS title, and second place in NorCal. When George left in 1970, his kids, some of whom he had coached for six years, went on to win the league and CCS under Tony Florentino. Tony would lead another group to a second place CCS finish in 1972. Several other coaches, including Kit Lauer, would come and go until 1983 when Brian Ganz assumed control over the program. He would take the Cats to consecutive WVAL titles in 1985 and 1986, while sending numerous wrestlers to the State meet.
In 1987 Scott Downs took over for Brian Ganz. In his first 6 years of coaching, he restarted the Fisher Program, helped the Shanks at C.T., started our summer camp program, as well as our freestyle club, and for the first time, created a wrestling room. The room gave our program a unique ability to present an environment conducive to year round development of our athletes. During that period, Los Gatos finished in the top 10 of CCS for the first time since 1975 in the individual tournament, and qualified for the CCS duals twice, finishing second in 1994.
James Fanshier head–coached for 3 years from 1996 to 1998, and kept the program at a high level---sending three wrestlers to State in 1997 (our most since the State meet began) and bringing the team to an 8th place finish in ’97 and a 4th place in 1998 (our highest since 1972). Jeff Garlick followed with a 3-year stint which brought success reminiscent of George Talman, winning 3 league finals tournaments, 2 dual meet championships, a 4th place finish in CCS, and sending 4 wrestlers to the State meet. Like George, Jeff had coached most of the boys to a county title while they were at Fisher.
In 2002 several changes occurred. Coach Garlic moved away from the area, so Arno Dominguez and Scott Downs assumed the role of “Co-Head Coaches”. This would be Scotts’ second stint as head coach and Arnos’ first at Los Gatos. It was also during this time that the team occupied its new wrestling room and gathered a strong group of assistant coaches. Los Gatos repeated as League Champions and won the league finals tournament, which were both SCVAL records, and in CCS they finished 3rd. In 2003 they finished 2nd in the SCVAL but won the League tournament, qualifying all 14 weights for CCS for the 3rd consecutive year---a CCS record! The 2nd place CCS finish tied the teams 1972 2nd place finish, exceeded only by the 1969 and 1970 CCS Championship years.
In 2004, we regained our position as league champs and won our league tournament for the 6th consecutive time. Our 14 CCS qualifiers broke our own CCS record (4 years in a row), and helped us finish a close 3rd at CCS. Along the way, we won the prestigious Silicon Valley Challenge Cup and tied or exceeded our previous placing in every tournament we entered. We also had our first state finalist in Bobby Pease.
In 2005 we continued our dominance in League winning the SCVAL title and the SCVAL tournament for the 7th year in a row. We qualified 13 wrestlers for CCS; not having
a heavy weight on the roster prevented us from qualifying all 14-weight classes for 5 years in a row. We finished an extremely close 2nd place in CCS, 10 points from our first CCS title since 1970. This would be Coach Downs last year as head coach. Scott stepped down from his head coaching duties to become our new vice-principal insuring our programs support for our school for years to come. In 2006 we finished 2nd at the Newark Ironman, 2nd at the Coast Classic and 3rd at The California Invitational Tournament which were our team’s bets finish at those tournaments ever. The same year we finished 2nd in league to Fremont who ended up with an unheard off 3 California State champions. The team finished 3rd in CCS securing a spot in the top four of the section for a 6th consecutive year.
My name is Ken Perrotti. This year Arno Dominguez and I will enter our second year “Co-Head Coaches”. For those of you who do not know me I am a direct result of the program that our current vice-pricipal Scott Downs started during his first stint as head coach. Scott and Jeff Garlic introduced me to the sport of wrestling at Fisher Middle school in the mid nineties. After wrestling at Fisher for two years and Los Gatos for four, I took over as head JV coach my first two years while attending West Valley College. During this time, Kyle Hand (a former Wildcat wrestler) and I restarted a very successful program at C.T., and continued the wrestling tradition at Fisher. After two years as JV coach, I moved away to continue my education at Chico State University, helping out the team as much as possible during the holidays and important tournaments.
This year we are returning an outstanding line up of assistant coaches. Howard May, Dan Benedetti, Richard Escobar, Nolan Nguyen, James Pease, and Mike Wysuph were all outstanding wrestlers at Los Gatos and return as assistant coaches. Richie Figueroa is also returning as an assistant coach and Jim Thrall has joined our coaching ranks after being involved with various programs on the peninsula and other former Wildcats will be assisting thought the year as well. These men are not only knowledgeable and skilled as wrestlers, but are fine people and excellent teachers. Our progress the past few seasons is due in large part to the willingness of these men to give of themselves and their time. They have helped us achieve continuity, an aspect of our program that has made us consistently tough and able to relate to our large team as individuals and as a group.
We also wish to thank Jim Doss and his staff, who have consistently taken the Fisher Middle School program to a level of success not seen since the late 90’s. Jim Doss will be joining our high school coaching staff this year handing over the reins of or Jr. High program to Coach Nguyen and Coach Wysuph. These two individuals will also be involved with reviving our wrestling program at C.T. English middle school in the spring.
I hope that it will please all of you to know my views as head coach are in line with all of the important lessons and values I learned through wrestling and coaching here at Los Gatos. The entirety of my wrestling and coaching knowledge has been passed down to me from Coach Downs. I view Scott as a mentor and teacher and hope to instill all of the important values I have learned from him not only as a wrestler but as a person as well. Without the wrestling program here at Los Gatos I know I would not be the person I am today, and for that I have a commitment to this school, this program, its athletes and its parents that is unquestionable.
I will continue to instill sportsmanship, fair play, respect for ones self and their opponent, honesty and integrity in our athletes; all fine traditions of Los Gatos Wrestling.
I hope this overview of the program’s past and present helps to give you a sense of what is important to us and why.
© 2006 Calvin Hawkes