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Wednesday, March 17, 2010
On this date in area sports history …
Thirteen years ago on this date, March 18, 1997, the News-Sun published a story about longtime wrestling coach Dick Dellapina’s retirement. Complete story on the jump.
PIONEER PACKS IT IN.
DELLAPINA LEAVES POST AFTER 38 YEARS
By Greg Billing, News-Sun Sports Writer
Dick Dellapina’s wrestling team at South didn’t send a grappler to the state tournament this season. But even though he wasn’t sitting at the corner of the mat at Wright State’s Nutter Center, barking instructions to one of his wrestlers, Dellapina’s presence loomed large.
And it will for years to come.
The man who started the wrestling programs at South and Graham high schools and passed his knowlege on to hundreds of kids rolled up his coaching career after 38 years, the final 12 with the Wildcats.
“I’ve spent a total of 40 years in teaching and I thought this would be a good opportunity to retire,” Dellapina said. “It’s time to get some new blood in the program.”
Dellapina, who gave South’s program life in 1963, discovered recently the time was right to move on.
“I’m a hands-on coach who likes to get down with the kids and show them how to do this and how to do that,” he said. “But it’s getting harder to get down with the kids and be competitive.”
Dellapina’s final match came at the district meet in Centerville. That’s where 112-pounder Brian Muncy faced off against Cincinnati Oak Hill’s Justin Cox. It’s also where Dellapina’s career came full circle.
“The young man who eliminated Brian was the son of a man I had on the first team at South,” Dellapina said. “What comes around goes around.”
Dellapina, who has coached at two high schools and one college, has definitely been around.
He started Graham’s program in 1960 and continued coaching the Falcons until 1963. A biology position brought him to South in 1963 and kept him there until 1974. Dellapina then moved on to Wittenberg from 1974-84 before finishing his teaching and coaching career at South.
Before his coaching days, Dellapina wrestled all four years at Union High School in Burgettstown, Pa., and the University of Findlay, where he graduated in 1957. Dellapina spent two years in the army following college.
“My fondest memory was in my second year at South. We were 12-1 on the season and the one loss was to the team I left at Graham,” he said. “It was like watching two of my teams wrestling each other.”
Dellapina has many fond memories of coaching, but what he’ll miss the most is watching his wrestlers mature both on and off the mat. Muncy was one of them.
“I’m rather proud of the fact Muncy was one of those we thought wouldn’t stick with the program, and he blossomed into a team leader,” he said. “This season he placed in every tournament except league. I saw kids come in who were non-athletes and soft and would stick with the program. I also saw kids who looked like athletes and couldn’t take it.”
Dellapina coached five state qualifiers and one state placer in his career.
One person who doesn’t know how Dellapina coached so long is one of his three sons, Tim, who served as assistant coach with his father this season.
“I don’t know if I could do this 30 years down the road,” he said. “Right down to the end he was as excited as he ever was. I know wrestling changed a lot since he began, but he always had the ability to take a kid with low self confidence and get him on the mat.”
The younger Dellapina, who played football four years at Wittenberg instead of wrestling, is undecided whether he’ll take over for his father. Both his brothers, Mike and Dan, wrestled in high school and college.
“I always set coaching football as my goal, but if a good head coach for wrestling came along, I wouldn’t mind assisting,” Tim Dellapina said.
And if no decent candidates stepped forward, well, he said he’d consider continuing the Dellapina tradition.
“If there is one thing he realizes, I hope my dad knows I got the opportunity to know him more as a man than a father,” Dellapina said of the coaching with his father. “I was never dedicated to wrestling as much as he was and I wouldn’t have been an assistant if he wasn’t coaching.”
Some area youths also might not have benefited from Dick Dellapina’s efforts. Ten years ago he helped co-found the youth wrestling program Mat Masters. Two Mat Master alumni, Northeastern’s Matt Erwin and Shawnee’s Cyle Young, advanced to this year’s state meet.
But after 38 years, Dellapina’s coaching days are over.
For now, anyway.
“I won’t help out unless I’m asked,” he said. “Whoever takes over, I want it to be their program. But I’ll definitely be at all the matches. I’ll probably be like a fish out of water in November, but I’ll adjust.”
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