PHOENIX — When Thom Ortiz took on Scottsdale Saguaro High School’s “club” program last year, he was able to attract about 18 wrestlers. Mostly, it was to lay the groundwork, teach fundamentals and the meaning of hard work.
Now, Ortiz — a Tucson native and former Sunnyside High School star — will be taking Saguaro back to the Arizona Interscholastic Association ranks after a six-year hiatus.
The first place he’s going to look is in the talent-rich football program, which last year broke through as a 4A-enrollment-numbers school to win the 2021 Open Division state championship.
Wrestling is considered one of the best complementary sports to football.
Football coach Jason Mohns sat in the interview process to hire Ortiz as the wrestling coach.
Parents wanting to bring wrestling to Saguaro contacted the former Arizona State All-American wrestler and Pac-10 Coach of the Year if he would be interested in being the coach. They got together with Athletic Director Matt Harris.
Ortiz has two sons, ages 10 and 12, who live near Saguaro.
“I said, ‘Is the football coach behind (wrestling)?’” said Ortiz, who was given an emphatic yes from Harris. “Then, absolutely, 100% it can be done.
“I said, ‘The No. 1 excuse I see at other schools for why the wrestling team doesn’t do well is because the head coach of either team doesn’t get along.’ If they don’t want to send you the kids, they don’t have to.”
Mohns sees wrestling as a big benefit for football, even though wrestling follows the football season. He has long been a proponent of his athletes competing in track and field.
“We are excited to bring our wrestling program back to life at Saguaro, and especially under the direction of a legendary coach like Coach Ortiz,” Mohns said. “His resume as a former Pac-10 Coach of the Year at ASU, a three-time conference champion head coach and multiple-time national champion as a wrestler is unmatched at the high school level.
“He supports and appreciates multi-sport athletes and his coaching style and personality is a perfect fit for Saguaro High School.”
Ortiz has been coaching since 1990, when he joined his ASU coach, Bobby Douglas, at Iowa State to be an assistant.
He led ASU for eight seasons (79-60-1 overall record), before he was let go in 2009. He began the World Fighting Federation for MMA in 2009, but sold his half of the business in 2018. During his time in WFF, it brought an itch for him to compete in the octagon at the age of 50 against guys 20 to 30 years younger.
Ortiz, a state champion wrestler at Sunnyside in the 1980s, also was the subject of an award-winning documentary, called, “El Viejo,” which means old man in Spanish.
Knowing that his sons will one day be going to Saguaro ramped up Ortiz’s interest to become the head coach of the school’s AIA team. He is hopeful that his assistant coach, Maya Nelson, will join him this coming school year. She is ranked No. 3 in the world for women’s wrestling at 136.5 pounds. She was fifth in 2021 at the World Championships.
Ortiz’s intent is to have both boys and girls wrestling at Saguaro.
“She took over the practice and ran it for two hours,” Ortiz said about the 24-year-old Nelson. “I’ve been coaching wrestling for a long time. I watched her. She was giving me different perceptions. She’s really detailed.”
Ortiz said that Nelson still competes, and sees the difficulty of coaching, while still competing.
Girls wrestling is taking off in Arizona. Ortiz wants kids who are committed to wrestling.
“There is nothing harder than wrestling,” Ortiz said. “Anything they go to is going to be less harder, especially physically.”
Ortiz isn’t worried about Saguaro’s wrestling program being dormant for so many years. He is always looking ahead, not behind.
“Anything negative, forget about it or you’re going to live in fear until you die, and fear causes earlier death,” Ortiz said. “For me, I want this to be a leadership program. I want to teach them how to be rather than what to think.”
When he saw about 20 Saguaro football players come through the wrestling room last year, Ortiz said he thought they were junior college athletes.
“I would tell those kids, ‘If you want an opportunity to get on the field, wrestling may be your best opportunity to get you on the field for one play,’” Ortiz said. “If you can get through a wrestling season, you’re not going to get hurt out there.”
