Boys wrestling coach of the year: Cliff Jarmie, Laguna Hills

The Register's All-County boys wrestling team. Top row, from left: Villa Park's Josh Luton; Calvary Chapel's Morris Wilner; Servite's Angel Cordova; Laguna Hills' Phillip Zamora; Calvary Chapel's Jeremy Thomas; Laguna Hills coach Cliff Jarmie; Calvary Chapel's Justin Thomas; San Clemente's Tyler Meisinger and El Modena's Conor Donnelly. Bottom, from left: Canyon's Ethyn Ewing; Santa Ana's Ricky Navarrete; Servite's Liam Cronin; Servite's Marcos Polanco; Laguna Hills' Anthony Le and Santa Ana's Joey Daniel.
Calvary Chapel brothers Jeremy, left, and Justin Thomas are the Register's boys co-wrestlers of the year, and Laguna Hills' Cliff Jarmie is the boys wrestling coach of the year.
Laguna Hills' Cliff Jarmie is the Register's boys wrestling coach of the year.

By Damian Calhoun | dcalhoun@scng.com | Daily Breeze

March 25, 2016 at 8:53 p.m.

Having potential is one thing.

Living up to the potential is always the greatest challenge facing a team at the start of the season.

“I thought we had the potential to do well once we got everybody in the lineup and got them to the weights they were supposed to be at,” Laguna Hills coach Cliff Jarmie said.

Coach knows best.

The Hawks again proved to be the class of the South Coast League, winning their 29^th consecutive league title and translated that momentum into a 13^th CIF title.

For his leadership and guidance through the season, Jarmie is the Register’s boys wrestling coach of the year.

“I’m pleased with the fact that it has shown consistency,” Jarmie said. “We’re a small public school. We’re the fifth smallest public school in Orange County.”

The Hawks had 10 wrestlers advance to the CIF-SS Masters Meet, and two – Anthony Le (120) and Phillip Zamora (145) – that qualified for the state tournament.

“If you would have told me at the beginning of the year that we would win CIF by 100 points, beat our league competition like we did … I didn’t expect that,” Jarmie said. “Like I said, give a lot of credit to (assistant coaches) Jon Hayes and Frankie Arounvong and Phillip Zamora. Zamora is one of the best leaders we’ve ever had, and Jon and Frankie as assistant coaches, brought an energy into the room that was huge.

“Those were the keys for our kids really improving through the year, and when we got to CIF, it was like watching Penn State wrestle; they were having fun in the Nationals. Our kids had fun. They were wrestling loose, it was a loose group, and again I give a lot of the credit to Jon and Frankie for that, they kept them loose and ready to go.”

————————————————

ALL-COUNTY BOYS WRESTLING

• Boys wrestling coach of the year: Cliff Jarmie, Laguna Hills
• Boys co-wrestlers of the year: Jeremy and Justin Thomas, Calvary Chapel
• All-County boys wrestling: First team
• All-County boys wrestling: Second, third teams
• Girls wrestler of the year: Gabby Garcia, Valencia

————————————————

Contact the writer: dcalhoun@ocregister.com