Brethren Christian’s Secret to Success Easy to Pin Down

Like a proud father, Steve Glassey loves to talk about his “kids.”

Glassey, in his second season as wrestling coach at Brethren Christian, believes his kids make up one of the best teams in Orange County.

“We’ve had some good matches and I think we have proved ourselves,” Glassey said. “We have a solid team. The team is young but experienced, and we have some more top wrestlers coming up from the lower ranks. So when I say we have a real shot at a state title in the next couple of years, I’m not just talking. . . . we’re for real.”

Brethren Christian already has made its mark this season with impressive showings at tough tournaments. Three weeks ago, the Warriors broke into the county’s top-10 team rankings for the first time in the school’s history.

At the Five Counties tournament, the Warriors placed 16th in a field of 60 teams. They finished ahead of ranked teams such as El Modena, Fountain Valley and Santa Ana.

At the Reno Classic, Brethren Christian placed 13th. And last week, at the California Invitational tournament at Morro Bay, Brethren Christian took third in the 48-team contest.

A big reason for Glassey’s optimism is the club Team So Cal, a private wrestling club that operates out of Laguna Hills High.

Glassey was head coach for four years when the club practiced at Buena Park High. Kids as young as 5 are learning the sport. Five of Glassey’s starters remain club members.

Like Calvary Chapel, which has a similar feeder program (Thunder Kids), Brethren Christian has begun to build a base of wrestlers between the ages of 12-14, who will be ready to move into the lineup when they start high school.

“Most of these kids have been wrestling together for seven years,” Glassey said. “We have some kids who are state age-group champions or were nationally ranked for their age group. So we’re not getting kids who are just starting out.”

Two of the Warriors’ top wrestlers are Pat Cadwallader at 135/140 pounds and Michael Delaney, at 119. Both are products of Team So Cal.

Cadwallader, a junior, finished third at the Southern Section Division I finals and fifth at the Masters last season. As an age-group wrestler with Team So Cal, Cadwallader was a Cadet Greco Roman world champion and a Cadet national champion in freestyle and greco.

This season, Cadwallader finished first at the California Invitational Tournament and the North Torrance Tournament of Champions. He took second at the Reno Classic and fourth at Five Counties. And two weeks ago he beat top-ranked Jay McGuffin (135) of Calvary Chapel, 5-4, at the Olympic League duels.

Cadwallader is ranked second in the county behind state champion Joe Calavitta of Calvary Chapel at 140 pounds. But Cadwallader plans to drop to 135 when he competes at Southern Section and Masters.

Mike Delaney, who placed sixth at state last year, is a senior transfer student from Tracy, Calif. He was edged by Jay Roberts of El Cajon Valhalla in the state semifinals last season.

“I have wrestled for Coach Glassey before [at Team So Cal]. I thought it would be best for myself if I finished my senior year with him since he is such a great coach,” Delaney said.

Glassey wrestled at Cal State Fullerton before he started coaching at Santa Margarita in 1991. After two years with Santa Margarita, Glassey coached at Sierra Community College in Rocklin.

“They [Sierra] actually offered me the job, but it was hard coaching at a community college. It’s like a revolving door. You only have the athletes for two years. That seems too short of a time,” Glassey said.

Glassey said he was happy to get the job at Brethren Christian, and is particularly fond of the commitment the school has made to build a quality wrestling program.

“You know it’s every coach’s goal to be a head coach of a Division I college team. But then again, I could very easily see myself coaching Brethren Christian for the next 20 years,” he said. “And I would be quite comfortable with that.”