Asgari Plans to Share the Wealth

Cal State Fullerton wrestling Coach Ardeshir Asgari is still a millionaire-in-waiting.

Asgari was awarded $3.3 million by an Orange County jury last January in his wrongful arrest suit against the Los Angeles Police Department, but Asgari hasn’t collected. Asgari said the LAPD has appealed the amount of the judgment and a hearing has been set for Jan. 8.

The delay is keeping Asgari from putting some of that potential new wealth toward his wrestling program.

Asgari said he would like to contribute enough money to an investment that eventually would help his team become fully funded with the maximum 9.9 scholarships the NCAA allows. The Titans now have 3.3 scholarships.

Asgari said the latest settlement offer from the LAPD was for more than $2 million, but he said he is unwilling to accept anything less than the full amount. “I have enough for my own personal needs for the time being,” Asgari said. “My attorney and I have turned down two offers to settle the case out of court.”

Asgari was an All-American wrestler for the Titans after defecting from Iran, but his hopes to make the Olympic team ended when he was arrested in 1987 and was unable to compete in the U.S. team tryouts.

Asgari was jailed for seven months on suspicion of selling a pound of heroin 11 years ago to a police informant as LAPD undercover detectives looked on. Asgari pleaded not guilty, and testified that he was set up by an Iranian native whom he had befriended. Asgari was tried and found not guilty and his civil suit followed that.

“If I can use what happened to me to help our wrestlers, it would mean a lot to me,” Asgari said. “I’d like to be able to add money for additional travel and recruiting each year too if I can. If we can do some of the things I want to do, I think we could be a top-10 team nationally every year.”

The Titans have finished among the top 30 at the NCAA championships three times in Asgari’s six years as head coach. They were 30th last season.

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Asgari’s team opens the season Friday at UC Davis, and Asgari said he is eager to see some of his new recruits in competition.

Asgari is pleased with the new class but would be even happier if one of his top recruits had not decided to leave school. He said heavyweight Zino Hessing dropped out because of personal reasons. “He’s 280 pounds, and would have been the perfect heavyweight for us,” Asgari said.

But Asgari is optimistic about the potential of nine other newcomers.

That group includes 125-pounder Brian Gilliland, who was second in the state community college championships last year for Cerritos, and 149-pounder Ben Nakamura, a freshman from Corona who was third in the state high school meet last season competing for Calvary Chapel.

Other freshmen recruits are David Rodriguez (125 pounds) of La Verne, Arnolfo Veliz (133) of Baldwin Park, John Blalock (141) of Temecula, Jeff McCann (149) of Moreno Valley, Theo West (157) of La Puente and Giovanni Calise (197) of Hope, R.I.

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The Titans’ top returning wrestler is junior All-American Joey Coughran, who finished eighth in the NCAA meet last year at 126 pounds. Asgari is optimistic Coughran will do even better this season.

“He’ll be moving up in weight class to 141 pounds, but I think a lot of the people he wrestled last year will be moving up too,” Asgari said.

The NCAA has adjusted all the weight classes to try to keep wrestlers from having to drop too much weight to make their divisions. Coughran competed in the World University Championships in June at 138 pounds.

“It was a good experience for me,” Coughran said. “It was freestyle wrestling with international rules, and that was different, but I was able to wrestle against some tough competition. I learned a lot.”

Asgari, who was an assistant coach for that U.S. team, said Coughran’s first match in Turkey was against a Russian wrestler who ranks as one of the best in the world. “That guy showed him he’s still several steps behind that level of wrestler,” Asgari said.

Two other wrestlers who qualified for the nationals also are back. Junior Jason Webster, however, is academically ineligible during the first semester, which ends Dec. 19. Senior Jonathan DyReyes was the school’s Big West scholar-athlete last year.