They Had No Prayer of a Win--Once

In the beginning--1991--there were losses of biblical proportions.

Huntington Beach High beat them 72-0. Westminster High took them 53-8. Edison crushed them 45-12. And though they were an easy win, coaches didn’t like to schedule meets with Santa Ana High School wrestlers because of their reputation as vandals and thieves.

It got so bad during his first season as Santa Ana High’s wrestling coach that Scott Glabb gave up on winning.

“I thought I was never going to win here, so I might as well spend my time investing in the kids,” Glabb says.

So Glabb started giving them religion. Most of his kids came from troubled backgrounds--poverty, gangs, crime, broken families--and Glabb believed only God could help.

“God is who made me the man I am today,” says Glabb, a 36-year-old born-again Christian. “It was nothing I pushed on my wrestlers. It was something I offered to them.”

He got them scholarships to attend a Christian summer sports camp (41 boys and girls from Santa Ana High will go to camp this year), started an after-school Christian club on campus, and took them to church on Sundays.

The results: seven straight league titles, three CIF championships and two individual national titles, including one captured this year by 112-pound Jose Leon.

Glabb’s proud of all that, but he’d rather tell you about his real victories: the car thief who ended up with two league titles, a college education and a spot in the U.S. Air Force; the tagger who went on to win two CIF titles and now wrestles in college; the delinquent who pulled straight Fs his freshman year but graduated on time--after winning two league titles--and now coaches at a Catholic high school.

“There are so many influences to pull them away. Each kid is fighting his own adversity, fighting difficult situations with their families and neighbors,” Glabb says. “Wrestling is a haven where they can feel wanted, needed and loved.”

Glabb knows about childhood adversity. His parents divorced when he was 7, and his mother raised him. It wasn’t until he accepted Christ at age 13 that he felt he had a purpose in life.

“It gave me a sense of identity,” says Glabb, a soft-spoken man who, compact and muscular, looks like a former wrestler. “I knew there was a plan for me. At age 14, I took my Bible with me to school and wasn’t afraid to share my faith. That gave me a lot of confidence.”

It’s the kind of confidence Glabb tries to instill in his wrestlers.

“Christianity has kept the team together,” says Leon, 18, who graduated last week with a 3.4 GPA and will attend Boston University on a scholarship this fall. ‘We’re like a second family. Everyone is working to be a good Christian, and it builds moral character.”

“It’s cool being able to be open with our peers,” says Manuel Villagomez, 19, a former Santa Ana wrestler who won two league titles. “Usually you can’t do that in high school. Kids have problems, and we’re able to help them out.”

“I go to church with my teammates every Sunday,” says Jaime Orendain, a 16-year-old junior. “I started thinking about the stuff I’ve done in my early teens, and I started to change for the good. All of us keep each other on the good track. And my mom has noticed. She says I’m acting a lot more mature.”

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Glabb believes the Latino community that surrounds Santa Ana High gives him an advantage when it comes to religion.

“Most of them are Catholic, so I don’t have to get them to believe,” Glabb says. “I’m not trying to get them to switch faiths. I’m trying to get them to understand a personal relationship with Christ, and that can be done if you’re Catholic, Protestant or any other Christian faith.”

Glabb is a leader in the fledgling Orange County chapter of Fellowship of Christian Athletes, a national interdenominational organization designed to promote Christianity within sports. A major strategy is to develop what the group calls “huddles”--after-school meetings of Christian athletes on junior high, high school and college campuses that feature speakers, prayer and worship. Huddles have been formed on 16 Orange County high school campuses, including Edison, Capistrano Valley, El Toro, Brea-Olinda, Irvine and Esperanza.

“The demand is huge,” says Mark Boyer, a former Edison football star and NFL tight end who runs the Orange County chapter. “Coaches want to have an impact on the kids--not just athletically, but spiritually. Scott Glabb has done a phenomenal job.”

A few of Glabb’s fellow teachers may not agree. Some of Glabb’s wrestlers have heard complaints about their coach’s religious fervor.

“One teacher was really against it, saying, ‘That wasn’t right what he’s doing with you kids,’ ” Leon says. “But they can’t stop this.”

Glabb says he hasn’t had any serious criticism from his peers and none from his bosses.

“I haven’t had any problems with the administration,” Glabb says. “They’re glad my kids are involved in something productive.”

Santa Ana Principal Dan Salcedo looks puzzled when asked if there’s any conflict between Glabb’s religious beliefs and his role as public educator. “He does it outside the school day,” Salcedo says. “I don’t see it as a negative in any way. It’s a positive; it’s good. In this day and age, we need more of it.”

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You’ll find no secrets to Glabb’s success. Through religion, he’s found a way to tightly bond his team and deflect unsavory influences. From there, his wrestlers just plain work hard--year-round training, weekend tournaments, off-season night leagues, four-hour practices during the season.

When the league titles started coming, Glabb--just an average wrestler in high school and college--knew the team wouldn’t reach the next level without better coaching.

“I started to pray for help, and along came [Oklahoma State All-American] Vince Silva and later [1984 Olympic wrestler] Joe Gonzalez,” Glabb says. “They were an answer to prayer. That was tough to bring in someone who knew more about wrestling than me. You’re afraid you’re going to lose the respect of the team.”

Instead of losing respect, the team started to win CIF titles and individual national championships.

It’s all much more than Glabb could have imagined.

“I didn’t think this is where God would put me,” Glabb says. “This is a bigger job than I thought it would be. I give God the credit for turning around the program. Once we give up and let Christ do it the way it needs to be done, everything will work out. And once I get the focus off of character-building and concentrate on winning again, it’s over.”

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William Lobdell, editor of the Daily Pilot, looks at faith in Orange County as a regular contributor to The Times Orange County religion page. He can be reached at wmlob@aol.com.