After 10 seasons with the Cal Poly wrestling team (eight as head coach), current co-head coach John Azevedo is expected to step aside once the season ends. His retirement makes way for current co-head coach Mark Perry to take over the team next season.
Azevedo’s reign breathed life into the wrestling program, which has become a perennial Pac-10 contender and national heavyweight. He has lead nine Mustangs to receive All-American honors and nine to Pac-10 individual championships, the latest champion being Boris Novachkov at 133-pounds in 2010.
Azevedo led the Mustangs to their best dual meet record in a decade in 2009-2010, going 8-4. With one more victory this year, Cal Poly would surpass that mark as the team currently owns an 8-1 record after two wins this past weekend.
Although the Mustangs have not won a Pac-10 title during Azevedo’s tenure, they placed as high as second in 2004. The most dominant wrestler Azevedo coached was Chad Mendes who maintained an undefeated record in 2007-2008 until the NCAA Championship final where Mendes fell to J Jaggers of Ohio State.
In 2010 Chase Pami made a title run, only to be stopped short in the final by Harvard’s J.P. O’Conner.
Azevedo, a former NCAA wrestling champion at Cal State Bakersfield in 1980, won all but two matches in college, compiling a 122-2 record and securing his place in the California Wrestling Hall of Fame.
He was on the 1980 Olympic team and may have competed if the United States did not boycott the Games, but he still went on to win a freestyle national individual title in 1981 and place fourth in the World Championships in 1982.
Azevedo coached wrestling at Cal State Bakersfield, Arizona State, Notre Dame and Wisconsin as an assistant. Then he moved on to a head coaching position at Calvary Chapel High School in Santa Ana, Calif.
During his 12 years as a high school coach, Azevedo lead his team to 10 CIF-Southern Section titles and noted that he would not be surprised if he coached at the high school level again sometime.
Next year, Azevedo leaves Perry at the helm. Perry arrived at Cal Poly as an assistant coach in 2009, just two years after winning his second NCAA individual championship at the University of Iowa.
Perry has increased his role this year, taking over most of the coaching duties according to wrestlers on the team. Perry said this allowed Azevedo to guide him and help him adjust to a new role; a role Perry said he is excited to fill.