(Sunnyside's wrestling program is shooting for an unprecedented 30th wrestling team state title this week. This week, aia365.com will post stories on the coaches who helped turn Sunnyside into the premier wrestling program in the state.) 

Don Klostreich is the architect of Arizona’s most historic high school wrestling program, Sunnyside in Tucson, but if it weren’t for a couple of punches he landed, Sunnyside may have never got off the ground.

Klostreich was attending a convention in Phoenix in the early 1970s when he overheard a Phoenix high school administrator belittling Carl Hayden’s football program. Klostreich was Carl Hayden’s football coach, the first Arizona coaching gig he held when he and his family arrived in his 1957 Chevrolet from North Dakota in 1970.

As soon as he heard the administrator say that Carl Hayden’s team didn’t have any class and lacked sportsmanship, Klostreich confronted the administrator. On cue, the administrator started to take his jacket off.

Fight on.

Klostreich, 73, admits he had a temper back then, but he doesn’t regret sticking up for any of his boys. Throughout his wrestling coaching career, Klostreich’s boys repaid his dedication to his teams with sweat, championships and a lot of great memories for a coach who wasn’t afraid to tell his boys he loved them.

The day after that fight, the administrator returned to the convention but clutching crutches. As for Klostreich, the fight cost him his job at Carl Hayden.

“But I still stay in touch with that Carl Hayden (football) senior class,” said Klostreich proudly.  

Thinking his coaching career was over in Arizona, Klostreich packed his bags and prepared to return to his hometown in North Dakota.

But before leaving in 1973, four people unexpectedly showed up at Klostreich’s door: Sunnyside’s then principal, athletic director, a sports editor from a Tucson paper, and Klostreich’s former Carl Hayden assistant and good friend, Paul Petty.

They came with a contract and a job offer for Klostreich. Petty was coaching at Sunnyside when he encouraged that school’s administrators to hire his friend.

Klostreich said he couldn’t remember why the editor also showed up. Klostreich accepted the job to help coach football and run Sunnyside’s wrestling program, which he directed until 1989.

The rest —  39 individual champions and nine team state championships under Klostreich — is Sunnyside history.

In 2007, Klostreich was inducted into National Wrestling Hall of Fame in Oklahoma.      

What it takes to be great

Klostreich wasn’t Sunnyside’s first wrestling coach, but he raised the bar for his program.

And the Sunnyside head coaches who followed Klostreich continued to keep the bar, with a few exceptions, at the high level it is today. Sunnyside has never finished lower than fourth in a wrestling state tournament.

“I never get tired of winning,” Klostreich said. “I get tired of losing.”

The 73 year old continues to give his time to kids and wrestling but now as an assistant at Gila Ridge in Yuma.

Sacrificing his time to construct a winner and genuinely connect with his athletes defined the Klostreich era at Sunnyside. His practice sessions were legendary.

Not a second was wasted during the 2-3 hour practices and then 30-minute condition sessions in the wrestling room.

Klostreich said treating his athletes fair and not putting up a front helped him build a bond with his wrestlers.

“If they (wrestlers) don’t like you, they won’t compete for you,” he said. “I’m just me. I’m a pretty crusty old guy, but I get along better with kids than I do with adults.”

Klostreich was also an excellent tactician.

“Klostreich was a master at anticipating what the opposing coach or wrestling opponent were thinking,” said Robert DeBerry, one of Sunnyside’s wrestling coaching legends.

But the year-round wrestling time demands he imposed ultimately took a toll on Klostreich.

By 1989, it was time for a change, so he wound up moving to California and then to Yuma. His wife, Faith, is Yuma High’s principal.

A coach that wound up becoming another coaching legend at Sunnyside, Richard Sanchez, took over the wrestling program after Klostreich left.

“The fun got away,” said Klostreich about why he left Sunnyside. “Richard can relate to that. Sometimes the fun runs out. Right now I’m having fun again. There’s no pressure. Just coaching.”

(To view a Tucson Citizen photo of Klostreich go here.)