Olejnik helms wrestling team for 12th year
For years the San Benito High School wrestling program has been
considered on of the top ones in the Central Coast Section. In the
last decade alone the Balers have won three CCS team titles, six
league titles and have had a dozen individual section champs as
well.
During the period a number of wrestlers have entered the program
and exited it upon graduation, but the one constant that hasn’t
changed has been the team’s head coach, Matt Olejnik, the architect
behind it all.
Olejnik helms wrestling team for 12th year
For years the San Benito High School wrestling program has been considered on of the top ones in the Central Coast Section. In the last decade alone the Balers have won three CCS team titles, six league titles and have had a dozen individual section champs as well.
During the period a number of wrestlers have entered the program and exited it upon graduation, but the one constant that hasn’t changed has been the team’s head coach, Matt Olejnik, the architect behind it all.
This year Olejnik’s squad with its 96-man roster is supposed to have another strong year, despite the fact that Gilroy High is still the favorite to win the league title again, as well as its fifth section title in a row.
For Olejnik, the formula for success is simple: Look for the guys with God-given speed and superior balance skills.
“Strength tends to be a little over rated,” said Olejnik, who has been at the helm of the San Benito High program since 1994. “The big muscle guys that can bench press a lot of weight tend to be turtles on the mat. Balance is a huge part of success and so is quickness on the feet. Obviously, you find that in all shapes and sizes.”
Olejnik had all of those attributes during his wrestling days at Cupertino High School, which he helped parlay to a state individual wrestling title back in 1981 in the 140-pound division.
After capturing that title his senior year, Olejnik opted to continue his wrestling career at San Jose State University. He enjoyed his days as a Spartan but after just two years there the university’s wrestling program was dropped as a result of budget cuts – a decision that was made even though SJSU was ranked ninth in the nation during Olejnik’s freshman season.
That same year the then 19-year-old wrestler represented the U.S. in the Junior World Greco Wrestling tournament where he finished third in the 163-pound division. With such a high finish in the major tournament, Olejnik was anything but done competing.
Shortly after the SJSU program was stopped, Olejnik transferred to California State University, Bakersfield where he finished out his collegiate career. While at Bakersfield, Olejnik earned a Bachelor’s degree in Physical Education and wrestled well enough his senior year to earn All-American honors.
After earning his undergraduate degree, Olejnik took his interest in wrestling, coaching and physical education and earned a Master’s degree in Athletic Administration from St. Mary’s College in Moraga, Calif.
After graduating in 1986, Olejnik got his first job at Bellarmine High School in Santa Clara where he was the assistant varsity wrestling coach under Tim Kerr, who had just launched the program.
The following year Olejnik took a job at James Logan High School in Union City where he taught P.E., coached freshman football and was the school’s head wrestling coach for the junior varsity squad. Olejnik stayed at James Logan for three years before being offered the head varsity coaching job at Overfelt High School in San Jose. In his first season at the helm of Overfelt’s wrestling program, Olejnik’s team captured the school’s second section title.
From there Olejnik did a two-year stint at Andrew Hill High School in San Jose where he built the varsity wrestling program up from just six wrestlers his first year to 40 when he left. At Andrew Hill, he also coached the JV wrestling team to a Blossom Valley Athletic League title and helped two members of the varsity squad win individual CCS wrestling titles that same year.
It was during his time at Andrew Hill that he developed friendships with current Baler varsity football coach Chris Cameron and San Benito High Athletic Director Tod Thatcher, who both taught at Andrew Hill at the time.
Before long Cameron would accept the head football coaching job at San Benito and Thatcher soon followed suit in order to become the Balers defensive coordinator, as one of Cameron’s conditions for accepting the position was that he would be able to hire his own coaching staff.
Just a few weeks later, Olejnik would learn from Cameron that the wrestling job at San Benito High School would soon be opening up as longtime coach Marty Dillon, who guided the Balers to a section title in 1993-’94, was opting out of the job to focus more attention on his duties as the school’s athletic director.
Within days Olejnik was hired and soon drove around the area to check out his new work environment. Instantly, he fell in love with the scenery and rural nature of San Benito County. That summer, he sold his home in the Bay Area and did well enough to buy two homes on a five-acre parcel in Hollister.
Olejnik was thrilled with the opportunity and felt the community was the perfect environment for wrestling.
“What I found out about Hollister was it is a blue collar, hard-working city where the kids were well raised and had a good work ethic,” Olejnik said.
His first year he got 65 kids to come out for the wrestling team, which is a big number, but he still had a lot of challenges.
“Being a small town, the kids play football, baseball and they have a lot of other things to do. The hardest thing, and it’s still the biggest challenge, is being able to develop a team without the kids competing year-round. Look at the volleyball, softball and football teams. They all go year-round. Wrestling is still a seasonal thing. We need to go year-round to compete at the highest levels.”
In order to encourage that year-round commitment, Olejnik restarted the Hollister Razorbacks Wrestling Club shortly after coming to Hollister. John Keiswetter originally started the club in the early 1980s.
For years it had operated to some degree but never really had the footing, enrollment or financial backing to flourish. Today, running the club is still a challenge in a city with so many other sports options for its youth. But Olejnik understands that the Razorbacks gives him another tool to build and develop the high school team from, while keeping it fresh and tournament ready year-round – all keys to attain their team goals year in and year out.
“We try to go out every year and win a section title,” Olejnik said. “Realistically, that’s still a couple of years ahead of us. This year I’d like to see us finish in the top three in the section and have four or five state qualifiers.”
