The California Wrestling Hall of Fame will honor a most deserving candidate when it inducts Chula Vista’s Jerry Matsumoto into its class of 2015 on Sunday, May 16, at the Laguna Hills Community Center.
Matsumoto, a longtime advocate of the sport in South County who has traveled the globe in support of various styles of wrestling, will be recognized for lifetime achievement.
It’s a deserving honor, according to area wrestling coaches.
Matsumoto graduated in 1967 from Castle Park High School where he competed for the Trojans. He subsequently served as head wrestling coach at Marian High School from 1974-80 after which he earned certification in 1983 as an M1 and FILA 2 USA Wrestling mat official. He served as an official at the 1983 Pan-American Games in Caracas, Venezuela.
Matsumoto also served as a national and international official in Sombo wrestling from 1983-2000, helping bring the U.S. National Sombo championships to Southwestern College at one point.
He co-founded the Chula Vista Badgers Wrestling Club in 1993.
In 1995 he served as an official at the World Championship in Moscow and in 1995 at the European Championship in Canterbury, England.
He has devoted much of his time over the past 40 years to local high school programs.
He served as an assistant coach at Hilltop High School from 1996-2005, an assistant coach at Otay Ranch High School from 2005-06, head coach at Otay Ranch High School from 2006-08, assistant coach at Mater Dei Catholic High School from 2008-10 and an assistant coach at Eastlake High School from 2010 to the present.
He received a BA in social science in 2009 from Ashford University and a masters in education from Ashford University in 2011.
Awards for his expertise and service have been numerous.
He was named the 1983 Amateur Athletic Union Official of the Year and Official of the Year for Sombo for 1995 and 1996.
He received the 2001 Channel 10 Leadership Award and recently received the 2015 Lifetime Achievement Award from the San Diego High School Sports Association.
Career highlights, he said, include being chosen to officiate the Pan-American Games, to officiate (on the whistle) all the finals matches at the European Championships and to officiate one of the finals matches at the World Championships in Moscow (and seeing his name spelled in Russian).
Travelling the world both as a competitor and official has provided a wealth of stories and anecdotes in regard to wrestling.
“I wrestled my first-ever Greco-Roman match in Mexico City when the lights went out in the gym halfway through the match,” Matsumoto recalled. “I resumed the match by the headlights of a VW and a Renault.”
As a coach, Matsumoto’s goals have been to teach technique and watch it be applied successfully in competition.
Matsumoto has always striven been to promote the sport of wrestling in the South Bay, no matter the age or skill level, in his words, “to give opportunities to all who are interested in wrestling, as a coach, athlete or parent.”
“When I think about coach Matsumoto’s contributions to the sport of wrestling in California, my answer is: endless,” Hilltop High School coach Thomas Juarez said. “In Chula Vista, coach Matsumoto is recognized as being one of the founders of the Badgers Wrestling Club, which over the years has been consistently the most successful youth program in the South San Diego County. To me, coach Matsumoto’s generosity is unparalleled to any coach in the area, because he is not doing it for the recognition or the fame, his only reward on coaching wrestling is teaching kids about the greatest sport in history.”
