HISTORY TIMELINE

1978 Sophomore Adam Cohen Transfers to Riordan from Ohio. Riordan did not have a team and he trained at other local high schools, petitioned in the CCS and became a Champion and placed 3rd in the State Championships. Adam went on to take 2nd in the NCAA Championships for Arizona State University.

1979 Riordan Begins Wrestling Team and practices in the Cafeteria. Steve Swanson is the teams first ever head coach.

1981 Team Joins the Northern Peninsula League (NPL)

1983 Sophomore Rob Ynzunza become Riordan’s first every league champion in NPL

1987 WCAL adds Wrestling as a sport. Wrestling Team moves out of Café and into corner the of Gym for practice. Riordan ties for first in the league in Duals but Serra edges Riordan at Tournament for Title.

1988 Steve Swanson retires as head coach. Vittorio Anastasio ’84 becomes head coach. Pete Bordallo becomes first state qualifier since Adam Cohen.

1989 Vince Anastasio becomes WCAL’s first ever 3-time Champion. Two Riordan Wrestlers at the State Championships for the first time as Tony Jones and Vince place 2nd and 3rd at CCS.

1990 School builds Mat Room for Team.

1992 Ivan Chacon wins CCS and Places 3rd in the State. Along with Chacon, Peter Yakas and Mark Shin medal at CCS and Team finishes in top 10 for the first time.

1993 Dynamic Duo of Oscar Gilliam and Clarence Lau place 2nd and 3rd at CCS. Top 8 finish for Gilliam at State and Top 12 Finish for Lau. Team finishes top 40 in State.

1996 Team Finishes in the Top 10 CCS. John Devine sets most wins in a season record with 48 wins and a top 8 Finish in the State. John Devine becomes a two time Pac 10 placer and 2X NCAA qualifier, ranked top 10 on Olympic Ladder for 2 years. MMA Title Winner.

1997 Team Finishes in the Top 10 CCS. Steven Martin becomes WCAL’s first every 4 time Champion and places 4th in the State Championships. Steve went on to take 2nd Place in the NCAA Championships for Loras College. Reginald Grayson and Steve Martin lead team to top 20 finish at State Championships.

2006 Coach Anastasio Retires and Mauricio Wright becomes Head Coach.

2007 Phil Hoang becomes Head Coach

2009 Nick Mazza places in CCS for third year in a row. First wrestler since Adam Cohen to win 3 medals.

2009 Coach Anastasio returns as Head Coach

2011 4th Place CCS Team Trophy out of 86 Schools. Zac Contreras (Soph) Champion, Four Riordan CCS Medalists for the first time – Paul Ahern (Senior) 2nd Place, Mitch Magat (Senior) 5th Place, and Julian Morrisette (Junior) 6th Place.

2013 15th Place in the State Finals, the first school in San Francisco history to have two state placers in one year, Elijah Davis becomes the first state finalist in San Francisco History, and Zac Contreras caps his amazing career with a fourth place finish after winning his 3rd CCS title in a row and 3rd WCAL Championship in a row. Riordan finishes top 10 in the CCS for the third year in a row.

2013 Freshman win 1st WCAL Championship since 1990

2013-2014 Coach Anastasio retires from coaching again as he becomes the principal at Archbishop Riordan High School. As principal he aggressively hired new coaches for all sports. He raised the number of on campus coaches from 3 to 25 in his career. This included recruiting a great on campus wrestling staff including 2013 Head Coach Gary Whitehouse and 2018 Head Coach Tony Tran.

2013 Gary Whitehouse becomes head coach.

2018 Coach Gary Whitehouse leads the squad to Riordan’s and San Francisco’s first ever WCAL Championship season as the team wins the WCAL tournament and finishes in the Top 10 in the CCS.

2018 Tony Tran ’02 a former Riordan assistant, former Head Coach at Sacred Heart Cathedral, and full time math teacher becomes the new head coach at Archbishop Riordan High School.

TEAM HISTORY

In 1978, Adam Cohen moved to San Francisco and came to Riordan High School as a sophomore. Although he wrestled in Ohio, he did not have any high school wrestling experience. Adam wanted to compete, but Riordan did not have a wrestling program or even a mat. Adam, with the unwavering support of his father Julius, trained at various locations. Julius petitioned to allow Adam to compete in several tournaments and he qualified for the Central Coast Section (CCS) Championships. He won the CCS Championships and placed 3rd in the State in the 95-pound weight Class. After graduating from Riordan, Adam wrestled for Arizona State and he was a runner up in the NCAA Div I finals.

In 1979 Riordan officially started a wrestling team built around their returning State Placer. Newly hired English teacher Steve Swanson had a wrestling background and became Riordan’s first wrestling coach. The team practiced in the cafeteria and took its lumps as the varsity squad was comprised of one State Placer and the rest novices. Larry Bustillo was a tough kid from the mission who became Adam’s training partner and the first official homegrown stud.

By 1983, the program had grown to 50 wrestlers and produced their first ever winning season. In 1985 Rob Ynzunza became Riordan’s first NPL league champion wrestler and backed that up in 1986 by becoming Riordan’s first “homegrown” CCS placer.

In 1987, the WCAL added wrestling to its’ league because the rest of the Catholic schools had finally added wrestling. The team stopped practicing in the cafeteria began working out in a small corner of the gymnasium.

Serra High School edged the Crusaders, mainly because Riordan drew ten score prohibiting byes before there was an equal distribution made, in the finals tournament to earn the 1987 WCAL title. During the regular season, Riordan had easily beat Serra by 30 points in the dual. Riordan’s star Rob Ynzunza suffered a season-ending injury two weeks before the finals.

In 1988, Steve Swanson became ill and stepped down from the head coach position and promoted his former wrestler and assistant, Vittorio Anastasio to head coach. In 1989, Mr. Steve Swanson, the English teacher that began Riordan’s wrestling program, passed away.

From 1989-2006 Vittorio Anastasio helped lead the squad to annual winning seasons and great individual performances in the CCS Championships. Steven Martin ’97 became the WCAL’s first every four-time champion, and he placed 4th in the State. Ivan Chacon ’92 became San Francisco’s first native state placer.

In 1990, the team moved into their own mat room space and established a home base on campus. Each year improvements have been made to the mat room and it is by far the best high school wrestling facility in San Francisco.

In 2006, Coach Anastasio took leave of the wrestling program to support his wife through her complicated pregnancy as they had twins. Mauricio Wright took over as head coach.

Phil Haong was an off-campus head coach from 2007 through 2009. The team had some excellent individual performances, but the overall team participation and performance dropped to an all-time low as the squad was for the first time the smallest in the WCAL.

In 2009 Coach Vic Anastasio returned as the head wrestling coach and took one year to rebuild a young and hungry squad to eventually go one of the most successful runs in the program’s history. Built around phenom Zac Contreras and a newly expanded matroom that opened up the ability to run better practices the team went on to finish top 10 in the CCS three years in a row with a 4th Place trophy in 2011 and a top 15 finish in the State in 2013. Coach Anastasio concluded his head coaching career with 205 varsity dual meet victories.

Coach Vittorio Anastasio retired from coaching after the 2013 season to become the Principal at Riordan. As principal, he knew the value of bringing on-campus coaches into the school as coaches who were teachers usually excelled at both and infused the school with a positive energy. His goal was to have every sport with an on-campus head coach and on-campus assistant ready to succeed as the next head coach. In wrestling, he brought his Head Freshman Coach, Gary Whitehouse to lead the boarding program and wrestling team. Coach Whitehouse had just completed his 1st year on staff and lead the Freshman Team to their first WCAL Championship since 1987. Coachc Anastasio also hired Tony Tran ’02 as a math teacher after Tony left Sacred Heart Cathedral as a teacher and head wrestling coach.

In 2018 Coach Gary Whitehouse made school history and finally fulfilled the longtime program goal going back to Coach Swanson to hang a Wrestling banner in the gym by leading the team to a WCAL Championship after winning the WCAL Tournament. Coach Whitehouse also lead the frosh team to 5 WCAL championships and won the programs first ever JV WCAL Championship. In all, Coach Whitehouse left the program with 1 Varsity, 3 JV and 5 Freshman WCAL Titles during his tenure. Coach Whitehouse made a consistent effort to bring back alumnus by hiring Reginald Grayson ’97, Nate Sereni ’16, Zac Contreras ’13, Tony Tran ’02, znc Jose Herrera ’00 as assistant coaches.

In 2018 Tony Tran took over as head coach after being an assistant for Coach Whitehouse.