{"id":5749,"date":"2021-04-02T11:51:46","date_gmt":"2021-04-02T18:51:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/the-roar.net\/?p=5749"},"modified":"2021-10-04T16:44:45","modified_gmt":"2021-10-04T23:44:45","slug":"san-jose-city-college-centennial-sam-huerta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/the-roar.net\/?p=5749","title":{"rendered":"San Jos\u00e9 City College Centennial: Sam Huerta"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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When Sam Huerta first started as the football and wrestling coach at San Jos\u00e9 City College in 1968, he lived across the street from the college and could run home for lunch. Once the 280 freeway was built, he knew it was time to move to another house. Much has changed over the 52 years Sam has worked at City College. The City of San Jos\u00e9 has grown exponentially, changing from orchards to computer technology. And at City College, Sam went from coaching men\u2019s football and wrestling to women\u2019s softball and volleyball, thanks to Title IX, a federal law protecting people from discrimination based on sex which started many women’s collegiate sports teams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sam retired from full-time coaching and teaching in 2004, but he still teaches kinesiology classes at City, such as cardio kickboxing, and is as active as ever.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Coach Sam Huerta<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks to City College\u2019s centennial celebration, we had the chance to talk with Sam about his time coaching and witnessing many of the amazing moments in City College\u2019s athletic history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What got you into sports and coaching?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am from Hayward. I was brought up in the country. I joined in whatever sport was being played. I was always the littlest and youngest guy, but I always participated with the bigger, older guys. In high school, I played football. After I didn\u2019t make the basketball team, my friend said I should try wrestling. The wrestling coach was my football coach. He needed someone in my weight class and threw me into a match the next day, knowing nothing more than three moves I learned the day before. I didn’t win, but that didn’t discourage me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was the middle of my sophomore year. By my senior year, since they didn’t have a state championship at that time, I went to the highest level you could go in California. I won the Northern California Championships at UC Berkeley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Every year for the past 10 years, there have been wrestlers I\u2019ve coached who are coaching wrestlers going to the national championships. That’s kind of neat. The Jaguar roots extend a long way.”<\/p>Sam Huerta on coaching Wrestling at San Jos\u00e9 City College<\/em><\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I got recruited to go to Modesto Junior College and Cal Berkeley. I walked on Berkeley\u2019s campus and said, \u201cno, a country boy does not go to Berkeley!\u201d I was at Modesto for two years and transferred to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo to follow my old high school wrestling coach there. I loved it. Tuition was only $60 a year to attend. Now, it\u2019s almost $10,000 a year, and you need a 1400 on the SAT and a 4.2 or 4.3 GPA. I couldn\u2019t get in now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I chose to be a business major. After one week with accounting and business machines, I asked my coach how he got to where he was, because I decided I wanted to do what he was doing. He helped me choose the right major and classes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After college, I coached high school football. San Jos\u00e9 City College at the time had a graduate night class with Jim Whelahan and City College\u2019s football coach, ex-San Francisco 49er, Harley Dow, where you would listen and learn from outstanding college and professional football coaches. A group of us from Hayward and Castro Valley would drive in for the classes and discuss them on the way back. We thought we were that much better as coaches for going to these.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day, Harley Dow said, \u201cwe’re going to have a position open next year for a football \/ wrestling guy. If you know anybody, pass the word around.\u201d Since I wanted to apply, I didn\u2019t want the extra competition by telling anyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Larry Arnrich, the athletic director from City College, called me to come for an interview. It was a whirlwind interview in one day. I meet President Dr. Otto Roemmick, as well as the vice president, and Larry Arnrich who introduced me to the coaches. By the end of the interview, Dr. Roemmick said, \u201cSam, you want the job?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was how I started! I wasn\u2019t looking for a new job. I enjoyed coaching high school football and wrestling. I didn\u2019t think I wanted to move, until I started going to those night classes and being exposed to that aspect of coaching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Sam<\/figure><\/div>
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Left Picture:<\/strong> Coach Huerta coaching wrestling; <\/em>Top Right:<\/strong> Coach Huerta with the SJCC Women’s Softball Team; <\/em>Bottom Right: <\/strong>Coach Huerta with his Northern California State Champion Wrestling team.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was it like when you first got to City College?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I first came to City College, the energy was just unbelievable. Silicon Valley wasn’t a thing then. It was the Valley of the Heart’s Delight supplying the world with all kinds of fruit and produce. On Bascom from Moorpark to McDonalds, it was all orchards. The city\u2019s population was just over 230,000. Within a few years it became the fastest growing city in the United States. City College was also expanding to meet the demands of local start-ups for computer technicians by adding different electronics and computer courses. It cost $6 a unit back then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a coach in the 60\u2019s, I was also an athlete\u2019s counselor. I would make sure students had the proper courses to transfer to a four-year school within two years, because there was no reason for them to hang around wasting time. We recruited players every Thursday. We would meet the coaches of the different sports, introduce ourselves, and ask them about their student athletes. We would meet the parents, go to their homes, and invite them to campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I coached both football and wrestling for seven years until they were able to hire another coach. They gave me a choice between the two. I chose wrestling since there were more football coaches around. I coached wrestling for a few more years before Title IX came in, giving me other programs to run.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our wrestling program was very successful. Within a couple of years, we had our first All-American wrestler and ended up with 42 All-Americans and five state champions. We missed the state championship by only a couple points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I thank my wife who once said she thought she sat in every bleacher in the state watching and supporting our teams.”<\/p>Coach Sam Huerta<\/em><\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What happened?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That year, the state championship was at Fullerton College in southern California. Our best wrestler, Richard Calderon, was undefeated at that time, as well as a wrestler from southern California. Back then, we didn\u2019t have a way then to watch competitor wrestlers beforehand, so I watched him in a match during the tournament. I then told Richard how he should wrestle this guy in order to beat him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After Richard got into the semifinals, he came up to me saying, \u201cyou don’t have to worry, coach.\u201d I asked him what he meant. He said, \u201cI told my friend from Chabot College how to beat him.\u201d That day, Chabot College and San Jos\u00e9 City College were within one point of each other to win the state championship. Whoever went to the finals would get seven points while the one who didn\u2019t make the finals would only get three. If his friend didn\u2019t make it to the finals, Richard and City College would have been that much more ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I explained what could happen. Sure enough, his friend from Chabot beat the southern California guy, giving Chabot four additional points. We lost by just two or three points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the beginning of a wrestling tournament, a coach determines whether to enter as a small or large college. I always wanted to go with the big boys. As far as our enrollment was concerned, we were a small college. Chabot was a big college. Harley Dow said to me, \u201cSam, go small college and you can win the state championship. After you finished coaching in 10 or 20 years, nobody’s gonna remember whether it was a small college or a big college, just that you were state champion!\u201d I\u2019m just too stubborn, I guess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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