College wrestling | ‘We’re set to compete’: Humboldt’s team ready for first season in 30 years
After three decades without a wrestling program, Cal Poly Humboldt is just two weeks away from the return of the wrestling program under new head coach Lennie Zalesky. The 'Jacks will head to Menlo College in Atherton for the school's first wrestling match in the 21st century.
While it's a new era of Humboldt wrestling, Zalesky brings plenty of experience to the table for the 'Jacks. He spent more than two decades as a college wrestling coach at California Baptist University and UC Davis. Zalesky also spent time as an assistant coach at the University of Indiana and his alma mater, the University of Iowa.
Zalesky has quite the resume as a wrestler, being an All-American three times with the Hawkeyes while helping the team to win four straight national titles. After his college career, Zalesky had a successful professional career earning inductions to both the Iowa and California Wrestling Halls of Fame.
Even with all of his successes, Zalesky will now have a new challenge, resurrecting a wrestling program.
"I was up in Montana and Virgil Moorehead," Zalesky said of the former Humboldt wrestler Moorehead, whose son was coached by Zalesky at UC Davis. "He called and was talking about not being able to find someone that's a good fit and the more he talked about it, the more I thought 'Well, that wouldn't be that hard. I got 21 years of coaching here in California.' So I thought I could use some connections to get it going, I know the area pretty well."
Zalesky was hired in March and has built a 22-man roster that includes freshmen, transfers and even some Humboldt County natives. Three former Fortuna Huskies are on the 'Jacks roster, sophomores Hunter Ciarabellini and Micaiah Montalbin along with junior Levi Nyberg who's spent the past two seasons on the College of the Redwoods football team.
"I didn't know if we'd have a team by this year to be honest with you, but we're set to compete. We got all the weight classes filled as long as no one gets hurt and eligibility and everything - it's looking good," Zalesky said. "I had coaches, former wrestlers call me about certain kids, the kids would contact you about coming up for a visit and was basically done just between the connections that I had previously."
Zalesky brought his brother, Jim, to Humboldt to work as an assistant coach with the duo helps bring back wrestling for the 'Jacks.
"It's fun, we haven't been this close. He's been coaching and I've been coaching, since we left Iowa. We were together in Iowa for about four months," Zalesky said of his brother. "We haven't spent much time together other than family reunions and stuff."
Humboldt will have just one home match this season against Simpson University in January with the 'Jacks schedule being spread over the Western United States.
"There's struggles all the way in every direction compared to having a program in place but at the same time, we got a fairly good schedule, I'm pretty happy with it and I think the kids are pretty happy with it," Zalesky said of the schedule-making process. "When you start from nothing, Jim wasn't here until late-July, so I was kind of doing it by myself. It seemed like craziness at the time, but now it doesn't seem so bad."
The 'Jacks will be a member of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation conference which consists of four California schools. Humboldt's regular season will run through February with potential NCAA championships in March.
"It'll be fun to see what happens and I have a pretty good feeling down the road, this can grow into a pretty good program," Zalesky said. "I'm not expecting great things this year, if we can get a couple guys to the NCAAs that'd be just great but down the road, maybe even next year, we can be fairly competitive."
Cal Poly Humboldt is the second local college to bring back wrestling after College of the Redwoods brought back their men's wrestling program and started their women's wrestling team in 2023.
Dylan McNeill can be reached at 707-441-0526.
This story was originally published October 17, 2024, 8:01 PM.
