Girls Coach of the Year: Ray Leon
High School: Brawley
Sport: Girls wrestling
Continued dominance: Leon’s Wildcats were the top-ranked girls wrestling team from wire-to-wire this season. They captured their sixth straight CIF San Diego Section title, amassing 264.5 team points — more than 100 points ahead of the second-place finisher — on the way to a Division 2 title. They won the Masters Tournament for the third time in the event’s four-year history. Brawley produced a program-best four Masters individual champions and qualified five girls for the state meet. Brawley finished eighth and produced a state champ, Delarie Juarez at 145 pounds.
Legacy of champions: In his 10 years at the helm of the girls’ program at Brawley, Leon has coached 24 individual CIF champions, 12 Masters champions, five state-place winners and two state champions — Savannah Gomez at 137 in 2022 and Juarez this year as a junior.
Strength in numbers: Brawley’s roster grew to over 60 prior to COVID-19. It’s back up to over 40 this year.
A perfect match: Leon grew up with seven sisters, and is the father of three girls. Why coach girls wrestling? “They needed a girls coach and I’ve been around girls my entire life. I’m comfortable with them,” he said.
A man of many honors: At the start of this season, Leon got a call from Brawley Athletic Director Billy Brewer. “He asked me: ‘Is there something you’re not telling me?’ I thought I did something wrong and then he gives me a letter saying I’ve been selected as the 2022-2023 National Federation of State High School Associations California Coach of the Year. What a fantastic honor; I was very humbled.”
A room of their own: The Brawley girls turned an old PE room into their wrestling home, with enough room to fit a mat. Plans are already in works to expand the room to fit a second mat. Girls wrestling “keeps getting bigger and bigger,” said Leon. “Girls give you much more. They really go for it.”
Homegrown: Leon got his start in wrestling as a Brawley freshman. A year after he graduated in 1983, Leon was back in the room. First, he assisted head coach Keith Smith and then ed the staff of his brother Tony when he took over the program. Ray shifted over to be one of the first dedicated girls wrestling coaches in the section. Tony retired after 22 years as the boys coach last year and was named to the California Wrestling Hall of Fame.
Quotable: “It’s the girls earning me all this recognition,” said Leon. “It’s all their hard work and accomplishments. Credit goes to them, the school and the community as a whole.”
