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Martinez takes over as QHS mat mentor

Kurtis J. Wood/Post-Register
June 18, 2009

Greg Martinez racked up 94 wins as a QHS wrestler.

Greg Martinez plans to maintain status quo for the QHS wrestling program.

And why not? The Jackrabbits have had a good run on the mats with a top-4 team finish and a handful of state champions under the tutelage of 25-year mentor Manuel Ybarra.

“If it’s not broken, don’t fix it,” Martinez said.

Martinez was coached by Ybarra and capped his high school career with 94 wins, then wrestled one season at Yakima Valley College, and three years of freestyle at Central Washington University. He came home and was hired as a science teacher at QHS, has guided the freestyle program at QHS and coached at the junior high level.

While he plans to keep the program heading in the same direction, you can almost count on a few tweaks along the way. After all, new coaches usually put their own stamp on programs.

“We’ve been very successful and Manny’s built it from the ground up and there aren’t any wholesale changes,” Martinez said. “He’s always had great numbers.

“I like the hard work. I like the work ethic. I like the running. The biggest change will be how we wrestle from the neutral position. I want to wrestle more inside ties and more control in the neutral position,” Martinez said.

The changes come from what he has observed over the 22 years he has been in the game. Like Ybarra, he is also a student of the game. While he is just 29, Martinez has been wrestling since he was 7 years old and feels the QHS wrestlers next step is to control the match on their feet.

“I would be willing to bet when you're on your feet that over 70 percent of the time you're in contact, touching the guy up close,” Martinez said. “So if you're there you need to control that 70 percent of the time. Control an arm. Control a wrist.”

The road to the head coaching position has been paved over the past several years. It was almost like Martinez was groomed to replace Ybarra. While it probably began as a high-schooler, the real path started when he was seeking a job in Quincy.

“The first step was getting hired into the district. Once I got hired into the district, I knew I was going to be part of the program,” Martinez said. “From there I just like to think it was a matter of time. We share some of the same philosophies. I went off to college and found some different philosophies there.

“He told me, and I don’t remember when, he would be comfortable turning the program over to me. He told me I was a wrestler and coach that he liked. He liked my style and how I worked with the kids.”

He has been running the freestyle program for a few years and has the respect of the current crop of wrestlers. In the eyes of Ybarra’s son, he presents little change from his dad.

“It’s pretty much the same,” Manny Ybarra said. “When we work out with Martinez, conditioning wise, he does more body. Like my dad, though, he runs the crap out of us.”

The program stresses conditioning and out-working your opponent. That was evident at state this past season, when Manny Ybarra won his semifinal match against Rueben Lopez of Othello. The match was won in the overtime.

He does have the new coach ideas of winning a state championship and just keep improving the program.

“That's the goal, Everyone’s goal is to go forward. Going back to my interview - what is your goal in five years? Everyone’s standard answer is to win a state championship. There’s a lot of coaches, good coaches, who coach their whole career and don't win a state championship. That's the ultimate goal,” Martinez said.

He and his family have been in Quincy for a long time and he feels he will have the support needed to succeed.

“Those people in the wrestling community know my accomplishments, know how much I work in the program and community. So I am going to have support most other coaches wouldn’t have stepping into a new position,” he said. “I have kind of won them over the past six years.

“I love the community. If I didn’t love it here, I wouldn't have come back after college.”

But as a student of the game, a teacher by day and a coach 24/7, he is ready to pin down his duties. While he may have taken over a coaching job, he feels there is more to his new position than what he teaches on the mat.

“As much as it is about wrestling, it goes back to the kids and having a relationship with the kids and teaching them how to be respectable and good human beings,” Martinez said.