When Scott Glabb walked back into the Santa Ana High School wrestling room for the 2025-2026 season, the landscape looked drastically different than the empire he had built decades prior. On his second day back after a five-year hiatus, several varsity wrestlers quit, leaving him with a roster of 18 boys—17 of whom had little to no wrestling experience.

For many coaches, this would be a nightmare scenario. For Glabb, it was a familiar starting line.

Over a coaching career defined by profound faith, unlikely triumphs, and an unwavering commitment to his athletes, Glabb transformed Santa Ana from an athletic afterthought into a California wrestling powerhouse. Now back where it all started, the legendary coach reflects on the humble beginnings, the unforgettable rivalries, and the deep-rooted culture of the program he built from the ground up.

The Reluctant Arrival

Before Glabb arrived in 1990, Santa Ana High School had no record of ever winning a league or CIF championship in wrestling. The program, which had bounced around since the 1930s, was a revolving door of coaches lacking the passion and experience needed to build a winning tradition.

Glabb himself almost never made it to the wrestling room. After a collegiate wrestling career in Oregon and Washington that he humbly describes as “not very lustrous,” he bounced between assistant coaching gigs in the Pacific Northwest. Battling severe depression after a brief stint at Marina High School in Southern California, a 28-year-old Glabb heard Santa Ana needed a head coach.

“I said to myself, I don’t even like driving through Santa Ana, let alone work there,” Glabb recalls. Reluctantly, he applied and was hired on the spot. “I said to the AD, ‘You didn’t ask me any questions,’ and he said, ‘No one else applied for the job.’”

Culture Shock and Building Trust

The transition was anything but seamless. Glabb, a self-described “corn-fed white boy from Washington,” stepped into a deeply Hispanic community with zero knowledge of the culture or the language. The language barrier provided some early comedic hurdles.

Wrestlers eagerly offered to teach the new “gringo” coach Spanish, secretly feeding him curse words to yell during matches. “I figured it out pretty quickly what they were doing and was turned off from learning Spanish,” Glabb jokes. He adapted by keeping a wrestler next to him as an interpreter and eventually hiring Spanish-speaking assistants to help communicate with parents.

But the real breakthrough came not from language, but from presence. Glabb quickly realized that many of his athletes lacked consistent father figures. To motivate them, he didn’t need a magic formula; he just needed to show up.

“No matter what skill level they were at, first-year wrestler or a four-time varsity wrestler, they all needed the same thing: somebody who cared and would be there for them through thick and through thin.”

A Leap of Faith and The Turnaround

Despite Glabb’s dedication, the early years were brutal. The Saints were getting routinely annihilated in tournaments. As a young coach who tied his self-worth to the scoreboard, the losing took a heavy toll.

The turning point was deeply spiritual. A devout Christian since age 13, Glabb had a moment of clarity after practice one day. “I heard a voice: ‘You’re never going to win here, so invest time into these kids.’”

Glabb made the difficult decision to stop chasing victories and start focusing entirely on the young men in his room. He started a campus ministry, helped connect kids with local churches, and instilled a practice of pre-match prayer. By shifting the focus from winning to character-building, the victories naturally followed. By his third season, Santa Ana won the Sunset League—sparking an unbelievable streak of 27 consecutive undefeated league championships.

Friday Night Lights, Wrestling Style

By the late 1990s, Orange County wrestling was electric, and Santa Ana was right in the middle of it. The benchmark for showmanship was Calvary Chapel, known for running their wrestlers out of fog-filled tunnels with lasers, sirens, and Christian rappers.

Santa Ana didn’t have the budget for a high-tech light show, so Glabb and his team improvised, creating their own legendary atmosphere.

“We brought in the band and cheer team,” Glabb remembers. “For our pre-match entertainment, we had a Lucha Libre match, a DJ, and recognitions of alumni. Every high school wrestler should have that experience of a friendly rivalry that brought fans from across Southern California.”

To fund the program, Glabb bypassed traditional candy sales and instead hosted massive tournaments, ran fireworks stands, and even had his wrestlers walk precincts for local politicians—a brilliant move that eventually helped his kids secure jobs, internships, and letters of recommendation.

None of this sustained success would have been possible without a village of support. The Santa Ana room benefited immensely from a school administration that deeply believed in what Glabb and his staff were doing. The program was also elevated by the elite caliber of coaches who came through its doors over the years, including All-American Vince Silva, NCAA and World Champion Joe Gonzalez, and Rick Lara. That strong foundation was further cemented by the loyalty of several alumni who returned to give back as coaches, such as Sadie and Joe Morales, Fernando Serratos, and Alex Becerra, just to name a few.

The Golden Era and National Triumphs

When asked to identify the greatest Santa Ana team of all time, Glabb points to the 1999 roster. That squad captured the CIF dual meet championship, the CIF tournament team championship, and the Masters championship. They qualified seven wrestlers to the state tournament, placing three, and finished fourth overall in California.

Individual legends also emerged from the Santa Ana room. Joey Daniel became a three-time CIF Champion and the 2018 State Champion. Tony Perez made history as Santa Ana’s first NHSCA National Champion, capturing the title in 1998 despite surprisingly not placing at the state tournament that year.

Perhaps the most dramatic individual moment came from Jose Leon at the NHSCA Nationals. Facing Tom Noto, an undefeated two-time New Jersey State Champion on a 64-0 run, Leon relied on Santa Ana’s signature conditioning. Down to the wire, with just eight seconds left on the clock, Leon hit a front headlock to a knee tap to secure the upset and become Santa Ana’s second National Champion in two years.

The Santa Ana room also produced athletes who transcended amateur wrestling. One of the most famous alumni is Gilbert “El Niño” Melendez, who went on to have a highly decorated career in mixed martial arts. Melendez became the inaugural WEC Lightweight Champion and then dominated Strikeforce, holding the Lightweight Championship twice (and once as interim champion). He set numerous Strikeforce records, including most title fight wins (9), most successful title defenses (6), most consecutive title defenses (4), and most significant strikes landed (749). He later competed in the UFC, where he engaged in the 2013 Fight of the Year against Diego Sanchez and cemented his legacy as one of the top lightweights of his era.

Documenting the Journey

The incredible stories of athletes rising above seemingly insurmountable adversity inspired Glabb to write his book, “A Saint in the City: Stories of Champions in the Barrio.”

“I had a few people in my life say I should write a book about the experiences you and your wrestlers faced,” Glabb says. “I figured if I didn’t do this, I would regret not writing about the boys who rose above adversity to become teachers, coaches, entrepreneurs, and men of integrity who stand by their family.”

The book, which eventually became a scripted curriculum for students, focuses on the power of intrinsic motivation and the choices that shape our lives.

Back to the Mat

Glabb retired from Santa Ana in 2019 to coach his son at Costa Mesa High School, spending five years enjoying the sport from a different vantage point. He explored other avenues—serving as a parks and recreation commissioner, trying his hand at sales, and even taking a swing at stand-up comedy.

But when Santa Ana called him ahead of the 2025-2026 season needing a coach, the pull of the room was too strong to ignore.

Today, Glabb is back to basics, focusing on growing the numbers and restoring the culture of a program he originally put on the map. The pressure to win state titles has been replaced by the simple joy of mentorship.

“It’s been great being back, and much less pressure on me to win,” Glabb reflects. “I enjoy the relationships with the wrestlers. Though my body feels old, coaching has kept my mind young.”