New Los Altos High wrestling coach Steven Vaughan believes he’s suited for taking over a team that’s essentially starting over – again. The Eagles’ seventh coach in as many years, he’s tasked with rebuilding a program that’s lacked wrestlers and success during this erratic era.
“We’re starting from scratch; a lot of them are in their first year,” Vaughan said of his wrestlers, many of whom he met at a team meeting two weeks ago. “The good thing is that I didn’t start wrestling until my freshman year, so I know what it takes.”
The first-year head coach added that he didn’t win a match at Imperial High in Southern California until his junior year but “won a lot more” as a senior and qualified for the California Interscholastic Federation state championships in 2009.
He didn’t do as well as he hoped at state, though, prompting him to quit the sport.
“I never wanted to wrestle again after not winning at CIF,” he said. “I really wanted to get my name on the wall at my school (for winning there).”
Once he got over the disappointment, Vaughan returned to wrestling – in a big way – after joining the military.
“(My career) didn’t really take off until after high school,” he said. “I came back to it in the Navy and tried out for the All-Navy Team.”
Vaughan did more than just make the team – he performed well enough to win nine medals while competing in meets throughout the nation. In 2016, he represented the U.S. at the International Helsinki Open Wrestling Tournament in Finland.
Vaughan, who served in the Navy for six years and did two tours of duty overseas, said a knee injury ended his military and wrestling career (though he’s pondering a return to the mat). The Los Banos resident said he’s stayed connected to the sport – which he called “the only thing that’s kept me in shape and disciplined” – through coaching.
Vaughan said he’s been coaching “on and off for 10 years,” mostly at the youth level (ages 5-14). He also spent a few seasons as a high school assistant coach, first at Imperial and then at Pacheco High in Los Banos after moving north in 2020.
Vaughan, who tends bar in Gilroy and works security in Santa Clara, said he learned about the Los Altos opening while working at a restaurant in town a few months ago. He didn’t let the long commute deter him from applying.
“I wasn’t going to pass up a head coaching job,” said Vaughan, hired last month. “This is what I’ve wanted for a number of years.”
Los Altos athletic director Michelle Noeth is eager to watch what he can do with the Eagles, who start practicing Oct. 31.
“We are looking forward to seeing him bring new energy and philosophy to the wrestling program,” she said.
Noeth surely doesn’t want to be looking for a new coach again next year – and Vaughan has no intention of being another one-and-done hire.
“I don’t know why that is,” he said of the turnover in wrestling coaches at the school. “I definitely don’t want to be one year; that’s hard. This (job) was not planned, it was short notice, but I want to stick around.”
Vaughan’s primary goal in his first year at the helm is “to have a full lineup in every division – varsity, JV and girls.”
Fifteen students attended his initial meeting with the team, according to Vaughan, and nearly half of them were girls. He hopes more boys and girls join after the fall sports are over.
“We’re going to start with the very basics, and that’s OK,” Vaughan said. “Even All-Americans still work on the basics.”
It may not lead to a league championship this year, but Vaughan is holding out hope that some of his wrestlers will thrive individually.
“I would like to get at least one kid to state,” he said. “My ultimate goal for my wrestlers is for them to compete at a DI college, preferably Stanford. This is what I want the future to be here.”
