J.D. OliviaOliva, who had been an assistant wrestling coach at South Elgin High School for a decade, echoed that sentiment in his interview with Northwest Herald reporter Caitlin Swieca, saying he wanted to guide the Harvard Hornets to reclaim past glory.
"Wrestling is such a big deal here," Oliva said. "Five Hall of Fame coaches, all the state place winners, and two-time state champions, there's so much tradition that goes into a place like this. As a guy who grew up in an area that wasn't very rich in wrestling tradition, it's everything I've always wanted."
"That's why I came here," Oliva continued "It's a place that's done it before, and now they're ready for it to happen again. It's just steering it in the right direction."
Oliva has first-hand familiarity with Harvard's success. As a wrestler at Streamwood High in northwest suburban Chicago, he has fond memories of competing at a tournament at Harvard. As the owner of a video production business, Oliva got an inside look at the program when the team's coaches asked him to make a video for the program's 50th anniversary back in 2009.
In addition to producing that documentary about Harvard High's wrestling program, Oliva has been involved in other film projects about amateur wrestling, including a feature-length independent movie titled "7 Minutes," and "Independence: Wrestling with a Community", a 2010 documentary chronicling an entire season of the high school wrestling program in Independence, Iowa, located between Waterloo and Dubuque, which was the subject of an InterMat Rewind feature five years ago.
Recommended Comments
There are no comments to display.
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now