Sanford’s new high school wrestling coach has a “big,” familiar name.
   This year when the Sanford High School team says, “Coach Caramihalis,” they will be talking about John Caramihalis, cousin of Charlie Caramihalis, the previous wrestling coach. He is also the son of John M. Caramihalis for whom the annual John M. Caramihalis Memorial Youth Wrestling Tournament is named.
   Caramihalis, a 1983 graduate of Sanford High School, recently returned to the school as the new wrestling coach.
   In high school he wrestled under the guidance of his father and Dick Faulkner, the physical education teacher who retired last year.
   He said he was a state runner-up in high school and won between 60 and 70 matches during his high school wrestling career.
   Back then he wrestled in the 138 and 145 weight brackets.
   “There were only 12 weight classes back then,” he said.
   After graduating high school, he continued to wrestle at the collegiate level at University of New Hampshire where he earned a degree in business.
   His father, who came to Sanford in 1959, was a driving force in bringing wrestling to the forefront in the community. He is often considered the “father of wrestling in Sanford.”
   Caramihalis said his father’s knowledge and guidance led about 150 wrestlers to become state champions.
   As a team, the wrestlers won eight or nine championship titles, he said.
   Caramihalis returned to Sanford and served as the assistant coach in 1988 with Faulkner.
   In 1992, he said was the Massabesic varsity wrestling coach.
   Caramihalis said one of the things he likes about wrestling is the life lessons it teaches.
   “There are a lot of parallels with life. Wrestling teaches life lessons kids learn and take with them,” he said. “In wrestling, you put yourself out there and you are responsible for how well you do.”
   He said wrestling is also a sport that kids can participate in when they are “too short” for basketball or “too small” for football.
   “One thing I like about wrestling is that you (the coach) don’t pick the team. The team picks itself,” he said. “Everyone on the team gets to wrestle and coaches don’t choose their players.”
   Once the wrestlers get on the mat, it’s up to them if they win, he said.
   “If you win, it’s your win. If you lose, it’s your loss,” he said.
   Because it’s a one-on-one sport, the wrestler must learn to take responsibility for the loss, he said.
   “There is nobody to blame it on,” he said.
   He said he tries to get the kids to understand the “way things work” in life. He said the wrestlers often come back to him years later and say, “I get it now, coach.”
   He said he likes coaching because he likes to see the kids “put it (the wrestling moves) all together and be proud of what they can accomplish.”
   Due to the one-on-one nature of the sport, he said it enables the coach to see the improvements of the individual team members.
   He described his style of coaching as “simplistic, but aggressive.”
   “I tend to not want them to do a lot of moves,” he said. “I’d rather them have a few moves that they do really well.”
   He said when he wrestled in high school, he did a lot of “leg rides, which are not used as much these days.”
   He said he often accomplished pins with a “cradle series.”
   “It’s an easy move. You just have to set up (your opponent) properly,” he said.
   He said he encourages the wrestlers to stick to the “basics.”
   “If a move doesn’t work eight or 10 times, it just won't work,” he said. “So, you go back to the basics.”
   “If you watch collegiate wrestlers, it’s not that they do a lot of moves. They have a few moves that they have nailed.”
   Caramihalis said he likes to push the kids to “see what they have in them.”
   He said the team has alluded to the idea that they won’t win against certain other teams.
   “That’s OK,” Caramihalis said. “I like to hear that. It's good for them to know what level they need to be at to succeed. If they put forth the effort, they will see the results.”
   He said sportsmanship is a “big issue” for him.
   “We cheer for our team,” he said. “I don’t want anyone –  parents, wrestlers, fans in the stands to do anything that does not speak well of Sanford.”
   He said he has no tolerance for unsportsmanlike behavior, swearing or disrespect for other wrestlers.
   “If you don’t respect other people, how can you respect yourself?” he asked.
   He said other unsportsmanlike behavior like throwing head gear and refusing to shake an opponent’s hand would not be tolerated either.
   “It won’t happen,” he said with certainty.
   He said wrestling is an intense sport, the intensity of which increases as the season progresses.
   “I don’t want a wrestler to end the season on a bad note (with a show of poor sportsmanship),” he said.
   He said he repeatedly tells wrestlers if their attitude and efforts are positive, so will be the results.
   “I can teach them the moves, but I can’t wrestle for them,” he said.
   He said this year the team numbers about 27 wrestlers, but no girls, unlike last year.
   He said he has no qualms about female wrestlers.
   “If the opponents are OK with it, so am I,” he said.
   The high school wrestlers now practice in the downstairs area of the Nasson Community Center, the same place his father’s team practiced when John was in elementary school.
   He said he has some concerns about “feeder programs,” the pee-wee youth sports programs.
   “Sometimes they focus too much on competing,” he said. “It’s a great introduction, but should not be highly competitive.”
   He said he has seen parents at youth tournaments get “out of hand” and kids get “burned out” or later from suffer from injuries sustained in a youth program.
   “I don’t like to see the kids focus on trophies or medals,” he said.
   He said each wrestler’s success should be measured by their personal goals.
   “Some (wrestlers) just want to be here at the end of the season. Others want to be state finishers and others want to make varsity,” he said.
   He said he encourages kids to work toward their goals and he will ask them to give their goals some consideration the first couple weeks of practice.
   “They have to have set goals early,” he said.
   Caramihalis is balancing his full time job at PATCO Construction while dedicating as much time as he can to teaching the sport he loves.
   “My employer is very supportive of me doing this,” he said.
   While his employer is supportive of his efforts, he is supportive of his wrestlers.
   “I don’t want the kids to ever leave the mat, thinking they didn’t give it their all,” he said.
   He said it’s a terrible feeling to leave the mat with a loss, thinking, “I should have done this, I should have done that. I didn’t give it my all.”
   “It’s another life lesson,” he said.