Consistency, adaptability help Luis Ayala achieve 300 coaching wins

DOVER-FOXCROFT — There’s a certain amount of consistency involved in coaching any high school team to continued success.

But also required is a certain willingness to adapt to changing times, which has been part of Luis Ayala’s winning formula during 15 years as the varsity wrestling coach at Foxcroft Academy.

“One of the big changes is that you can’t be old school anymore,” said Ayala, who was honored for reaching the 300-victory milestone at Foxcroft before a pre-match ceremony Thursday night. “I remember [other coaches] who came with that intensity in your face, but you can no longer do that.

“Now it’s like as a coach you have to have a psychology degree just to know everybody individually, who you can motivate and who you have to hold back with. The biggest difference today is that you have to rationalize things with the kids. They want to know why we’re doing something, you just can’t say, ‘Do it because I want you to do it’ anymore. You have to explain things, but that’s OK.”

Ayala, who wrestled during his high school days in Virginia, became Foxcroft’s head wrestling coach in 2001, and save for a one-year break during the 2008-09 season has been instrumental in building and maintaining the Ponies as one of the state’s top small-school wrestling programs.

Foxcroft has won five Class C state championships under his watch, back-to-back titles in 2004 and 2005 and three in a row from 2011 through 2013.

“It’s a reflection of where we were, where we came from and where we are now,” said Ayala. “It doesn’t seem like 15 years. I’ve enjoyed every moment of every season.”

Ayala’s Ponies also have won eight Eastern Maine crowns and seven Penobscot Valley Conference championships while producing 33 individual state champions, 64 individual titlists, 37 individual PVC weight-class winners and one New England champion in Josh Pelletier, the 2006 winner at 275 pounds.

“I’ve been very fortunate first of all to have the athletes,” said Ayala, also a teacher and boys varsity soccer coach at Foxcroft. “You have to have the athletes, and then the administration’s support and belief in what you’re doing.

“Then you have to surround yourself with great people, people like coach [Terry] Whittemore who’s been here from the beginning and [former assistant] coach [Maynard] Pelletier and now coaches Mark Smith and Josh Pelletier. You need those people that give you that energy and help you be the best person you can be. They push you and drive you, and it’s been great.”

Maintaining strength in numbers is one of Ayala’s biggest challenges these days, as is the case wrestling programs around the state that have fallen victim to reduced participation — so much so that the Maine Principals’ Association reduced the field from three classes to two this winter.

Foxcroft — considered one of the top contenders for the Class B state championship this winter — suited up 15 wrestlers for its meet Thursday night but in recent tournaments often filled just eight of the 14 weight classes.

Ayala strives to overcome that obstacle simply by working harder, including serving as head coach of the local middle-school wrestling team after the high school campaign concludes.

“The big thing is the enrollment, there are fewer and fewer kids,” he said. “I have a smaller pool of kids to work with and that’s been a struggle, but the kids I get here work hard, they push themselves, they know what we’re about and want to be part of it.

“Success breeds success, and that’s helped us out.”

Ayala does voice concern about the future of high school wrestling in Maine.

“It’s a tough sport,” said Ayala. “You see schools dropping it, and we go to coaches’ meetings and we always talk about what we can do to promote the sport.

“Going to two classes this year was something the coaches felt would help out, that maybe more kids would come out and we’d have more full brackets. But what’s going to happen down the road five years, I don’t know. At this point we want to enjoy the moment and what we have and go with it.”

Ayala’s most enjoyable moment Thursday night wasn’t his own recognition, which included a video presentation before a crowd that included his wife Angela and other family members, friends and a contingent of former Foxcroft wrestlers and assistant coaches.

Early in the match his older son Antonio scored his 150th career victory on the mat, a considerable achievement for the Foxcroft senior who was born with a congenital heart defect that required multiple surgeries as an infant.

“Yes, it’s great that I’m being recognized,” said Luis, “but to have Tino be recognized, too, as a dad and a coach you know all the individual work he’s put in, the commitment and sacrifice he’s made to get to this point, and it’s special.”

Ayala, now 302-39 in dual-meet competition, has no plans to stop coaching. His younger son Rico will be a freshman at Foxcroft next year and figures to extend the family’s wrestling legacy.

“At this point I don’t see anything changing,” said Ayala. “I’m the coach, but it takes more than one person. It involves the whole family.”