Gabe Schaefer leaves Bloomington High wrestling, but Bruins should be OK

Maybe you saw in the paper or on our website that the coach who built the Bloomington High wrestling program into a CIF-SS champion, Gabe Schaefer, is leaving.

Above, Schaefer talks about winning the CIF-SS Individual Tournament team title for the first time this season.

Here are my thoughts. I have a huge amount of respect for Gabe as a coach and his ability to build a winning program with kids who were willing and able, but did not have much experience before high school.

I don’t blame him for leaving for Clovis, the most powerful program in the state. He is not a casual wrestling coach, so the opportunity to coach the best team in the state is hard to pass up, so I don’t blame him.

He will be missed (by the school and by me). But when Schaefer last year brought on Vince LaFarge, who was a big part of the coaching success at Covina Northview, he made for a smoother transition. It’s hard to say that LaFarge will be able to continue the success that Schaefer started. It could be better, or not quite as good. But it will be good. LaFarge is a veteran coach who has had a year for the kids to know him.

The kids just need to stick with him. His success in his career speaks for itself, and hopefully the Bloomington kids will listen.

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