By Stephen Ramirez
The office of Northview High School wrestling coach David Ochoa was broken into Wednesday night.Ochoa, who has built the Vikings into one of the top programs in the state, said his 19 CIF Southern Section championship rings were taken, along with his laptop, some Chromebooks and a scale.Ochoa’s office is located in the wing of rooms off Homerest Avenue in Covina.
“I think, unfortunately, it was (some) students,” Ochoa said. “I guess it’s been happening. I didn’t realize that.
“I had some Chromebooks in the office, so they took those, my laptop, a very expensive scale I had in here, and my rings. I don’t think (the suspects) were in here all that long, but they took the stuff that was the most expensive, I guess.”
While the rings are a sentimental loss for Ochoa and symbolize what the program has accomplished in 20-plus seasons, the theft of his laptop is a more instant hit.
“I’ll be honest, those rings are not that important to me,” Ochoa said. “I was fortunate enough to be there when those kids won the championships and I know how hard they worked. I was there. That means more to me than any ring.
“But my laptop? It had everything. I’ve worked really hard to keep records of all our kids from year to year. It had just a lot of pictures of kids and different stuff they’ve done over the years. That can’t be replaced. You have stuff on your computer and when someone asks for something, you can get it to them. I’m not going to be able to do that anymore. That’s the hard part for me.”
The CIF-SS championship rings were in a display box. Four of them were made of gold, with the other 15 silver.
“At this point, I just want the rings (returned),” Northview principal Julie Harrison said. “It’s really sad this happened. My hope is by getting the word out that they’ll surface.”
Anyone with any information is asked to call Harrison at the school at 626-974-6121.