Paul Clementi knew he wanted to stay around the sport of wrestling when he graduated from Marquette University in 1976, but the capable college wrestler could never have imagined the illustrious coaching career he still had ahead of him.
Nearly 50 years later, Clementi will be recognized by the California Wrestling Hall of Fame on Saturday, May 17, with a lifetime service award alongside nine fellow honorees.
“It is nice to be recognized,” Clementi said of the honor, “but it is not essential. I get enough payback just from having kids improve — not just in wrestling, but in life.”
Clementi’s first job out of school was as a speech therapist at Isla Vista Elementary School in Goleta, which is when he began assisting legendary wrestling coach Mike Hart with his program at Dos Pueblos High School.
In 1978, Clementi was named head wrestling coach at Ventura High School, where he also signed on to work as a speech therapist.
“I was not ready to be a head coach at all,” Clementi said. “I learned from making a lot of mistakes.”
The first-time head coach did learn, and fast.
While at the helm of Ventura’s program, Clementi led the Cougars to a dual meet record of 283-71. Ventura won 11 league championships and claimed 31 tournament titles. Clementi’s wrestlers earned 113 individual league titles, 61 CIF-Southern Section placings, nine CIF-SS championships, eight CIF-SS Masters championships, 11 state placers, and one state champion in Cristobal Gonzalez.
Ventura was the CIF runner-up six times, including four second-place finishes to Calvary Chapel in what became a spirited rivalry. Clementi earned Tri-Counties Wrestling Association Coach of the Year honors in 1992, 1994, and 1997.
In 1992, Clementi and the Cougars became the first wrestling team in the Southern Section to win both the CIF-SS Individual and CIF-SS Dual Meet Championships in the same season.
“That was an accomplishment,” Clementi said. “Many teams since then have done that, many times over, but we were the first.”
Clementi credited assistant coaches Mike Colin and Brad Steward for helping to make his years at the helm of the Cougars’ program successful.
Clementi remained at Ventura High until 2002, when he stepped down from his position as head coach.
After a brief break from the sport, Clementi came back to assist Ventura High head coaches Mike Colin and Mike Gacha before moving on to Nordhoff High, where he took over as head coach. He was succeeded by Joey LeSuer in 2019.
“I thought I was done,” Clementi said. “I just enjoy working with the kids. It has always been kind of neat to see them improve and grow.”
Clementi remains at Nordhoff today as an assistant to head coach Carl Fronhoffer.
“There are always first-year wrestlers, kids who have never wrestled before, coming in and trying it out,” Clementi said. “It really gives you a chance to use your years of experience to help them.”
Dominic Massimino is a staff writer for the Star. He can be reached at dominic.massimino@vcstar.com. For more coverage, follow @vcsdominic on Twitter and Instagram.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Paul Clementi to receive California Wrestling Hall of Fame lifetime service award
Reporting by Dominic Massimino, Ventura County Star / Ventura County Star
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