PARKER — Once a wrestler, always a wrestler, but Tim Ottmann has about five weeks to prepare for the rest of his life.
The Ponderosa coach will retire after 25 years on the mat as a coach, several others as a competitor and official, but who knows how many more as a fan.
“There are times when it is both strange and enjoyable from the standpoint of relishing this happening,” he said. “This is it, and it gets more interesting as it draws near.”
Almost as interesting as becoming the face of big-school wrestling, a native Texan minus the twang who knows tough and rugged as well as manners and minding his business.
Seven high schools ago (including the new Legend Titans) in ever- growing Douglas County ago, Ottmann, in the pre-Internet days, cold-called like a telemarketer. He had seven years head coaching experience — Ottmann began at age 22 in El Paso — and, like all of those associated with the sport, he was working on a move. It landed him here in 1990.
“It was fate, destiny, luck or all three,” he said.
Ottmann watched his Mustangs take their lumps early — remember, this is wrestling — before rising to dominance in Class 5A. They finished second in 1995 and 1996, won the next two team titles and have pinned the past five in succession.
If the Mustangs, who, by the way, are loaded again, win it all Feb. 23, their run of six in a row will match North’s glorious dominance from 1944-49, the best in storied Colorado annals.
Ottmann doesn’t need to go out a winner, but the way he built a program and maintained it should be copied and distributed.
“We’re amazed sometimes at what we’ve been able to accomplish given the socio-economic situation and just basically as a public school,” Ottmann said. “We’ve had almost all homegrown kids, and we’re proud of that. It’s very, very unique. It has become almost too commonplace, and it scares me a little bit. You have good people chasing you left and right.”
The gap remains — the Mustangs easily headed a strong tournament field last weekend at Arvada West (six individual champions and two runners-up) and appear in gear for Friday’s start to the Top of the Rockies at Centaurus.
Ottmann opting to pass as a leader isn’t by accident, nor was his approach. The effort so vital to wrestling, notably during the long offseason, can’t squeeze any more justice from him.
He will remain as the Mustangs’ assistant principal in charge of athletics. He has balanced administration and coaching as well as any other in the era — Ottmann always was cognizant in avoiding the appearance of a conflict of interest in this specialization age — but it’s time for more personal matters, including becoming more of a family man. He has a 6-year-old daughter who’s entitled to a round-the-clock dad, not someone who waltzes away every time he’s needed on mat.
“It will be freeing-up of time,” he said.
Ottmann has put his in, including as a schoolboy competitor in Albuquerque, when he began as a 92-pound weakling, and an official in college like his father, Jim, who has run the New Mexico prep tournament for decades. As a proud grandpa and father, Jim will be at the Pepsi Center later this month to send off Tim, and also grandson Jake, a senior Mustangs 215-pounder.
It’s consistent in a sport in which family remains the most common trait. More of a brotherhood than a cult, wrestlers are a bunch of hard workers committed to an athletic endeavour — minus just about any athletic equipment.
“There’s a lot of life in wrestling,” Ottmann said. “It’s intense and personal, and you have to have a passion.”
Wrestling is for everyone, but then again it’s not. Many first-timers quit. There have to be junior programs and summer sessions. Ottmann’s isn’t bad, but wrestling rooms, where competitors spend monotonous hours, can be some of the dullest surroundings in sports history.
Plus, weight-watching for schoolboys is, well, odd.
“But it’s great,” Ottmann said.
True to his sport, Ottmann has never looked that comfortable in a suit coat at the end of the mat when coaching on championship night, and he announced his decision before the season to head off any speculation or become a distraction.
He would just as soon leave it better than he found it and not cause a commotion.
It’s one of wrestling’s codes.
But he’s human and can’t help wonder about next season.
“It will be weird in November,” he said.
Neil H. Devlin: 303-954-1714 or ndevlin@denverpost.com
