Lennie Zalesky back in wrestling game, rebuilding Cal Poly Humboldt

The last time we heard from Lennie Zalesky, he was planning a move to Montana to enjoy time with his family.

Retirement — and the fishing — seemed like a pretty good deal.

But just like Michael Corleone said in “The Godfather Part III” ... “just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.”

Zalesky is back in game. Not the crime game, like Corleone, but the wrestling game. In March, he agreed to help restart the wrestling program at Cal Poly Humboldt, an NCAA II program located in Arcata, Calif., that dropped a once successful program in 1991.

The oldest of three wrestling brothers from Shueyville, the 65-year-old Zalesky was an outstanding wrestler at Cedar Rapids Prairie and a three-time All-American at the University of Iowa under Dan Gable.

His brother, Jim, was a three-time NCAA champ for the Hawkeyes who later replaced Gable as head coach and directed Iowa to three NCAA titles.

Jim is in Arcata, too, joining his older brother — by a year — in rebuilding this once proud program. Jim had been coaching at the University of Jamestown, an NAIA program in Jamestown, N.D.

“We kind of started out together and we’ll end it together, I guess,” Lennie said in a phone interview last week.

Lennie was the head coach at UC-Davis for nine seasons before that program was dropped. He moved to California Baptist and coached at the private Riverside college for 11 seasons before retiring in 2022.

What brought Lennie out of retirement.

“I lost my mind,” he said with a laugh.

It actually was a former wrestler from UC-Davis who had a connection to Humboldt and put the bug in Lennie’s ear.

“I took this to get it off the ground,” he said. “We’re slightly off the ground (now). She’s running.”

The Lumberjacks held their first home dual in more than 30 years on Jan. 10, beating Simpson University, 39-10, in front of 500 to 600 fans. It was their first win of the season.

But results aren’t the point these days. Zalesky wants to give California wrestlers a place to complete close to home, or at least in their home state.

“It’s a much needed program for Californians,” he said, noting the Western Undergraduate Exchange (WUE) states — Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington and Wyoming — don’t have a lot of wrestling options.

“There is no Division II program other than us all the way to Colorado,” he said.

But he also missed coaching. A lifelong teacher with a master’s degree in Slavic linguistics and literature, he’s been recognized five times for outstanding achievement by the American Council of Teachers of Russian.

He coached — and taught — a high school program in Palmer, Alaska, and was an assistant at Indiana before his long head coaching career in California.

“You miss certain things, the coaching part and the relationships,” he said. “I missed the interaction.”

But this has not been an easy task. When he arrived, there was no wrestling room, no mats and, of course, no wrestlers. He was tasked with attracting five to 10 wrestlers in this first season, but ended up with 20 by the end of June. The roster now sits at 23 — 17 from California.

After walking around campus for a month, he found a space for a wrestling room, but still is waiting for the mats to fill it. He did find some old mats in storage and uses those at times, but most of the hard practices are held off campus. The competition mat was donated.

Zalesky maintains a home in Montana with his wife, Maria, and figures he’ll stay at Humboldt another two or three years, which isn’t a bad thing.

He and his family used to vacation in Arcata when they lived in Riverside.

“It’s a beautiful place,” he said. “It’s totally different from anywhere in California ... if it gets to 80 (in the summer), it’s really rare. If it gets below 40 in the winter, it’s really rare.

“It’s a real good place to go fishing.”

And, apparently, a real good place to start to a wrestling program.

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