Conch Pride with Conch Wrestling Coach Chaz Jimenez

We share how a small island built a big-time wrestling culture, and why adversity, family, and year-round work keep Key West competing with anyone. Coach Chaz traces the program’s roots, his own injury-to-purpose journey, and the rise of girls’ wrestling.

• founding of the Conch Republic Wrestling Club and early mentors
• synergy between wrestling and football for leverage, footwork and mindset
• state placers, record-setters and the validation of first titles
• injury, identity loss and returning home to coach with purpose
• coaching philosophy built on relationships and individual needs
• launch and rapid growth of girls’ wrestling
• 2025 season highlights and athletes to watch
• year-round training in folkstyle, freestyle and Greco
• balancing multi-sport goals with mat time realities
• travel distance, funding pressure and competitive scheduling
• transfers, NIL and why culture beats convenience
• Key West lineage, community support and one-town loyalty

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Transcript

Island Pride And Opening

Coach Chaz Jimenez 0:00

And the whole stand is is Key West people and Miss Webster, you know, getting up there doing the give me a kid, you know, the Key West thing and, you know, that whole island, everyone up there. Those things extend out to me and my, you know, and me growing up and um speech Bobby Menendez speeches before games, you know, just the everything all those things, and it just is ingrained in my soul, you know, and always feeling like it's us against everyone else. And uh Key West people always have each other's backs no matter what, you know, and the island mentality. And that's just always been it's just part of ingrained, like I say, ingrained in me, and it's just special. It's so special. And you know, we see it every year. Our we we cheer for our kids no matter what, and we come together, and uh, it's just it's something that's so unique, and we are still a one-team, one-town mentality, an old school mentality of you know, you you you cheer for your high school where you go up, you go to the high school, you go up. It's kind of the lost thing around the in a lot of places, especially in Florida.

Meet Coach Chaz Jimenez

Joy Nulisch 0:59

Thanks for tuning in to the comics of Bring Joy Podcast. I'm your host, Joy New League. I'm a first generation con raised by the four. What is that another two? A whole lot of cunk trailers. And that's what this show is all about. Celebrating the incredible people of Key West and every corner of a call. Let's do this. How are we doing, Kung fans? I've got a good one for you today. We're talking with Key West High School wrestling coach Chaz Jimenez. Welcome to the show, coach.

Coach Chaz Jimenez 1:32

Hey, thanks for having me, Joey.

Joy Nulisch 1:33

Hey coach, I I want to come clean. You know, I don't know much about wrestling. The only thing I know about wrestling is Dusty Rhodes Bonic Elbow.

Coach Chaz Jimenez 1:44

Different wrestling, but yeah.

Joy Nulisch 1:46

You know about Dusty Rhodes?

Coach Chaz Jimenez 1:48

Oh, yeah.

Wrestling Program Wins And Milestones

Joy Nulisch 1:50

Hey, but I tell you what, I don't know much about how to keep score with wrestling and all that, but I know a lot about your program. Let me see, let me see how I do. Um, you got about 25, 26 years of history since the program started, 250 wins, 19 district titles, 16 in a row, which you and your team accomplished in 2025. What do we got? Two state champions. Many of our wrestlers have made it to the state match to compete and represent it well. We've got several of our wrestlers slash football players have made it onto college to either wrestle or play football, which I want to talk about that connection to. You get you started a girls' wrestling program that's very successful already. And on top of that, you have a youth wrestling program, the Conquer Public Wrestling. So the, you know, what I miss, Coach.

Coach Chaz Jimenez 2:41

You covered a lot, you know, and then I don't even know the number of state placers, but we have a lot of state placers over the last uh 20 plus years. It's a and it just I think in myself alone, we have I think I've had close to 40 state placers. So we've had a lot of state placers as well. Regional runner-up finishes, top 10 finishes in the state, top five finishes in the state.

Origins Of Conch Wrestling

Joy Nulisch 3:02

To say you're a winning program is is not bragging, it's truthful. We can back it up with the numbers. So let's go back to the history. Let's go back those 25, 26 years because you've been part of the program almost the entire time. I don't know if anyone knows the program better than you. Go back, take me back through the history. Let's talk about some of the coaches that have been part of the program, some of the wrestlers, and some of the key moments that have made this conk wrestling program so strong.

Wrestling And Football Synergy

Coach Chaz Jimenez 3:30

Yeah, so it all started, kind of all came together at the right time. Uh Jerry, coach Jerry Hughes, um, was was my football coach, and uh he has always been a big proponent for for wrestlers playing football, and how uh just having a wrestling program helps a football program. And especially coming from Southridge, where they had a they've always had a powerhouse wrestling program, and that's where he coached football for a for a good amount of time and had a lot of success. And so he was trying to get that started. At the same time, we had some people in Key West that that were on staff here at Key West High School, Roy Bao, and um he was one he also coached football, and then we had some people in the community that wanted to were trying to get wrestling started. So just so happened that we had this guy, Bob Krantz, who is a a big proponent for wrestling, had to be live was living in Key West, got into contact with with somehow, I don't know the full origin story of it, but he met up with with Troy Bao. Troy Bao was also playing bocce or softball, I think in Big Pine at the time with this guy Mike Hess, who Mike Hess owned um Kudjoe Fish and Sales up there in Kudjoe. And Mike Hess was uh was from New York originally and was a grew up a big time wrestler, college wrestler, but his family actually had owned Kudjo Sales for a long time. And then there was another guy in Key West, Randy Lehan, who I think they played softball with too, who worked for the Coconut Telegraph or Jimmy Buffett's uh uh little magazine that they had. And so all those guys were kind of came came together at the same time and wanted to start the club. At the same time, I think Coach Hughes got wind of it and was really getting involved in trying to get the club going. So we started the club, Republic Wrestling Club, which is the name of a wrestling club today, in I want to say '97. So it was around my my eighth grade, ninth grade year. And we started the club, and the original club we used where the PAL gym is now, at the old Glenn Archer Gym, is where we s we had the club. Bob Krantz got a hold of a mat, which is really what you need. All you need is a space and a mat to start wrestling. He got a hold of an old blue mat from some, I don't know where they got it from. And that's when we started wrestling. And the first people in the club were myself, Pedro Lara, and uh a few other football players that Coach Hughes sent over there. And that was the first exposure I had to wrestling. And before that, Coach Hughes actually took a few of us up to see a duel meet between Coral Park and Southridge. And we got to meet the coach of Southridge, who's a legendary Hall of Fame coach Jim Husk, who I'm very good friends with now today. We got to go to the re the wrestling room there and kind of get exposed to it because being from Key West, we were never exposed to it at all. Um and I thought I was like, man, this is awesome. You know, and then Pedro and I was the only one that really stuck with it, and we stayed wrestling with the club with with at that point it was uh Mike Hess, Coach Bao, and Coach we call him Sid, but Randy Lehan. And those three guys were were were doing were were coaching us, and then we had uh Bob Kranz kind of as the the guy running the fundraising behind the club and stuff like that. And then we started traveling, wrestling in USA wrestling tournaments, and then we had a few more guys show up, Justin Duck, Tony Lombardi, some other just people here and there. We started getting the kids' club. Ralph Major was one of the first kids in the kids' club, Coach Hess's kids, who all ended up being really good wrestlers. Um, and then we were going, I mean, we were going all over the state. Back then, there only used to be weekend tournaments in Brandon. Brandon's a powerhouse was a powerhouse wrestling program. And so we used to drive up to Tampa to Brandon like every other weekend. We couldn't we were trying to get the team started my sophomore year, but we couldn't get started. All of a sudden, again, you know, whether you call it serendipity, whatever it is, and you know, I think it was God put this all together that uh Justin Klein was moving down from uh from Okeechobee. He was a ready and established wrestler in Okaechobia, a state qualifier um and a pretty good wrestler. So when he came down that year, that was kind of the impetus of us getting the program started. We were already trying to get it going, but they basically allowed Justin to wrestle as a one-man team that year. So that year, while we were wrestling in the club after football season got done, Justin was practicing with us, but he was going to compete, and he was he was with with Coach Bao and Coach Sid, and they traveled just them two and co and Justin. So that kind of was the what we needed to make everything happen. The next year we had the full the first full season as a team, and and then from there the rest has been history. So it all kind of came together at this perfect timing that these people were in town all at the same time. I like I said, I a huge credit was is with with Coach Hughes really getting it done as the football coach and you know him being a legendary coach himself. And we had these great people, these great wrestling minds here in Key West, and it it just started from there. And I know a lot of people had wished that we had wrestling for a long time before that. You know, it's a it has a pretty good history in Florida already, as it is.

Joy Nulisch 8:22

And so what is the combination, what makes football and wrestling such a complementary to the other?

Coach Chaz Jimenez 8:31

Well, just on face value, when you look at it, you know, the the transition rest, you know, wrestling teaches you so much about leverage, about body positioning, about using your hands. Um, you know, so that part right there and your your footwork, so much on footwork, so that right there transitions a lot from from from football, from wrestling to football. And then the other thing, you know, the non-tangible things is that it just wrestling gets you to another level of understanding hard work, understanding how to overcome adversity. That and the idea of that one-on-one battle, right? So football, we're you're you're doing there's 11 one-on-one battles every play, right? And you need to learn how to compete on that one-on-one level. Well, wrestling, that's all it is, is that is learning how to, and that's the big thing, is learning how to compete and finding something in yourself. The you know, the differences and in in football, you can have a bad play, you can miss an assignment, and it might not be known or seen, right? And you can re you know, there could be blame on other people that the play wasn't successful. Well, wrestling, it's all you. So it really helps you in that that idea of competing one-on-one when it comes to football and just the mentality. Like I always said, like wrestling is so hard that it made football more enjoyable for me. Because even though football is really hard and it's different, what it takes to be successful in wrestling is just a whole nother level of intensity.

Joy Nulisch 9:58

And um, you mentioned Ralph Major, he's one of our uh state champions, and so he was part of the youth league, which I didn't even realize we had a youth league going back that far. So so I'm already learning a lot. So he ends up becoming a state champion his senior year, right?

Injury, Darkness, And Purpose

Coach Chaz Jimenez 10:15

Yeah, so that so Ralph was with was one of our first batch of of youth wrestlers coming through, super successful, ready as a you know, all American stuff as a young age. Coach again, Coach Mike took him all over the place, and uh he used to practice with us. So as a little guy, he's like a hundred you know, because he's about seven years younger than me. So he's a little guy and he's coming in and wrestling in our high school practices with our like lightweights and stuff. So we always had our eyes on Ralph. And then part of the full circle thing is my first year back after college was Ralph's senior year. And my, you know, I worked with Ralph every day I was in to get him ready for that state title. And we, you know, we knew he could win that state title. When he won that state title, that was kind of like that final hook in me. Like, I this is what I want to stay and do this. It was a it was a cathartic moment for me, especially since what happened to me in my state championship run when I got hurt in the state finals, and my basically my football career was done, everything after that. And coming full circle, coming back, knowing Rocky since he was little, him winning that state title, man. It was an emotional moment. Also, we had a we had a bunch of state finalists already, and we hadn't won, we felt like we were cursed because we had uh myself, Tony Lombardi, and Justin Duck all go to the state finals and make the state championship match three years in a row. We all you know, I got hurt in that match. Justin Duck lost a one-point match, and Tony lost like a one-point match. And we felt like, man, we were kind of cursed. And we felt like Ralph winning that title was kind of a validation of the program and breaking that cycle that we had felt like we were in.

Joy Nulisch 11:51

And uh the other state champion was Max Lama.

Coach Chaz Jimenez 11:54

Max Lama 2012.

Joy Nulisch 11:56

And so talk about that adversity that you went through, if you don't mind, coach, since you brought it up. Your senior year, you're a standout football player, you're competing in wrestling at the state level. Take us back to that moment, if you don't mind, and and share what happened and then how you you faced that adversity.

Coach Chaz Jimenez 12:13

Yeah, so I mean, uh it was a it was the the uh up until this point in my at that point in my life, it was the hardest thing, you know, the toughest thing that ever happened to me, the worst thing that ever happened to me. Uh so you know, I already had committed and signed to go play football at FIU, uh, myself and another Key West boy, Patrick Lewin, one of my best friends. I had a a you know, my goal besides, you know, that was always been my goal my whole life was to play college football. And um that's everything I everything I thought about and did was for that. But along that way, my you know, that's why I started wrestling was to help me with football. Along that way, I fell in love with wrestling and my junior year made it to the state tournament and didn't have a great state tournament. My goal became immediately after that also to win a s was to win a state title. Um and you know, putting the work in, I had a great senior year. I think going into the state tournament, I only had like two or three losses. Um, and then, you know, had a great state tournament run. I knew there were some matches that were gonna be tough. I had to get through. Um, and then you know, make it, you know, make it to the my state quarterfinal match was brutal, made it to overtime. State semis won it, I had a really good match, one big time. And then going to that state finals match, I'm wrestling a tough kid who was a two-time state champ, but I thought it was a winnable match. We felt like it was a winnable match. So now we're going into the the highlight of my life at that point of being into the state championship match. And real, you know, early in onto the match, the kid tries to throw me. I stopped the throw, but my leg got caught. And I was trying to describe it to the kids the other day, and basically what happened to my knee is almost similar to what happened to Tyreek Hill. So if you saw how bad Tyreek Hill injury was, mine was kind of like that. Um, you know, full dislocation of the knee. I tore all four of the cruciate ligaments, and then I also uh tore a nerve, and the nerve was the it was the sticking point, you know. And at that point, you know, I thought, oh, I'll be all right, you know, we'll have surgery. I didn't know how bad it was, we'll have surgeries, and uh I'll I'll get I'll come back. Uh you know, and then going into to college, FIU was great. They stuck with their commitment to me. You know, they tried to rehab it, but the main thing we were trying to figure out was if that function, uh basically I lost what's called the dorsiflexion, the ability to lift your foot up. I have dropped foot. So I had a nerve graft at the that time, the state of the art through University of Miami to try to get that nerve grafted. Um and the function never came back. So kind of like, you know, they gave me a timeline, and if you know it's after two or three years, if it's not back, it's not gonna come back. And it never came back. So I stayed on with FIU as an um, you know, an assistant coach, basically a student coach. Actually, like the head coach at St. Brendan's that we played last week, he was my offensive line coach at FIU.

Joy Nulisch 14:51

Okay.

Teaching Adversity And Resilience

Coach Chaz Jimenez 14:52

So I got to yeah, I got to you know, sports it is very small. So I got to talk to him and um he helped he saw what I knew about football and kind of brought me on to help him out. And I also always knew I wanted to get into coaching. And um, but yeah, it was tough, man. It was it was a dream shattered, it was life-changing. I went through a dark time through college, you know. My whole goal and my everything I wanted to do was about that. So when I didn't that wasn't there, that dream was gone. I I kind of like lost myself and lost my identity in in some way. And um, you know, even just helping coaching, I just wanted to be on that field of playing. And at at some point, you know, I just even stepped away from that because it was too much after like year five. Most of my guys already had graduated that I went through. I just kind of needed to focus on graduating college. And after that, my plan was to um to to coach college football and be a grad assistant. And that's when I came home for that year and I fell back in love with coaching and fell back in love with wrestling. Like I said, that Ralph Major winning that state title. I actually had an opportunity to go coach, Coach Hughes was trying to help get me to go get a GA under Rich Rodriguez at West Virginia, and there were some other opportunities. I graduated assistant and I I kind of had to make a decision. I was working at the high school. I loved being around the kids. I loved coaching and and uh that that year in wrestling. And after Ralph won that title, and Coach Moller at the time wanted me to take over, um, I was out on the boat one day, which is my other huge part of my life, huge passion. I was like, man, I don't know. I think I'm gonna I was like, I I gotta stay. This is I think what my calling is to stay here and and and do things and be a conk and be in Keith West and build this program. Um and that's kind of what happened. So but yeah, I mean that and that out of that tragedy of my injury came my passion for what gives me the coach. You know, my my passion for coaching and my passion for for this program was born out of that that that tragedy. So a lot, you know, a lot of times they say the light comes right before the dark, and the darkest moments bring out that light. So that's kind of how I look at it. Like that was obviously was part of God's plan because the impact and what I've done over these last you know 18, 20 years, 18, 19 years has been my life's been more fulfilled than I could ever imagine if that didn't happen.

Choosing Home And Coaching

Joy Nulisch 17:05

Thank you. Thank you for sharing that, coach. I wasn't sure even to bring it up, but it's such an important story, and I appreciate you being so vulnerable and sharing it. And you you mentioned talking about it with your players. How how does that having gone through that help you appreciate the grind and and relate to the the difficulty and also the the vulnerability that in one moment you're you're ready to win the state championship, and then the next you're having to regroup and figure out where to go. And what it what was it also in you already to to keep fighting and push? Who helped push you?

Building The Girls’ Program

Coach Chaz Jimenez 17:42

Yeah, I mean, well, through that time period, it's definitely my family had my had my back, you know. Um and my parents are my parents are amazing and my whole family was with me, not just my parents, but you know, and I include my parents, my my dad, Danny, but my also my my my dad Billy, uh my mom's husband, he's like my father. Um I always say I'm blessed to have two dads, two amazing dads, and then you know, my mom and then my my grandmother, my siblings. They were helped me get through that that time, you know, because it was that college time was rough for me, not losing that dream. But yeah, as far as going back to the the I don't really talk about myself to my athletes. And I I think m like Miguel talked about that the other day. You know, that's to me, that's like I think it just came up because they were asking about what place I had got in, and the story came up, and I was like, well, my injury was similar to Tyreek Hill, but I don't really talk about myself, but I I talk about our past athletes a lot and what they've been through. You know, the the big thing, one of the big things we we we teach, and you know, is and that's I think one of the the goals of of athletics is athletics should be a way of teaching it like a microcosm of what you're going to experience in life. And and you're gonna, you know, you're going to experience adversity in life. What what successful people do is learn how to figure out a way to overcome that adversity. Coach Hughes, I go back to you know, I have all these things like people have said to me, you know, Coach Jerry Hughes said to us to say to us all the time, and it I tell my kids all the time, the true test of a of a person is how they overcome adversity. What they we preach that we're gonna you're gonna get knocked in, you're gonna get punched in the face, you know, figuratively in in sports, and you're gonna even life it's gonna be even harder. But do we feel sorry for ourselves, or do you, you know, pick you know, tie up your bootstraps tighter, pull up your pants, and get ready to do some work to make it happen? And you know, so having you know, so I going through those things that allows me to, you know, that I've been through it, to pass that message to to our athletes.

Joy Nulisch 19:45

So you've been coaching 16 years now?

Coach Chaz Jimenez 19:48

Yeah, so I was so this last season was my 16th year back at Key West High School. Oh, as the head coach, and then I had two years as an assistant coach, so 18 years overall.

Joy Nulisch 19:58

Last weekend I saw Christina McPherson, and I mentioned to her that I was having you on the podcast, and she said, Oh, you know I hired him. So do you remember that? She you weren't sure if you wanted to teach or not. She's like, Well, give it a try.

Coach Chaz Jimenez 20:11

Yeah, she they were looking for an economics teacher, and uh Miss Mac had known I got my my my degree in economics, and I think she saw my dad somewhere and I was that summer and she says, What's Chass doing? He's like, He don't know yet. He's trying to maybe figure out if he's gonna coach. She's like, Well, we had an economics job. And I I was like, I don't know if I want to do this, and I don't know if I want to be involved in going back to the high school. I want to be at the college level, I want to coach at the college level. And yeah, like I said, as soon as I got back uh into the classroom, being back at QS high school, it just felt like being at home. You know, I grew up on this campus, I grew up around QS high school related activities and athletics my entire life. So, like I said, it just felt like it was a godsend. And um, like I said, after after that Ralph won that state title, man, I was hooked.

Joy Nulisch 20:59

And and like Miguel said, you referenced Miguel from the last uh episode, and like he said, he wants to keep it rolling as long as he can. Is that your your plan too? Just keep it rolling?

Coach Chaz Jimenez 21:09

Yeah, I I love coaching, you know. I'm not coaching football right now at the level of capacity I want to coach football because I I have a you know a very young daughter. So that's kind of hindered me. I I've had to take a break from football. I still help out as much as I can, but I want to, you know, I I love coaching. And as long as I'm here at QS High School, I'm gonna be be coaching.

Joy Nulisch 21:30

So the program is growing so much, we added a girls program. How long have we had a girls program?

Coaching Girls Vs Boys

Coach Chaz Jimenez 21:36

So we've had a uh a sanctioned girls program. This will be our fourth season, I believe. Yeah, this will be our fourth season. So this we had it three years already. So in 2022, they sanctioned girls wrestling, and I had one girl on the team. We've always had girls that wrestled, but it wasn't a sanctioned sport. Um so they would have like they could practice with us, and and but there was like non-fHSA sanctioned like tournaments and stuff. We've always had girls, and a lot of times girls would have to wrestle with the boys, but in 2022 the FHSA sanctioned the girls' wrestling, and then um we had one girl on the team, and but she wrestled on the boys' team that year. And I would I uh it can't it kind of happened like late in the year, like they were kind of what they were they were going to say at first they were gonna sanction it, then the borders the FHSA board director said no, got tabled, then like at the beginning of the fall, they decided to sanction it. I wasn't prepared to do it that year. So the next year we knew we had this uh young lady Shayla Um Figuera coming back, and then at the same time we had two girls move in that were really, really good wrestlers, and it all kind of fell together again, like a godsend type situation for us to start the program that year.

Joy Nulisch 22:54

And uh the we've had a lot of success early with the girls, right?

Coach Chaz Jimenez 22:58

Yeah, so that first year we had both the Briggs sisters make it to the state finals. They both lost close matches that year. We've had girls qualify to the state tournament every year, and we've had a lot of good the girls do really well. Um, the tough thing about the girls is we only have one classification right now in the state of Florida. So, like our district and region for girls is really, really tough. Because South Florida, our region's always tough no matter what. Having just that one class, it's really tough. And it's the girls' wrestling, is it's like one of the fastest growing sports in the U.S. I mean, every year there's more and more girls, and they're just getting like exponentially better every year. But for me, it's been like it's really reinvigorated me as a coach. I love coaching the girls. I really have a blast coaching the girls.

Joy Nulisch 23:42

That's good stuff. I I did read that it's the number one growing sport, fastest growing sport in the nation. I think I was talking with Andrew about flag football for girls. There's so many more opportunities for girls to compete at at the high school level now. So that's really cool. What's the difference between coaching boys' wrestling or girls' wrestling? Are there any key differences?

Evolving As A Coach

Coach Chaz Jimenez 24:05

Yeah, there's differences for sure. You know, there's definitely differences between so one thing I'll say is that the girls are easier to coach as far as like you could show them something and teach it to them and they get it a little bit faster than boys get it. When girls are locked in, they're way more locked in than boys. So their focus and work ethic overall, I've seen from the girls we've had are like way, way more locked in. Um, so that makes it a lot more fun that they really are into it. You have to obviously the emotional side is a little bit different. So the one thing I'll say that's a little bit different than I've noticed with girls is um they tend they the self-doubt maybe comes in a little bit more. So instead of me like talking to a girl like, oh, you're wrestling this girl, she's good, you need to be careful about this. Well, like I I have to gas them up. So like when I got the girls do better when like I in and just give them full confidence, like be com and that that because that's one of the things that we see is that I've seen is that the the girls don't perform if they're not completely confident. So from my aspect, I have to completely just continue to give them confidence and talk about like let's put all the other stuff behind. And we gotta deal with with guys a little bit, but that's a big difference, you know. Um, I've noticed, and they always get mad at me because they say I'm too nice to them compared to the boys. So when I actually get mad at them, they are excited about it. So that's a a little bit different too. But yeah, it's but you know, and then you gotta deal with the emotional stuff, and sometimes they're you know it just depends on what's going on, but it's just like anything, you know, when when you're dealing with every with different athletes, and not all the girls are the same either. With with different athletes, they're all different. And so, you know, you can't coach every single kid the same exact way, and you can't hold them to the same standards. You could have your standards of what you expect for the program and what the non-negotiable things are, but you have to coach, you have to get build a report and relationship with every kid and coach them how you know it's gonna, you know, what's gonna pull those those strings on that particular athlete because everyone's different.

Joy Nulisch 26:06

I love that you recognize that you've been coaching, you say, um, 18 years here in in Key West. How long does it take to develop that kind of emotional intelligence, right? Is that is that something you knew out of the gates or you've had to grow to to learn that?

Staff, Alumni, And Culture

Coach Chaz Jimenez 26:24

I think I definitely got better with it. You know, you get you get better at it as time goes on. Um, you know, being a teacher also helps out. You know, I would say uh I grew up around coaches, you know. So, you know, as from a little kid on, you know, I was with my dad at in meetings. I was with my dad at the coaches' parties. I was with them watching games on Saturday and Sunday. Um, I was obviously with him listening to him. And um I had a I had a lot of uh a lot of exposure to a lot of really good coaches in Key West and um and then at the college level, some good coaches. So that definitely I think gave me a leg up getting into it, being exposed, and you get to see how all these different coaches handle stuff and how they respond to different things, and everyone's different. And I can then also with my own experience, right? You have to continue to grow throughout that that tenure or whatever you're doing, because times change, kids change, and from year to year they're different, you know. So I've gotten better, I think, in in understanding that. Um you know, the course the the the guys I coached 10-15 years ago will say, like, I've gone soft. And that's just what kids say. But you I can't the things maybe I did 10-15 years ago wouldn't have the same response today.

Joy Nulisch 27:41

Exactly.

Coach Chaz Jimenez 27:42

But yeah, that I think that's one thing I we do well at my whole coaching staff is we because I think I did it with them. All the coaches that coach for me are guys that I coached. They, you know, I tried to we try to build those relationships and get we become really close. And this thing just kind of you know causes that to happen anyway. So we spend so much time together. Um and I really try to promote like a culture of family. Um, and that's kind of like what I feel like we're s and I love these kids like their own my own my they are my own family. So we really tried to build that rapport and let them understand that like everything we're doing is for your own best interest, whether you like it or not. And we have fun and you know, all that stuff. But when it's time to get the business, it's time to get the business.

Joy Nulisch 28:22

You mentioned your coach and staff. Tell me about your coaches, how many coaches coach with you, and let's give them a shout out.

Coach Chaz Jimenez 28:29

My two main assistants are my main assistant is Saint is St. Pierre Annelys, who is uh you know, great football player and wrestler, two-time state placer, state runner up himself. Um, and then he played football in college at Murray State and Georgia Military Academy. And he's been just, you know, well, you know, he's great to have back and just a huge help to us. And then my other assistant is another key west wrestling great Angelo Gibb, who is another state finalist for us. And then um, you know, we have different guys that come help. My uh Gavin Garcia, he's a he's one of my best friends. He's in the coast, he's in the Coast Guard. He wrestled for the Coast Guard Academy, he helps us. And then just the old wrestlers will pop in here and there and help out. You know, um Ralph Major will make his appearance here and there and help out throughout the season. Michaela Bash, another one of our multiple time state places, will come in. Guys will come into towns. We always have a good amount of people that are coming in to help.

Joy Nulisch 29:20

That's that cunk pride, right?

Coach Chaz Jimenez 29:22

That's right.

2025 Highlights And Standouts

Joy Nulisch 29:23

It's you know, it's hard to define in words, you just have to watch and see it. And what you're talking about is that. So the 2025 season was fantastic. Let's talk a little bit about some of the highlights, some of the wrestlers. I know you had a lot of seniors that you graduated, and then let's look at 2026 and what this team looks like and what you're looking forward to.

Coach Chaz Jimenez 29:44

Yeah, this year we had um, you know, we had a a standout year again. Uh, I think it was highlighted by Alfredo Corrales. Um he got he ended up finishing fourth. His bracket was really tough, but um, he was you know very close to being in the in that finals match. and and trying to competing for a state title. But he he broke all kinds of records last year. I think he broke the the career uh wins record that was that Max Yama had with over 150 wins in his career. He broke the career pins record um which those are the two when you talk about wrestling records that's like the home run record. You know that that's the record you want the most pins and the most wins. Yeah so he had the fantastic year. And then you know we had James uh James Searcy had a state qualifier and was one of those guys as senior leaders that he came back from adversity he had a towards meniscus right before the season started got surgery right before the season started and uh had to come back and fight through that and made his way to the state tournament lost the match to place at states. Abram Kennett another was another one of our hammers that um same thing right the week of states he tears his hamstring really bad and uh had to wrestle on one leg and the guts he showed in that state tournament to basically wrestle on one leg majorly in pain and to give himself in position where he he was in the match the place just as a testament to him. And then on the girls side we had our you know we had a good season with the girls like I said that region and district so tough but we had a break out with our our freshman Maria Halushko who's um she is gonna be something special.

Joy Nulisch 31:19

I think she's gonna win the state championship you heard it here first she's gonna win the state championship. I got it written down right here.

Coach Chaz Jimenez 31:26

That's uh she's she's like one of the most talented wrestlers I've ever had so she grew up doing jujitsu at the PAL gym and started competing at the high a high level with jujitsu she's competed at world world championships all kinds of stuff uh so she came in to us with that background of being a high level grappler already and now she's just you know taking off on wrestling so we're really excited about the future with her.

Joy Nulisch 31:50

And are you your wrestlers already working out are you guys on the mat in the gym already? And when does the season start?

Year-Round Training Rhythm

Coach Chaz Jimenez 31:58

Never stops uh never stops never stops so yeah it's it's a year around thing except for the guys that play other sports but for especially lightweights and middleweights and those type guys and girls you know as soon as we get done with the regular season we get take like a week or two off and then we get to our Olympic styles. So in in the spring and summer we wrestle freestyle and greco Roman which is the styles you see on the Olympics and then you know we're still live you know strength training the summer we we're still wrestling we go to camps when we take a little bit off in July come back school starts we get rolling back into folk style which is the the col the high the style we wrestle in high school and college in the US yeah and then we're we're going to tournaments throughout the year you know we practice in our club two times a week lift three or four times a week to the lifting never stops and we're always training and then you know a lot of our guys are football players so they're in football season but the rest of the guys are still and girls are still training.

Joy Nulisch 32:55

So I I mentioned earlier and we talked about that you're a multi-sport athlete do you encourage your wrestlers to try other sports?

Multi-Sport Paths And Tradeoffs

Coach Chaz Jimenez 33:02

Yeah I mean it's definitely especially like I said our most of our upper weights are our middle and upper weights are football players. So we always have those two sport athletes. The problem we have is like some of our lower weights when you're wrestling like a lighter weight those guys that are in lighter weights are kids that have been wrestling since they're they're young and those kids are kind of dedicated to wrestling all year round. So one of the ways we get those guys that are lightweights or are guys caught up to kids that have been wrestling their whole life is they kind of start to wrestle all year round. But a lot of our kids will play multiple sports they go to track afterwards they do other things. And oh being a multi sport athlete is good but sometimes it is like to catch up you have to get experience wrestling and and the only way you can get that experience and and is through wrestling kind of year round and um and getting matches because you have to get experience in matches and you have and that's the only way you really can catch up. Like Alfredo let's say you know Alfredo going from a freshman that only had nine wins to having whatever the his last three years having fifty you know 40 plus 50 plus wins he had to put a lot of time in year round to close that gap.

Joy Nulisch 34:12

And we have uh Ralph Ritchie in college right now wrestling.

Coach Chaz Jimenez 34:16

Yeah Ralph actually we have two two athletes right now we have three actually athletes wrestling but Ralph and Ralph Ritchie and Abram Kenneth are both wrestling at St. Thomas.

Joy Nulisch 34:26

Okay.

Coach Chaz Jimenez 34:26

And then um Natalie Arguello is wrestling for UCF's team right now and she did really good she made to the national qualifier national championships last year.

Joy Nulisch 34:37

What are some of the challenges that you face as a coach here in in key west and in general yeah so you know the the distance is always a challenge right so for us you know all of our sports for wrestling really really big challenge is is that is that travel.

Coaching Challenges, Travel and Funding Hurdles

Coach Chaz Jimenez 34:56

So if you live in in Miami within an hour you could go train with other people you can go to a weekend tournament you can you know wake up at seven o'clock go to a tournament come back be home by four o'clock get those matches and experience all that stuff on the regular season you know you can compete in a lot of places very close. So for us that that we're behind the eight ball already just with that that distance you know even like Coral Shores like Coral Shores has a good program. The coach up there Dante Giovanni is one of my closest friends he's doing a great job they're two hours away you know and we do train do we do stuff together you know but they're two hours away so you know creates a lot of challenges there's financial issues with it you know for every tournament we go to most of the tournaments are two days we're overnighting it we have a we're staying in a hotel or something almost every weekend. And we're trying to get the best competition out that we can so we're traveling all over the state. And like I said just even like a weekend tournament like last weekend we went to a little tournament in Homestead. Wake up at five in the morning get up there in wrestle drive back I'm the one that does all the driving so then I have to worry about but that plays a that plays a huge challenge in it you know and then you know you just have your other challenges with coaching that you face with society today in general um you know there's a lot of stuff going on there's other things that we do in it you have to get kids to prioritize what's going on in that sport you know and understand the work that goes into it. And that's just tough in general you know to get people to really buy in and to trust the process is a whole nother a whole nother challenge in itself. But we as as in Key West face that g geographic problem and then you know the other thing that you know I was talking to you about before was that right you know in Florida today you have a complete free agency of high school athletics. So you know for you know I'm s always impressed that across the board pretty much in our athletics at Key West High School we continue to have a lot of success. You know we continue to have teams that are going to the regional finals, teams that are making it to the regional semifinals, final four, winning districts, winning regions because you know we have what we have our kids from Big Pine down or whatever they are you know the lower keys is our kids. Now it's also a blessing on the other side of it. Because we don't have to deal with the same stuff that some of these other coaches are dealing with in the mainland. But you know we see it in in every year like you know we're going to play a team and all of a sudden this team has like 20 new kids or a whole new lineup. You know this next week we're playing uh a Northwestern Northwestern has 35 new kids transferred in 35 transfers. That's a whole team 35 transfers so you know and they already they already won a state title last year. So and that's just across the board. So it can make things difficult in wrestling we see a lot um you know we see I know in wrestling football basketball baseball you know it's we're seeing these kids you know kids come over kids can leave in the middle of the season and go play at another school. You know kids can go from one sport to another we've had in some sports where a kid plays football at one school and then after football season transfers and wrestles at another school. And then we have the homeschooling which is another thing that they just do the Florida virtual school they go wherever they want. Kids don't even live in the same county. So you know the biggest thing is I like I say I can I can't really I can't change that but it does create difficulties but like I said I look at the positive the positive is that our kids are our kids and we're gonna develop our kids and we're gonna go and compete. And that's and but like I said people I think people have to have a greater appreciation of the success that we have in all of our programs at Key Wis High School. It's it's actually pretty amazing. It was always amazing that the Silva Island always produced so many good athletes and we had always so many good teams but now given the you know what the barriers that we face it's even more amazing what we do.

Joy Nulisch 38:51

It is really special and and I know we're partial but I I do believe that it's one generation after another like you talked about right your daddy was a coach you you know all the coaches that you've been with and their kids play and you know it's we build a winning tradition and you take time to build programs like youth programs whether it's junior football league or the POW league or your concrete public wrestling so that we can build them and and teach them the skills young and and have travel teams and take them back and forth up and down the road like like you're talking about till you can't even see straight anymore so that they can compete and hats off to to you and and all the coaches who who coach our kids for us as fans to be able to sit back and and want one win after another sometimes we need to be reminded of the hard work and dedication that you guys put into it. You're talking about the free agency can't help but uh shift the conversation to college sports. I know you're a big football fan what do you think about the transfer portal and how it's affecting college football and do you think that we'll have a national championship team that's not undefeated that's got one or two losses and are those things related?

Transfers, NIL, and Competitive Balance

Coach Chaz Jimenez 40:10

As far as the the I think that the transfer portal needs to all the transfer portal in the NIL in my opinion needs to have there needs to be a gathering of minds and come up with some way of regulating it a little bit more. I don't think I think a com complete um prohibition on transfers was a horrible idea the way it used to be it and then I I thought that you know the complete prohibition on players getting some money and getting paid for their actual name and image and likeness um was a horrible idea. And obviously the NCAA was so draconian and and and old on it that it backfired in their face as times progress. And then it caused all the things that were going on illegal backdoor deals and stuff like that. So then if they would have you know the 20 25 years ago or 30 years ago if they if they would have addressed that we'd have a system today that isn't what it is today. Because I don't really I don't like the you know the how the they got to put some limits on the transfer portal at some point and they gotta put some limits on NIL and money. And again I think if a kid's like if they're selling your jerseys you should be able to make some money off of your jerseys being sold. But if we're you know and we're if we can give kids a livable wage to go to college you know um you know I remember my my teammates at in college you know were we were broke. You know you're getting you and then you're you're like trading kids your like card at the at the because you know we had unlimited food food at the cafeteria. You're trading that to get cash and stuff like that, you know. So you know that was crazy. But now today for these guys to be making sometimes more money than the NFL player would make, you know, where where where goes amateurism at that point. So there has to be some some limits on that at some level because right now it's just the cat's out of the bag and they don't know what to do. On the other side of it as far as what you're saying about that there will there be an undefeated team? I think there'll probably there might be an undefeated team. I'm hoping the hurricanes are the undefeated team this year. But uh we'll we'll see what you know after this weekend what happens. I think it is going to get harder and harder to have those undefeated teams because what we are seeing because of the transfer portal and it's actually making college football a little more is there's more parody. So it's making a little it a little bit more fun to watch as as far as that there's going to be a crazy upsets every week because what used to happen is and like all the old coaches used to talk about when I was growing up like coaches would recruit certain kids knowing that those kids might not even meet the you know get playing time but those kids weren't playing for another school.

Joy Nulisch 42:38

Ooh I didn't even think about that.

Miami FSU and NCAA Football Talk

Coach Chaz Jimenez 42:40

Yeah yeah that's Bear Bryant was famous for that in Alabama back in the day. So he would recruit kids knowing that those kids probably never gonna play for him but they're not gonna go play at Georgia or Auburn. So now you're getting kids that maybe couldn't crack the line up at one place are getting a chance to go play other places and we're seeing that there is this much talent in the United States that these teams can be compete. You mentioned Miami I know you're a hurricane fan you think they're gonna pull it off in Tallahassee beat the gnolls in Tallahassee is that possible I mean we're uh we're favored uh the Kanes are favored but I think it's gonna be a classic UM FSU game that's always gonna be it's gonna be a one score type game. I think it's gonna be a tight game but I think it's I think up front and that's where football games are one and lost is up front on both sides of the ball I think Miami's better and that's where it's gonna be one and loss.

Joy Nulisch 43:29

Alright well as of this recording we've got two days is it a night game is it 730 730 in dope camp.

Coach Chaz Jimenez 43:36

All right they could just renovated it.

Joy Nulisch 43:39

Yeah so so coach I I um there's something else I didn't tell you is this is actually the first episode of a new show that I'm calling the conks all right and so I have I'm having a new segment to wrap it up and I'm calling it conch connections and you've already dropped a little bit of this information now but I I want to establish some of the connections some of the people that you're connected to you know it's a it's a common question when you meet somebody from Key West they want to know you know if you're a multi-generation conch and who's your mom and daddy. So tell me a little bit about your family and some of the other conks that you're connected to.

Coach Chaz Jimenez 44:17

So yeah we're definitely multi-generational on my mom I think on my dad's side we might be three or four generations on my mom's side it's like five or six generations. So I think my daughter's like a sixth or seventh I can't I know it goes back to my grandmother's grandmother for sure. So yeah we're definitely definitely back there. We've done it before it goes back a while the papers records stop at some point. So yeah so we've we're definitely connect everyone you know I I always tell people when you date another conch girl you know you're a real conch when you date another conch girl you gotta find out if you're cousins or not. I've had to do that a couple times. Are we related we should figure this out oh yeah so like as far as uh you know I grew up with around all all the police people as far as coaching connections in Key West you know my obviously my dad coached here forever. My dad's cousin Ralph Henriquez you know has head coach of the and our cousin little Ralphie is the coaches at the the baseball program so we have those those connections there. Yeah I mean those are as far as so that's a good coaching lineage right there just in our family.

Joy Nulisch 45:17

Yeah I'd say so and I got to give a shout out let me let me interrupt you real quick. I got to give your daddy a shout out because I love your daddy you know he's um he's so important in my life talk about a coach he he I've got to give him credit because he saw uh potential in me professionally that I didn't see in myself I'm just in there doing what I'm doing and early in my career and he'd already finished one career and was on his second career and uh he kind of opened some doors and dropped some thoughts in my head that that allowed me to move forward and think in my career in different ways. And so I'm always grateful for your dad and I don't know a tougher character than your dad either so I know he's watching so um what's up Danny I love you. Good stuff your your nephew Preston Hurst P another standout athlete in in Key West so yeah you talk about the lineage and now you've got a lot of uncles you know key West uncles right that maybe aren't your blood family but talk about some of those guys that you're connected to your your daddy's boys.

Coach Chaz Jimenez 46:22

Yeah so uh and I grew up around all these guys and they're all sports people so you know Pat Labrata I consider him my uncle that's was my my dad's best friend that's his best friend I consider his son Max like like my brother we call you know I got the Theos you know Theo Theo Bobby Bobby Menendez when I was growing up we had Theo Tommy that's Tommy Tommy Roberts you know and then I coach Chuck is like a like an uncle to me. His son Chaz was like an older big brother to me. And then now it's just awesome for me to be with Andrew because Andrew's like family too. And uh yeah we had all those all those guys I I there's so many I can't even think of all of them but you know and then growing up around Coach James and uh coach wise who are like family to me. It's a pretty special pretty special thing. And I I like I said I feel blessed to have been around and all those great coaches my whole life including my own my own coaches in wrestling too.

Joy Nulisch 47:16

It is good stuff and that's one of the reasons all those names that you just dropped is one of the reasons why I had to do this spinoff show called the Conks because I want to have an episode with all of those guys you know and I can't call it the joy of baseball or bring joy right so that's that's the whole purpose to have this this new show and nobody better than you to be uh episode one. You mentioned your daughter a couple times so you're starting you got a family now another generation of conks you gonna let her wrestle oh I would love for her to wrestle.

Raising The Next Generation

Coach Chaz Jimenez 47:48

I would love for her to wrestle I'm gonna I'm gonna but it's gonna be you know I'm not gonna push it on her but she she will grow up in that wrestling room she's already been in that wrestling room since she before she go walk so she likes going in there um she goes to football games with me I force her to watch football with me sometimes if she wrestles that would be that would be amazing if she just wants to be a cheerleader or whatever else you know it'll be up to her. So one thing I did take away from my dad is my dad never forced my brother or myself to to play football. Yeah that just naturally happened we wanted to and I think it's better like that.

Joy Nulisch 48:18

What um besides coaching and teaching you mentioned fishing what what are some of the other things that you love about Key West?

Why Key West Is Different

Coach Chaz Jimenez 48:26

Well you know that that the the community itself is just there's nothing like it. It's hard like you're saying it's hard to describe you know I think I just felt it even as a really at a young age you know um and there's some moments I can really think about like like you know I was thinking I was five years old five or six years old when we went to the state championship game for football in in Daytona in 1989. That stands out to me like like I got the twos. Yeah that stands out to me like like like like it was yesterday. I remember being freezing cold but just that whole island showing up to Daytona and when it was like 30 degrees or whatever. You know those uh then later on, you know th that run we had in the mid nineties with baseball, you know, I went to all those state championship games and you know when it was in Sarasota the whole island showing up you know we're playing a team that I forget the first game. I know the the year we won ninety five might have been a bit b against Bishop Kenny I think. But I like you know the these people aren't that far away and the whole stands is is Key West people and Miss Webster you know getting up there doing the give me a K you know the Key West thing and you know the whole island everyone up there. Those things stand out to me and my you know and me growing up and um you know speech Bobby Menendez speeches before games you know just the everything all those things and it just is ingrained in my soul you know and always feeling like it's us against everyone else. And um Key West people always have each other's backs no matter what you know and the island mentality and that's just always been it's just part of ingrained like I say ingrained in me and it's just special. It's so special. And you know we see it every year our we we cheer for our kids no matter what and we come together. And uh it's just it's something that's so unique and that's like I said we go back to like we were talking about the free agency thing. We are still a one team one town mentality that old school mentality of like you know you you you chair for your high school where you grow up you go to the high school you grow up which kind of is a lost thing around in a lot of places now especially in Florida.

Joy Nulisch 50:27

We we are a city like no other that's for sure and you're such a part of this history and just you know keep it rolling and I'm gonna get in that Bobby Menendez gym and I'm gonna watch me a wrestling match.

Coach Chaz Jimenez 50:38

They're fun and it's exciting it is exciting.

Joy Nulisch 50:41

I'm ready for it. Thanks for being with me coach I appreciate your time.

Coach Chaz Jimenez 50:44

Thanks for having me I appreciate it.

Joy Nulisch 50:46

Go Kong Go Kong I'm Joy Newleish and I appreciate you tuning into my podcast. If you enjoyed this episode drop a review share and subscribe because there's a lot of good stuff on top you can find more joyful content on YouTube, the socials or check my website at joynoolish.com now go surround yourself with the things that bring joy to your world until next time much