Katella Coach Vows to Leave Mats Behind : Prep Wrestling: Dick Werschke, talked out of retirement twice for the good of the program, says he will quit at season’s end. Definitely.

PLACENTIA —  Organized confusion reigns in the El Dorado High School gymnasium on a recent afternoon. The 32-team, two-day El Dorado wrestling tournament is in full swing.

Wrestlers of all shapes and sizes crowd the bleachers, awaiting their matches. Others are in action on the six mats that cover the floor.

Coaches holler encouragement from the sidelines in a strange language.

“OK. Rotate. Now.”

“Slide, you’ve got nothing to lose.”

After the matches the coaches spend a moment or two with their wrestlers, giving praise to the winners and offering consolation to the losers.

Then it’s off to another mat to watch another wrestler, in another weight division, compete.

Dick Werschke, Katella High School coach, is in the midst of all of this, shouting, praising and encouraging just as he has since 1972, when he first started to coach wrestling.

And--as he sits against one wall intently watching one of his charges--in the back of his mind he wonders how he can possibly leave it all behind.

He has tried twice and has been unsuccessful twice.

Werschke, 44, announced his retirement in 1986, saying he wanted to devote more time to teaching math and to his family.

But the administration at Katella couldn’t find a suitable replacement for the following season and wondered if Werschke couldn’t, possibly, maybe, see if he might come back to coach the team again, lest it disband for lack of a qualified coach.

So Werschke agreed to return.

He coached two more seasons, watched the Knights win the competitive Empire League championship, and saw two of his wrestlers--Chris Mollkoy and Joe Pastorello--win state championships last season.

Then he decided it was as good a time as any to retire again.

The administration came calling again, wondering if, gee, well, you know, could he possibly do it one more season? Again they couldn’t find a replacement and rather than have the program fall apart, couldn’t he continue to coach?

Werschke said yes, but that this was it. And so it is. Werschke will quit after this season is over, suitable replacement or not.

“I’ll miss the kids,” he said. “I’ll miss the closeness with the wrestlers.”

Quitting has been a difficult decision, to be sure. After the administration asked Werschke back the second time, he called all 60 wrestlers in the Knights’ program and asked how important wrestling was to them. All 60 said it figured highly in their plans.

He couldn’t stay away.

“It’s hard for him to say no to those kids,” said Marianne Werschke, his wife. “Wrestling is not in his blood. The kids are. When it comes down to it, he’s afraid the program won’t be there for the kids if he’s not there.”

Werschke wrestled in high school in his native Colorado, earning third place at the state tournament in the 127-pound weight class his senior season.

Baseball was the sport he enjoyed coaching most. He only started coaching wrestling when his sons, Scott, 25, and Keith, 21, began wrestling as youngsters.

He spent the first seven seasons as an assistant, then became the head coach 10 years ago. In that time, Katella has won two Empire League championships. And in that time, he has been consumed by wrestling and by his wrestlers.

He doesn’t have to take notes on each wrestler’s match, spend a moment with them explaining what he has written and ask them to read the notes again for discussion later, but he does.

It’s the little things, important though they may be, that add up.

“There aren’t very many shortcuts,” he said.

At the El Dorado tournament, Werschke was in constant motion, moving from mat to mat watching his wrestlers perform.

Finally, he caught a break. No Katella wrestler was scheduled to be in action for several minutes. And yet he still needed to watch a particular match.

“My son Scott is the referee in this match,” he told a visitor before settling in to watch.

Unlike the wrestlers he coaches, Werschke did not offer a critique of Scott’s performance. At least, not immediately.

At times, such a hectic schedule has been a burden. And that’s the primary reason Werschke plans to quit.

“I’d like to spend more time working on my profession (teaching calculus and algebra),” Werschke said. “I think I could do without staying inside a gym all weekend at a tournament.”

From now until early March, though, Werschke will spend countless hours in gyms. He’s back for one final season, and Katella’s got him.