Spyro Kemble

Bryce Alderton

It wasn’t necessarily the number of moves Spyro Kemble possessed, but

rather the way he used the few he had to become a CIF state wrestling

champion.

Kemble, now 46, defeated five opponents in the 175-pound weight class at Cal Poly Pomona, wrestling for Corona del Mar High, to win

the 1976 CIF state meet. He is still the only wrestler from a

Newport-Mesa school to accomplish the feat.

He looks back with fondness on the accomplishment, but soon

realized life had much more to offer.

“At that time, it was the biggest accomplishment I ever had,” said

Kemble, who played fullback and linebacker for the Sea Kings’ varsity

football team for three years. “Then I realized that life hadn’t

begun yet and soon there would be challenges and more

accomplishments, like getting married.”

Kemble has been married to wife Tracy for 11 years. The couple

live in Newport Beach, where Spyro is a real estate broker. He is the

chief financial officer for Women in Need, a nonprofit outreach

organization for abused women and children founded by Tracy.

Kemble, born in Germany, moved to the United States in 1970. His

mother, Sybille Kemble, is German while stepfather Don Kemble is of

Greek descent. Sybille and Spyro’s birth father divorced when he was

2.

“[Don Kemble] was at every football game and every wrestling

match, he was my biggest fan,” Spyro Kemble said.

Kemble also feels lucky to have won the state title. He had to

defeat Donald Brown in the quarterfinals -- the last of three matches

for Kemble the Friday preceding the semifinals and final held the

next day. Brown entered with a 30-0 record and 24 pins.

“He looked like the ‘Incredible Hulk,’ ” Kemble said. “He should

have beaten me. I used some upper body moves and, like anything else,

it was effective enough.”

Kemble, who stood 5-foot-11, scored a 7-2 victory over Brown.

“I didn’t have a thousand moves,” Kemble said. “There were five

moves I perfected. Everyone knew they were coming and they still

worked. It was my day to shine.”

In the championship match against Foothill’s Chris Irwin, Kemble

slammed Irwin to the mat in 10 seconds and recorded a 6-4 victory. He

beat Bill King, 8-4, in the semifinals.

NBC televised the championship match and about 5,000 spectators

witnessed Kemble’s feat.

“I was too naive to be nervous, I was cocky,” Kemble said. “It

probably helped me in attitude and perception. The more confident you

are, the more you are prepared to do battle.”

Kemble wrestled at UCLA, where he graduated from in 1981 with a

bachelor’s degree in finance.

He had Olympic dreams, but the United States’ boycott of the 1980

Games in Moscow put a damper on that chance. Kemble attended the

Olympic training camp in Colorado preceding the Games and was an

alternate to the U.S. wrestling team. But it was not to be.

“I was never quite good enough and didn’t have the work ethic it

would have taken to get to that level,” Kemble said. “Wrestling

became less and less important to me. Sometimes looking back I think,

‘What could have been if I had applied myself more?’

“I gained a valuable perspective from wrestling. I lost more times

than I could count. I realized that adversity is a part of living and

I saw a lot of places I might not normally see.”

Like the view from a CIF state wrestling champion’s eyes.