‘Unforgettable’ coach reached top, lifted others
Terry Eidson had a simple plan when he pondered a new coach for the De La SalleConcord wrestling team in 1999.
The school’s thenathletic director would hire Mark Halvorson and take the program “up a notch.”
“Boy did he ever,” Eidson said.
Halvorson, who suffered a fatal heart attack Monday at age 57, not only elevated the Spartans to unprecedented heights — 11 North Coast Section championships in the past 12 years — but he was also regarded as one of the nation’s most influential leaders within USA Wrestling’s national GrecoRoman program.
As head coach for the Community Youth Center (CYC) of Concord, he produced hundreds of state, regional and national GrecoRoman champions. His teams traveled to France, Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Sweden, Norway, Hungary and the Netherlands.
Halvorson coached for Team USA Wrestling in Singapore, Mexico and Brazil, and in 2016 he was selected as a GrecoRoman volunteer coach on Team USA for the 2016 Summer Olympic games in Rio de Janeiro. Halvorson, a 1981 Antioch High School graduate, called that experience “icing on the cake.”
His high energy, animated methods spoke to the core of his athletes because they knew he cared about them, said current De La Salle athletic director Leo Lopoz.
“The influence he had on our kids, our athletic department and the sport of wrestling will never be underscored,” Lopoz said. “His care for others, his unselfishness, work ethic, passion for his sport and life lessons he taught the kids will make him unforgettable on our campus.
“But make no mistake, Mark’s influence in the wrestling community was known all around the world.”
Said Eidson: “The man was born to be a wrestling coach. We are still kind of in shock at school. He will be missed.”
Over the past 12 years, Halvorson’s Spartans sent 90 to state meets, claiming 23 medals and two individual championships. In his CYC career, which began in 1998, he coached 200 state, 44 regional and 31 national champions, including twotime U.S. World team member Robby Smith.
But despite all the success, he always kept pushing to be better at his craft, said former Antioch coach and athletic director Steve Sanchez.
Halvorson won a league wrestling title for Antioch in 1981 before graduating cum laude from San Francisco State.
“Whenever I saw him, he’d always ask me questions,” Sanchez said. “He had a creative vision about wrestling. He found his niche in GrecoRoman, which isn’t the most popular form of wrestling among Americans. But Mark found his lane and ran with it.”
He wasn’t just a coach, but a “dynamic teacher” for atrisk students, said friend and colleague Mark Libbey. The two taught alternative education together for seven years. Halvorson drew upon a tragedy in his own youth — the passing of his older brother Randy in a car accident — to connect with the kids.
“Mark brought all of his experience in life into the classroom to serve students,” Libbey said. “He helped a lot of nonathletes find their way in life as well.”
But his favorite rigorous path was to lead them by way of wrestling mat.
“He excelled coaching a sport that not many kids grew up striving to play,” said De La Salle soccer coach Derricke Brown, “and yet he instilled a lifelasting confidence in them.”
A celebration of Halvorson’s life is still being planned.