More than 80 reasons to honor coach

The past and present meet as Larry Nelson, right, sits alongside Adam Wight during practice.

Visions of his son playing basketball dribbled in Ralph DeVan’s head when Kyle was a seventh-grader at Willis Jepson Middle School. There was just one slight problem with his plan, however.

Kyle did not make Jepson’s team. The plan to follow in his father’s footsteps was on hold.  With DeVan wanting his son to remain active, Jepson wrestling coach Clint Birch talked him into a loan.

Once Kyle Devan tried wrestling, he apparently liked it. His father Ralph learned to do so as well.

DeVan figured a season of wrestling would not hurt Kyle, but he was not relinquishing his plan. His son would play basketball sooner or later.  DeVan would push Kyle to ensure his son was ready.

Basketball was not in Kyle’s future, however. Vacaville High wrestling coaches Larry and Dave Nelson recognized Kyle’s potential and decided to introduce themselves to his father.

“They told me to leave him alone and let them have him,” DeVan recalled. “The one thing Kyle liked about wrestling is that I couldn’t coach him. I didn’t know a half nelson from a full nelson.”

Larry Nelson's career is chronicled on the walls of Vacaville High's wrestling room.

Five years later, Kyle won the state heavyweight championship. A father knows best? Whatever.

“The best move I made in coaching Kyle was the move I didn’t make,” DeVan said with a chuckle.

Larry Nelson, who recently turned 80, will be honored tonight when the Bulldogs host cross-town rival Will C. Wood. DeVan will be in attendance, but Kyle will miss the ceremony.

Kyle happens to be in Miami with the Indianapolis Colts, preparing for Super Bowl XLIV on Sunday.  Only an event of that magnitude could keep him away. “He’s a phenomenal coach,” Kyle said of Nelson. “There’s no wrestling program in the state like Vacaville.”

Nelson’s 33-year tenure as the Bulldogs coach is chronicled in the wrestling room named after him and his son, who died in 2000. Nelson stops by practice occasionally to lend a hand.

Co-head coaches Adam Wight and Clint Birch would welcome Nelson’s advice during his visits, but he does not intrude. “He has let Clint and I be us,” Wight said. “He has never said this is the way we should be doing it.”

Wight has the utmost respect for Nelson, who was inducted in the California Wrestling Hall of Fame after posting a 553-71 dual-meet record and coaching two state champions with the Bulldogs.

“The tradition in this program comes from Larry,” Wight said. “Whenever he puts his hands on a kid, they’re better. You can’t deny the results.”