High school wrestling: Harvard hires J.D. Oliva as wrestling coach

When he interviewed for the head wrestling coach position at Harvard, J.D. Oliva stated that his goal was to come to the school and lead the Hornets to a state championship.

Frankly, Oliva had grown jealous of the success his friends were having coaching at schools like Oak Park-River Forest (two-time reigning Class 3A champions), Montini (two-time reigning 2A champs) and Washington (2015 2A runners-up). He felt that a school like Harvard, which has a rich wrestling tradition, was the perfect place to achieve that kind of success for himself.

“That’s why I came here,” Oliva said. “It’s a place that’s done it before, and now they’re ready for it to happen again. It’s just steering it in the right direction.”

Harvard handed Oliva that task on Aug. 19, officially naming the Streamwood and Northern Illinois grad as the team’s head coach. Oliva comes to Harvard from South Elgin, where he was an assistant coach for a decade.

The new coach said he has long been familiar with Harvard’s successful program and wrestled in a tournament there when he was in high school. Oliva also owns a video production company, and in 2009, he got an inside look at the program when the team’s coaches asked him to make a video for the program’s 50th anniversary.

“Wrestling is such a big deal here,” Oliva said. “Five Hall of Fame coaches, all the state place winners, and two-time state champions, there’s so much tradition that goes into a place like this. As a guy who grew up in an area that wasn’t very rich in wrestling tradition, it’s everything I’ve always wanted."

Oliva noted that when he wrestled at Streamwood, making the state tournament seemed like an unattainable goal. Now he’ll inherit a team with three returning state qualifiers at a school with a strong support system for the sport.

Oliva describes his coaching style as “very intense” and fitness-centered.

“My style of wrestling is to make the average kid better,” Oliva said. “I can’t control how talented a kid is. What I can control is how good a shape they’re in and how solid their position is.”