This year’s honorees for the National Wrestling Hall of Fame “Lifetime Service” to wrestling include ten Southern California residents, including OCWOA’s own Donald Apodaca and Michael Lengyel.
Donald Apodaca
Donald Apodaca was 2nd in the California Community College Athletic Association in 1965 for El Camino, then 1st in the Rocky Mountain Conference and MIWA, 2nd in NAIA, all in 1968 at Adams State University in Colorado. He has coached at several So Cal high schools: Carson (1969), Mater Dei (2000-08), Segerstrom (2009-15), and Tustin (2015-22). In 1993, Apodaca was a World Veteran Champion. While officiating from 2008-14, he also was a five-time USA Wrestling Masters Champion. Don started the Women’s Team at Santa Ana College and coaches there currently with Sadie Morales. He joined the National Wrestling Hall of Fame-CA Chapter board in 1998.
Michael Lengyel
Michael Lengyel has been officiating wrestling matches 53 years on a high school level and 16 years for colleges. He began officiating in his home state of Pennsylvania (1969), then in Florida (1970-77), and he has served in the Southern California Wrestling Officials Association since then. Lengyel has officiated many college duals, junior college tournaments, and high school events including 39 league champion-ships, 12 CIF Masters for boys and 7 for girls, Beast of the East 13 times, the Five Counties 19 times, Mann Classic 9 times, TOC 7 times, the CIF State Championship, and USA National high school events. He received the Golden Whistle award in 2018.
Please join us in congratulating these two outstanding members of our community. To learn more about the National Wrestling Hall of Fame, visit nwhof.org.