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Regardless of outcomes, Haga still very proud The further away the Class 4A state wrestling title appeared to drift from Crater, the closer head coach Greg Haga seemed to pull his Comets together. His team didn�t win a fourth straight championship, but Haga couldn�t have been more proud of his team�s accomplishment. Regardless of how his team finished, however, it�s hard to imagine Haga not being proud of his Comets. That�s just the way he is. There�s no denying Haga expects the most from his wrestlers, but he�s willing to love them no matter the outcome. "This isn�t a job we do because they pay us well, this is a job we do because we care about the kids," says Haga. "I have three daughters who I love dearly, but these are my sons. That�s where it�s at with me." Yes, the big, burly wrestling coach loves his Comets. And for that, they are willing to go to the end of the earth for their coach. "I love having him as a coach," says Crater senior Ben Tibbetts. "He�s a friend to all the teammates, too. He doesn�t just care about the ones who win." Crater assistant coach Nathan Winner can attest to that. "He cares about every kid," says Winner. "Even the ones in trouble that some of us assistant coaches might want to give up on, he�ll stick with them a little longer and work them through their problems. They buy into it because they believe in him, and then he makes them believe in themselves." Being an assistant to Haga for four years and former teammate of his at Southern Oregon University gives Winner a certain insight, but nothing translates better than the words of praise given Haga by his athletes. "Besides my parents, I respect him more than anybody," says Crater senior Shane Webster. "I don�t think anybody coaches as hard as he does. He pushes you so hard that you respect him that much more. The more you respect the coach, the harder you�re going to be able to work for them and put that much more on the line for that coach." And in a nutshell, that�s the secret ingredient to Crater�s remarkable success, especially this season. "He�s really worked with these kids," says Winner. "It�s been a lot of mental stuff with them, and Greg�s real good at getting kids to believe in themselves and getting them going. He gets them to believe they can do anything. Even if they can�t, they think they can, and that�s 90 percent of it right there." The other 10 percent is made up of making sure his team is the most well-conditioned in the state, regardless of what it does to his personal life. "He puts a lot on the line for us," says Webster. "He misses a lot of family things for us, so we need to give stuff up for him. It�s like a family environment. We�re all there for each other." That includes Haga�s willingness to give way to his assistants. "Each one of our coaches is kind of a head coach, but coach Haga pulls it all together," says Tibbetts. Along the way, Haga allows everyone to feel as if they are the most important factor to Crater�s success. "Any time I feel like I need to do something with a kid, he�s behind me, and that�s the same with all the other coaches," says Winner. "He�s fun to work with, and when we go places we have a blast and our wrestlers have a blast. We try to make it fun first and then we get busy later." Of course, that type of feel-good nature doesn�t mean much for someone like Tibbetts, who at heavyweight has the "privilege" of having Haga as a workout partner. "It�s not really one-on-one anymore, it�s more like let�s see who can give who a black eye," says Tibbetts, adding that he�s often the one getting the worst of their duels. "He�s got so many more little funky moves than anybody else I know. He can turn you with something crazy and you just can�t move sometimes. I�ve taken him down once or twice this year and that�s it. Once you take him down, he�s going to hit some kind of roll or do a standup or switch and it�s over." That�s not to say Tibbetts hasn�t experienced the other side of the equation, much to the senior�s delight. During a drill where they were working on throws, Tibbetts gained some leverage on Haga and ripped him to the mat � providing the senior a memory that may last forever. "It was kind of funny," says Tibbetts with a broad smile. "I don�t know if he was trying or not, but I tell everyone about that. I popped a belly-to-belly and put him on his back." Considering the kind of coach Haga is, that may have been the only time he�s been down all year. Reach reporter Kris Henry at 776-4488, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.