Over a 31 year coaching career, Coach Andrew Haba has demonstrated those qualities

of dedication and leadership that are so necessary to the achievement of success in any

endeavor.

His wrestling career got off to a good start at Union High School, and then with 4 years

of participation at Findlay College in Ohio where he compiled a record of 25-5-2

against outstanding competition, graduating in 1956.

After completion of military service in 1959, in his first teaching assignment, Coach

Haba established a wrestling program at Fort Cherry High School in the tough Western

Pennsylvania area, where he developed a sectional champion and a runner-up in his

second year. Then in 1962, he took over the wrestling program at Gaithersburg High

School in Montgomery County, which was in its early stages of development. It was

during this tour with Gaithersburg that Coach Haba demonstrated his leadership as he

moved with active participation into many areas of wrestling, such as: clinics,

officiating, and youth programs.

For the period of 1962 through 1980, when he retired from coaching at Gaithersburg,

Haba compiled an overall record of 120-60-2.

There is no doubt that Coach Haba registered many notable achievements while

compiling such an illustrious record at Gaithersburg High, however there is one that

stands at the pinnacle. And- that achievement is one of his awards!

As the story goes, Haba had the opportunity, in 1969, to help an injured 10 grader off

the basketball court and to introduce him to the sport of wrestling. Within two years he

had coached the boy to the Maryland State Championship, after which bill Elbows*

Simpson would go on to Clarion State and win the NCAA Division I Championship in

1973 with only five years of wrestling experience.

After retiring from high school coaching in 1980.Haba continued to coach, officiate,

and develop the sport of wresting for Damascus Sports Association until finally retiring

in 1995, He is married and father of four grown children, one deceased. He presently

lives in Clarksburg and works for the Little Bennett Golf Course.