John Carlson has been involved in wrestling at the local (kids), high school, collegiate, and international levels since he was a young wrestler himself in 1957. He began coaching wrestling in 1969 at Westwood High School. In 1970, he began teaching at Sacaton Elementary School on the Gila River Reservation and started the wrestling program there. he then coached wrestling at Santa Cruz Valley union high School in Eloy Arizona. In 1974 he moved to Chandler, Arizona where he coached wrestling until 1990. His team won State Championships in 1988-89 and 1989-90 and several regional and divisional championships. One of his teams was ranked as high as 11th in the U.S. John holds Bronze, Silver, and Gold certifications in USA Wrestling. He was the team leader for the 1997 USA Junior World Wrestling team in Helsinki, Finland. he has taken cultural exchange teams as coach or team leader to eleven different countries to represent the USA. He has been awarded the 3A Wrestling coach of the Year in 1989, USA Wrestling Magazine Man of the Year in 1999, The Arizona Coaches Wrestling Hall of Fame in 1990 And inducted into the Arizona Chapter in 2005.