Daryle Qualls

Daryle Qualls grew up in Huntsville, AL, where he played sports year-round at McCormick YMCA. He was introduced to wrestling in his junior year at Butler High School by fellow 2017 inductee, Glynn Stowe. He wrestled at Auburn University under two other NWHOF members, Virgil Milliron (Oklahoma lifetime service) and distinguished member, Swede Umbach. He began his coaching career at Opelika High School his senior year at Auburn when his eligibility had run out. After graduation, he moved back to Huntsville and coached at Johnson High School before taking the Athens High School job in 1982 for 18 years. At Athens, he led the Golden Eagles to six state championships and four runner-ups. He coached 31 individual state champions and five All Americans (AAs) while winning four national awards. After retiring from coaching, he officiated for six years, but went back into coaching with a club team and got the coaching bug again with an elementary national champion. He then took a job coaching his former rivals team, Scottsboro High School, in 2009 for five years. There, he coached one state championship team and one runner-up while coaching 15 individual state champs. His wrestlers became Virginia Beach AAs seven times, with three being national champions, including Alabama's only senior national champion, Brandon Womack. Brandon wrestles for Cornell University, and just became Alabama's third NCAA AA as a redshirt freshman. Currently, Daryle says he is retired, but still leads the youth program in Athens called "DQstyle Wrestling".

Awards:

Year
2017
Award
Lifetime Service to Wrestling
Chapter/Region
Alabama

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