In 34 years as the head wrestling coach at Bethpage High School, Ron Abatelli has amassed 336 victories and put Bethpage on the wrestling map at the New York State level.

But to those who have wrestled for him, wrestling parents and friends of Bethpage wrestling, he is just known as “Coach Abs.”

Ron got his first taste of wrestling as a fourth grader in intramural wrestling. He wrestled in junior high and at Lutheran High School where he was coached by Daniel Jurgensen.

“He taught me a lot about wrestling and what it took to be successful,” Ron said. “He was a great coach.”

Ron also wrestled for SUNY Courtland, but his senior year was cut short due to a knee injury.

In the years preceding his becoming the coach at Bethpage, Ron was an assistant and junior varsity coach at Lutheran and Plainview.

Upon arriving at Bethpage, he continued to improve their wrestling program and compiled an impressive list of team accomplishments in his 34 years, including 11 conference championships and five county B championships. Abatelli was named conference coach of the year five times and Nassau County Coach of the Year twice.

A school with a small enrollment, Bethpage achieved some incredible county tournament results. Bethpage finished third in Section VIII/Nassau County in 1988 with two finalists and six all-county wrestlers and again in Nassau County in 1991 with three county champions. Abatelli's team finished fifth in 1992 with three county champions and were second in Section VIII in 1995 with two county champions and five finalists.

Abatelli says that he had the good fortune and luck to coach a state champion, 17 all-state wrestlers, 23 county champions, 105 all-county wrestlers and 101 qualifying tournament champions.

As strange as it may sound, Ron almost ended up as a basketball player at Lutheran High. At the end of his 10th-grade year, his first coach ever, Vinny Angrisani, talked to him about not playing basketball. That is when Ron chose to try wrestling. As it turned out, Angrisani was the father of Ron's future wife, Deborah. Ron says Angrisani was one of his biggest influences in his life after his parents and brothers.

Ron lives in Old Bethpage with Deborah and has three grown sons, Erik, Anthony, and Christian.