Wayne Branstetter began his 45-year career coaching wrestling in 1973 at Channel Islands High School in Oxnard, California.

After five years, he took over the program at Poway High School and coached the Titans for 40 years.

Branstetter says that his greatest accomplishment was "turning hundreds of young boys, through a very sport called wrestling, into great men, regardless of where they finished on the podium, in order to become 'productive' members of society."

California's state high school championship tournament has only one division with 900 high schools competing and Branstetter led Poway to a record 28 Top Five finishes. His teams captured four state team titles, six runner-up finishes, and 10 third-place finishes while being ranked in the Top 25 nationally for more than 20 years.

Branstetter coached 17 individual state champions and 36 finalists while having 136 state medalists. He had 266 CIF individual champions, 161 Master’s individual champions and 406 Master’s place winners.

His career dual meet record was 471-6-2 and he also led Poway to 37 California Interscholastic Federation Championships, 35 Master's Championships (all CIFs combined) and 43 league titles.

Branstetter was the National Wrestling Coaches Association Coach of the Year in 2005 while also being named Male Coach of the Year for all sports by the San Diego Hall of Champions. He was National Federation of State High School Association National Coach of the Year in 2001 and National High School Coaches Association National Coach of the Year in 1998. He was CCA Coach of the Year in 1993 and the North County Times named him Coach of the Decade (1980 to 1990) for all sports.

In addition to the Lifetime Service to Wrestling award from the California Chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame, Branstetter is a member of the Ventura College Hall of Fame, the California Coaches Association Hall of Fame, and the Chico State Hall of Fame.

He and his wife, Patty, have been married for 49 years and have two beautiful daughters, Amy and Karen, who is a teacher, and six grandchildren.