Throughout the past 59, soon to be 60 years, Domenick Iammarino has served as a wrestling coach in some capacity.
And on Sept. 8, Coach Iammarino’s legacy will forever be remembered when Beachwood High School renames its wrestling room in his honor.
The room’s renaming symbolizes Coach Iammarino’s long-lasting impact on his student-athletes throughout his decades of coaching.
“It’s more than the plaques and the name on the wall,” Iammarino said. “I’m nearing the end of my time, and so fortunately, with that, I have been associated with many former wrestlers. The kids got something out of it, and they appreciated me for helping them during their years as a student-athlete and even beyond that.”
Iammarino, the co-captain of the 1962 Kent State wrestling team, will attend the ceremony.
“Someday, I’ll be gone; I won’t live forever,” Iammarino said. “My family can still look and see (the name on the wall) while I’m still hangin’ around, and I feel good about it. Someday, 10, 20, 30 years from now, people will look up and see that. That’s the overwhelming thought.”
According to Beachwood Schools, the renovated wrestling room will “showcase Beachwood’s wrestling history through a timeline spanning from 1964 to the present. It will feature a wall mural highlighting all teams from 1964 to 2024, and state qualifiers and place winners. Enhancements to the room include inspirational quotes and a special area to honor and recognize alumni. A documentary on the history of Beachwood wrestling will be embedded into the wrestling room walls and posted online.”
On the mat, Coach Iammarino has produced 13 state champion wrestlers, 13 state runners-up, and 22 individual district champions. He has also been honored twice as Ohio Coach of the Year and inducted into the Ohio Wrestling Coaches Hall of Fame.
“I take pride in the accomplishments, no doubt about it,” Iammarino said. “I feel that I contributed to what they did, but I realize it’s more than just my contributions. It’s their hard work; the assistant coaches who helped them, their families, and their teammates also helped. It’s more than what I did; even though I take pride in having helped them along the way, there’s no question there’s more to it than one coach.”
There may be no better example of this than when one of his former wrestlers published a story detailing how much Coach Iammarino has helped him in his life and career.
“There was an article written by one of my former wrestlers,” Iammarino said. “Mike Goldberg is a successful lawyer in Cleveland today, and he wrote an article published in The Cleveland Jewish News, and he talked about how I helped shape him in his life. He took second in the state. I think I helped him with what he did in wrestling, but he wrote this article about how I helped shape his career and life. That’s what makes me feel good.”
Coach I has also impacted people closer to home, such as current Beachwood Athletic Director Ryan Peters, who was once an assistant under Iammarino.
“I have an older brother who wrestled for Coach Iammarino,” Peters said. “I was the little brother that came to everything, and I started wrestling when I was five. So, I was around a lot and saw many of our great Beachwood wrestlers. I had a unique perspective that I grew up with the history of Beachwood wrestling. Coach Iammarino was a teacher at Beachwood when I wrestled, and I saw him every day. I took his classes, and his presence alone had a massive impact. When I went off to college and came back, I began coaching alongside Coach I. We coached together for about 11 or 12 years, and that was the period I grew personally and professionally. I learned a ton from him in every which way. His teachings and way helped propel my career and our entire athletic department. He had a huge impact on me.”
Through six decades, it was always the sport itself that kept Iammarino mat-side.
“I love the sport,” he said. “I love the competition of it; I know it does a lot for the kids. During my years, I’ve heard so many comments from former wrestlers who talk about it and say that just the fact they wrestled helped them in their lives. It helped them to handle some things and to be disciplined. I also enjoy that aspect of it, to help the kids and myself.”
On Friday Sept. 6, Iammarino will flip the coin prior to Beachwood’s football game against St. John and he will be part of a halftime ceremony recognizing Beachwood’s wrestling state champions.
