The 2023-2024 Calabasas wrestling program will have a completely new look as Coach Charlie Lind enters the head coaching spot.
Lind picked up his first coaching job as the assistant coach at his high school in Indiana. As he traveled to Los Angeles and started branching out, an unusual event pulled him entirely back into the realm of wrestling.
“In 2020, Kobe Bryant died, and my wife was giving birth to a girl,” explained Lind. “Postmortem, you know, I became enthralled with the story of what happened, and he was a coach to his daughter, so I felt compelled to go back to coaching.”
He carried this revitalized attraction by becoming the assistant wrestling coach at Harvard-Westlake, throughout the COVID-19 Pandemic and built their first-ever girls’ wrestling squad. However, despite his considerable progress in developing a facet of the Harvard-Westlake team, Lind felt that his abilities could be used more effectively in a higher position.
“At this point in time, I’m pretty sold on Harvard-Westlake. They pay me well, and I’ve created a team,” said Lind. “There’s just things going on like, as an assistant, my duties only go so far. The idea of coming to a new school was like, ‘Oh, I now get my freedom and control of what I need and can do.’”
One of Lind’s immediate goals is to establish a winning culture for the team, and he thinks the kids’ attitude is already in a great place to do that.
“I felt it really important, for me, to do 1-on-1 meetings with pretty much every single wrestler that said they would. Just getting to see what their goals are for this year and trying to figure out what needs to be done for the team,” said Lind. “These kids are very hungry to learn, and I see a lot of kids who are willing to work hard for this sport, and I’m very excited about that.”
Ultimately, Lind has his sights set on transforming not just the Calabasas wrestling system into a cycle of teaching and growth but also his individual players into leaders and better human beings.
“We’re putting in place, things right now, that will sustain themselves in the future,” said Lind. “The way I have my kids going right now, or at least what I’ve asked of them to do, is to make those decisions. Understand that this is a very long process, and hopefully, they’re the people that set the spark for others to become legendary mentors.”
