Submitted photos – Clinton Schaad along with seniors Colton Schaad and Curtis Bartley.

By Ray Hamill — The accolades continue for Del Norte wrestling.

The Warriors are coming off one of the most impressive seasons we’ve seen from any H-DNL program in recent decades after they placed third overall in the North Coast Section.

When is the last time an H-DNL team finished the year as the third best overall program in the Section?

After being named the 2025 Humboldt Sports High School Team of the Year just a couple of days ago, the Warriors now also are taking home the 2025 Humboldt Sports High School Coach of the Year award.

Head coach Clinton Schaad and his staff have done a remarkable job in building and maintaining a dominating dynasty on the Crescent City mats and this might just have been their most impressive year as a program.

And the longtime coach deserves a ton of credit for that and for what the Warriors achieved this past winter.

Not only did they win a second straight NCS Division-II Redwood Empire Dual Match championship, but Schaad and his grapplers clinched a seventh straight H-DNL title, with five of them claiming an individual title.

The coach and the Warriors followed that with a third-place finish at the NCS meet and qualified three wrestlers for the state championships, a group that included Remington Escobedo, Colton Schaad and Curtis Bartley.

As I mentioned in Thursday’s Team of the Year article, this a program that is succeeding just as much off the mats as on them.

And the head coach also deserves a lot of credit for that as well.

This year, five of the eight seniors on the team are taking their talents to the college mats, another remarkable achievement for the Warriors.

All in all it was another great year for Del Norte High School wrestling and coach Schaad, and all the accolades are well deserved.

The longtime head coach beat out a talented and hard-working field of candidates for this year’s award, which was well deserved, especially considering the impact he has had throughout his entire coaching career and in particular this year.

Congratulations to Clinton Schaad for being named the 2025 Humboldt Sports High School Coach of the Year.

And as always, a big shout out and thank you to this year’s award sponsors, a group that includes The Humboldt Fence Company, DelReka Distributing, Mendes Supply Company and Bode Construction, all of whose support will help to pay for the trophies.