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Frank Varga

CONCRETE — On the living room floor at the Dellinger house, the term “dummy” is not disparaging. It’s more of an initiation into the current first family of Concrete wrestling.

Just about every Dellinger who wrestles — and that’s a lot of Dellingers — has learned the sport as a practice partner, or “dummy,” for older siblings. The results have been have been a big factor in a run of five straight league championships for the Lions’ wrestling program.

Dave Dellinger has been the Lions’ high school coach the past five years. His eldest son, Jesse, is one of four state champions in Concrete wrestling history. Now a freshman wrestling collegiately at Dickinson State in North Dakota, he has returned on break to help his father coach the 2008 Lions.

This season’s squad features a pair of Dellingers — sophomore Tyler, the coach’s half-brother, and Dave’s youngest son, freshman Dalton. Taking care of the scorebook and other managing duties is daughter, Brandi, a junior.

“This has always been in the family. We’ve always been doing it,” Brandi said. “It was a big part of my dad’s childhood growing up.”

It should come as no surprise that Dave also began his career as a dummy, dragged out to help his two older brothers practice moves when he was in fifth grade. As he learned the same moves, he grew to love the sport.

“I just like the hand-to-hand of the sport, the one-on-one,” Dave said. “Like in every family, the little brother is the one who gets all the torture. That’s how it was for me, too.”

Jesse got a much earlier start, freestyling at the age of 4. When younger sister Brandi was old enough, she learned the sport while Jesse practiced against her. Tyler and Dalton were soon to follow.

Wrestling quickly became the No. 1 topic of discussion around the Dellinger house, but with Jesse, boundaries had to be set. Like any other aspect of the sport, they had to be learned and practiced.

After tough losses or bad performances, father and son found coaching differences spilling over into personal animosity.

At that point there had to be a line between “coach” and “dad.”

“I can remember a lot of times coming home from freestyle, if Jesse did something wrong, I’d just be gripping the steering wheel (tightly), and my wife would say, ‘You’re not taking it home,’” Dave said. “Jesse came to me one day and said he didn’t want to wrestle. I asked him why not and he said, ‘If I do something wrong and you get mad at me, we get home and you’re still mad.’ That made me stop and think.

“As a coach, you’ve got to leave it in the wrestling room. You can’t take it home. I took it to heart. I had to change my ways. It’s still hard. Like with Dalton. There’s a lot of times I just wanted to twist his head off because he’d be winning a match and do something stupid and end up on his back. I’d have to bite my tongue.”

Jesse arrived quickly on the high school scene, reaching the 125-pound state finals his freshman year. He won the 171-pound state championship as a senior in 2007.

“He knew I could make it to the top and he wouldn’t let me slack off like some other kids would,” Jesse said. “There’s more pressure on you as his son than anything.

“It was nice to finally win it, just kind of look at him, and say, ‘I’m done now,’” he added with a laugh.

Last year also saw a second and third Dellinger join the Lions. Tyler, Dave’s half brother, joined the squad as a freshman. Though he didn’t grow up in the same house, Tyler spent many hours rolling around the floor with his nieces and nephews.

Last year was also Brandi’s first year as manager.

A wrestler and freestyle state champion as a youngster, she opted instead to focus on soccer, but still wanted to stay involved with wrestling.

“I’ve been around mats my whole life. I know what it’s about,” Brandi said. “I like to be there to help the guys and spend time with my dad. It’s a lot about spending time with my dad. He’s busy, he works, and then wrestling comes around. If I wasn’t in there, I’d never see him.”

Dalton arrived this year, and is already ranked fifth in the state among Class 2B wrestlers at his weight class by washingtonwrestlingreport.com.

“I’ve been looking forward,” Dalton said of wrestling on the varsity. “I’ve always wanted to be better than my brother, so I’ll have to have two titles instead of just one.”

One more daughter, Bailey, is yet to come. She is more likely to follow in Brandi’s footsteps, though.

Then the question becomes: How long will Dave remain the Lions’ coach?

While he admits not knowing for sure, and that spending time with his kids motivated him to begin coaching, they are not the only ones keeping him in the room.

“That’s how it started out, as a family deal,” he said. “I consider every kid in that room my kid when they’re on a wrestling mat. If kids are having problems, I go see their teachers, see what they need to do ... I call them my kids. They’re mine from the middle of November to the middle of February.”

• Eric Francis can be reached at 360-416-2131 or by e-mail at