Valley wrestling pioneer Rudy “Coach Q” Quilantan retires after 49 years

By PETE BANDA
Special to the NEWS

For years, high school wrestling was considered a novice sport in the Rio Grande Valley.

Only a handful of schools in all of South Texas had wrestling programs before 1990.

Today, 40 high schools in the Valley boast a boys’ and girls’ wrestling program and that can be traced back to San Benito High back in 1992, or more specifically, a discussion between former San Benito Head Football Coach Tommy Roberts and Rudy “Coach Q” Quilantan.

“Coach Roberts had a personal friend who was a coach in San Antonio,” Quilantan recalled. “We were invited to view their off-season workout program, and we saw that all they would have all their athletes wrestle. So it was suggested I should start a program in San Benito during our off-season.”

While Quilantan will be entering retirement this Summer, the impact he has had on Valley sports will be even more evident as the sport continues to grow in the future.

From being forced to make the trek to the San Antonio or Corpus Christi area just to compete, to finally talking a couple of Valley schools into forming teams, the story of high school wrestling starts with Quilantan.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.sbnewspaper.com/2022/06/03/valley-wrestling-pioneer-rudy-coach-q-quilantan-retires-after-49-years/

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