UFC legend Tito Ortiz coaching Ida Baker wrestling

Everyone knows Tito Ortiz as the former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion, but the Ida Baker wrestling team knows him as coach.

“I love coaching,” Ortiz said. “That’s what I went to school for, but fighting kind of put me on a different route.”

The UFC great moved from California to Cape Coral two years ago.

His sons were freshmen on the Bulldogs’ wrestling team last year when Ortiz asked to help out and the rest is history.

“Now, these kids on here, this Ida Baker team, are my kids now too,” Ortiz said. “I just want to help mold the future generation of our children.”

With Ortiz helping out Head Coach Kasia Lapinska-Jablonski the team is growing.

Ida Baker senior wrestler Aiden Kennedy said learning from a champion has transformed his wrestling and his work ethic.

“It’s really great, because you get to see how the best train and then you get to see what it takes to be the best,” Kennedy said. “It’s just cool to learn from somebody that has so much knowledge and has been doing it for so long.”

Learning from a legend sounds like a dream come true for the wrestlers right? They aren’t the only ones that feel that way.

“I’m just thankful to be a part of this community and to be a coach here at Ida Baker wrestling,” Ortiz said. “It’s just a dream come true. Everything happens for a reason. God has blessed me with great skills and I always want to give back and give back to society in a positive manner.”

Ortiz has plenty more to teach the team and he expects lots of success for the Bulldogs.

“In the next year and a half, two years, three years, we’re going to be a team to be reckoned with for sure because I’m going to make monsters on the mat, but respectful men off the mat,” Ortiz said.

His days of winning championships himself may be over, but his days of leading the Bulldogs to titles are just getting started.