Former Olympian comes home
Saeed Azarbayjani has returned home.
The native of Tehran, Iran, lived in Niagara for 14 years from 1995 until 2009 where he amassed eight Canadian senior wrestling titles and represented Canada at the 2008 Summer Olympics.
He left Niagara to become the high performance coach at Western for five years followed by a four-year stint as head coach at Team Impact in Toronto and another stop as a coach with Central Toronto Wrestling, where he still coaches twice a week. Azarbayjani returned to Niagara five weeks ago and is now coaching with the Brock Wrestling Club.
“When I came to Canada, I stayed in Toronto for a few months and then I moved to St. Catharines when I was a new immigrant. Niagara is like home for me. Living in Toronto is getting a little too crowded with traffic and I missed being here. We decided to come back to Niagara and help Marty (Calder) a little bit with the team. I am looking forward to it,” Azarbayjani said. “I love the people, I have a lot of friends here and they are like my family.”
For the eighth-place finisher in the 60-kilogram division at the 2008 Olympics, it feels like he never left.
“Even when I was away I would come back and visit.”
Azarbayjani is excited to bring a new perspective to the Brock team.
“Marty has a good group of kids and whatever I can do to help technically or through my experiences to make the program stronger and get some good recruits,” he said. “Hopefully I can help technically and tactically.”
He also adds his experiences training in the Iranian system.
“Technically it is different and it will be good to expose that to the wrestlers. Hopefully that different style can help a little bit.”
Azarbayjani is a big fan of the Brock wrestling program.
“There is good leadership and the guys and girls that are here are fully into it. They train hard and want to get better every day. When you come in the morning or afternoon, they are ready to go and their mental mindset is real when they come to practice.”
He noticed that at the very first practice he attended.
“The kids were pushing themselves to the next level and the coaches were pushing them to the limit. They were not giving up and it reminded me of home.”
Head coach Calder is thrilled to have the former St. Catharines Athlete of the Year back in the fold.
“Right now our coaching staff is so strong and it’s nice for the kids to have that experience and knowledge from him being a former Olympian and top 10 wrestler at the Olympics. He also has high character that we believe in and he is someone who is really going to help these kids get to that next level.”
Calder has first-hand knowledge of Azarbayjani’s experience.
“I learned a lot from him myself as an athlete and even as a coach, picking his brain on Iranian ways of training. They are a top level team in the world and he brings some of that. He is a tough, smart, cerebral wrestler and he knows the game,” he said. “We believe in a lot of the same things but like the other coaches we all bring something different to the fold.”
Azarbayjani has quickly made his presence felt in the Brock wrestling room.
“He is a hard worker, he is here twice a day and he is extremely hands on,” Calder said.
To qualify for the 2008 Olympics, Azarbayjani upset favoured Gia Sissaouri, a three-time Olympian and the 1996 Olympic silver medallist. He also won gold at the Pan-American Championships in 2006 and captured numerous medals in various international events as a 10-year member of the Canadian national team.
Away from the wrestling mats, Azarbayjani is a realtor and the owner of Saeed’s Home Improvements, specializing in custom bathrooms and finished basements.
This year will be a busy one for the Brock club. It is hosting the U SPORTS championships Feb. 28 to March 1 and the Canadian under-23 championships and the senior, junior greco-Roman and non-Olympic weight class trials June 27 and 28.
