Questionable Decision - Sudden Release of The Shadow Hills Boys Wrestling Staff?  

After the most successful season since 2019, a coaching staff change is underway. The ‘19 roster won the CIF Division 6 dual Championship, but in 2024 the coaching staff was able to present a wrestler to the California State Championship. This success came after 15 years of the program's history. The ‘24  coaching staff delivered four Desert Empire league champions (in the era of Palm Desert being ranked 5th in the state as a team),  All-Americans at two national tournaments, as well as several tournament champions prior to and during the ‘24 CIF season - all culminating in perhaps the best wrestling season of the school's history. 

As the 2025 CIF wrestling season comes around the corner, there have been some changes in the Shadow Hills Athletic Department, resulting in the previous Head Girls Wrestling Coach, Jody Davis, being given the role of Athletic Director. Davis shares this office with his good friend, Richard Romo, the assistant to the Athletic Director, acquiring ultimate authority over the wrestling program. Seemingly, there weren’t any changes necessary in the SHHS wrestling program. Things were going well and naturally growing, or so we thought. As of Early June, after the resignation of the former AD of Shadow Hills, Michael Walsh, the newly open spot was filled by Davis. Despite the questionable history of Davis in the Coachella Valley, he was appointed to take over the show. His negative reputation as a wrestling coach and once referee was apparently ignored by the school’s administration, resulting in many controversial decisions, leaving both parents and students unhappy. 

Who is Jody Davis?

Jody Davis was once a biology teacher who supposedly wrestled at Boise State (no proof of this claim has ever surfaced, nor his former claims of being an Olympian). He spent 3 years at Xavier College Prep as a wrestling coach. Things didn't appear to end well, resulting in him leaving the program and refereeing around the Coachella Valley. Jody then became the Head Coach of the wrestling team at Cathedral City High School. With his focus on style over substance, he created interest in wrestling through flashy events and unique ideas. It was a good way to get kids in the door, but ultimately, this program never had any notable success, and once his students were relieved to see him go. Jody later became the head girls wrestling coach at Shadow Hills and has helped the team to one largely successful season, although controversial and disputed (the League championship won by the girl's team was initially lost to La Quinta, but Davis petitioned CIF causing a rescore of the meet and his team was awarded the title). Davis's first arrival to shadow had minimal results until their assistant (now head coach) Patrick Marquez entered the program. Looks like Coach Marquez was made a difference rather quickly.

Coach Marquez was his own individual and showed respect to all athletes and staff, having respectful relationships with the boy's program and received respect back, unlike his fellow coaching staff.  The athletes within the wrestling program had no issues between one another - issues only developed due to the division sewn by Davis. Originally Marquez came to Shadow Hills to be part of the Boys program but noticed the coaching staff to be almost full. He took the opportunity to join the Girls staff and assist them instead. According to inside sources, he often questioned Davis' actions, but ultimately let it go because it was a negative environment he did not want to put himself in.

Some say the girl's success came not because of Davis’s coaching ability, but from coaches who he would briefly use and later fire. Mainly, the success of the SHHS girl’s program is due to their numbers. With the sport being as young and small as it is, his team was able to win most matches solely because they could fill a roster, scoring the vast majority of their points from forfeits. With that said, they have their standout individuals too. They are the ones that grew because of the work they did outside of Davis’s environment. Davis and Romo attempted to claim their wrestlers to be the first athlete in the girls wrestling programs to make it to state. However,  in 2019 160 pound female wrestler Vivian Frausto was the first to attend the state meet from Shadow Hills. When it came to the athletic development of his athletes, he created limits within his program. There were claims of him choosing where his female athletes could wrestle, and who they could train with, which prevented them from practicing with better partners. The girl's team had a winning season and a few standout athletes, but not without controversy. The girls who were successful made it clear to others that the journey was made almost entirely by themselves, rather than feeling coached to the top - a stark contrast to the statements made by the top boys wrestlers. Why would there be such a difference between the two? A reason could be how absent Davis was from practice, said to regularly leave it to the students to coach each other. Davis made clear efforts to bring attention to himself as the ringleader, taking credit for any success, whether or not he even contributed. Style over substance was back; wrestling skills took a backseat to theatrics, fog machines, laser lights, and lavish end-of-season gifts (such as rings and real swords). During the 2022-23 season, one of his female athletes received a CIF championship ring for her success. Davis being the “creator” gets a matching ring - something typically reserved for when a team wins CIF, not just one individual. Along with this was the favoritism from Richard Romo, who runs the SHHS social media profiles. Romo has no prior wrestling experience, but attends their practices, tournaments, and banquets. Romo went out of his way to highlight girls wrestling online, often ignoring other successful athletic programs in the process. There was even a dedicated post to former girl wrestlers, not for their athletic performance in their new college, but strictly for their arrival.  It seemed odd for the official school page to post so personally to newly graduated alumni, saying "I'm proud of you." In addition to this was a post of a female wrestler lying in a chair "sleeping" - something which had nothing to do with athletics and seemed a bit odd for the AD of a school to post. Isn't the athletic department supposed t to be the voice of all schools athletics? Now with the power he holds, Davis appears to be creating an environment that is centered around girls wrestling only. His efforts were immediate, using his single championship year as the rally cry to build a new wrestling facility, to be used solely by the girl's wrestling team (despite the school having two existing wrestling rooms).

Is that all he’s done?

Sadly, there have been a great myriad of bad decisions that were seen but not stopped. One of the most inexcusable acts, allegedly seen by parents and students alike, is the slapping on the butt of female athletes. Davis has allegedly been spotted slapping his female athletes on the rear, seemingly as a “good job”. This tradition, both antiquated and inappropriate, has fallen mostly by the wayside in high school sports, but maybe not at Shadow Hills. The line between coach and friend has been blurred in this way and others. The athletic program and administration have fostered an environment where Davis is allowed to speak to juvenile students as if they were close friends, gossiping with them and recently disseminating information about who he’s going to fire. The school and district have unfortunately let such issues go unaddressed. While the boy’s program (and every other sports team for that matter) had to keep meticulous records of when they left for events, who they brought, and why they left early for any tournaments, Davis was able to bring his entire team a whole day early to a tournament. Why you may ask? To take the girl's team to the beach. It appears that this was done without proper school approval or proper requests being made through the athletic office (this information is still unconfirmed). It seems once again, Romo covered Davis's dismissal of the rules while simultaneously requiring other programs to strictly adhere to said rules. Romo, being the Secretary for the athletic department, would certainly agree that failure to get the proper documentation would be listed as a safety risk by the school.

When it comes to safety, Davis might have the worst track record in the school. After hosting an at-home wrestling event,  Davis left one of his athletes unattended in a cold school parking lot. Local police had to give her a ride home near 2 am, as she had been stranded for hours. In addition, he appears to make reckless decisions that create health risks in their practices. Davis has been known to regularly use a diesel-powered heater, indoors, to make the wrestling room much hotter than it should be (in order to help the girls “cut weight”). When entering the room after them, you can smell the intense gas fumes, as the heater is designed for use in a well-ventilated area, which the wrestling room is not. “We went to check our weight after their morning practice and it was horrible. After spending 2 minutes in the room I started to feel dizzy due to the fumes from their heater,” said boys wrestlers from Shadow Hills. Even if it were well ventilated - CIF, Desert Sands School District, the NFHS, and the wrestling community at large, disavow and condemn the practice of “weight cutting” - something Davis is well known for promoting, according to some sources from his team. Despite being a biology teacher, it appears Davis does not have proper knowledge of managing weight and pushes his athletes to drop weight when it might not be in their best interest. This is done to fit the “better ones” in the lineup. Poor health information gets to his athletes resulting in them losing large amounts of weight and in some cases, cutting their hair. It was clear who Davis’  favorites were - anyone who went along with him and did not question him. Those who didn’t were able to see the problematic behavior. Despite this, he was able to reach the position of AD, clearing the panel interview which allegedly included Richard Romo (some would call this a conflict of interest). 

How was Davis when it came to the Programs ?

Davis is known to complain and whine about nearly everything that does not go how he wants. You’d think someone so outspoken would take care of his business and ensure his “side of the house” is tidy. Sadly not. Davis frequently left the room in complete disarray, resulting in the boys having to clean up and organize the mess either before or after their practice. Petty complaint? Maybe a little, but considering how much criticism he had for others, it seems just. Davis took it upon himself to redesign the shared wrestling room after the mats were ruined by a flood. There was no communication between the programs that trained in the facility, the decisions were made solely by Davis and the girl's team. Changes included replacing the mats with tournament-style “flex-roll” mats for a room that they would never leave. Not only was it an odd decision, but the mats purchased were nearly an ice rink - whatever material the new mats were made of made them extremely slippery. This resulted in injuries due to slipping on the mat. ”I remember right before CIF the mats shadows were horrible, they looked cool but I almost rolled my ankle like 3 times, it was really bad,” said a former Indio HS wrestler that attended to train.  The decision to choose the mats seemed to be more about style than the performance, a common theme as we’ve seen. Davis didn’t even take the time to get the correct measurements for these mats - random cuts were made by hand to the mat to make it fit in the room. Jody Davis is well known by many to make questionable decisions. In other cases, past boy wrestlers claim that they would have to wait up to 30 minutes and even be late to class after their morning practice because Davis would use the student locker room to shower as if it was his personal space. This is the first time people ever heard of this case, but the administration likes to keep things nice and quiet. Things seem bad enough, but to top it off, he had his team paint the room purple using at least three varying shades and gloss levels. The paint must have been cheap and the prep work non-existent, because the paint peeled off almost immediately. They also did not bother to mask the floors and outlet covers, resulting in an eyesore of a room. The shoddy work was left to be fixed by, you guessed it, the boys. It was repainted gray with brick texture, fitting the room’s name - The Dungeon. The work was done voluntarily by the boy's team and their coaches, taking time away from their families as well as money from their own pockets to do it (only to be scolded by the school admin for not properly requesting to paint the room). 

Once in office, Jody started making major changes. His first one was very questionable, which was the termination of the entire boys wrestling staff, leaving the wrestlers with no coaches or no alternatives for practice. It was made clear that having athletics is just a formality for this school, and athletic performance is an afterthought. Why else would the coaches be fired after the school’s best performance? This made many wrestlers and parents resentful towards the athletic program and especially Davis, due to his history with the boy's team.

Why would a school terminate the coaches of a program after they delivered the best season in the program's history? 

Since the arrival of the previous boys staff, every year they saw nothing but winning seasons, and great parent and student participation. Along with this, the staff was constantly bringing past wrestlers to help with the new generation of wrestlers, as they loved their experience on the team and wanted to give back to it. The decision to terminate the coaches allowed Davis to act on his personal grievance, which came before the interest of student-athletes. At the school, it was no secret Jody had personal issues with the entire boy's program. The interest of the kids and their team is a non-factor to the administration, which cares more about catering to those in their district clique than the well-being of the student-athletes. Most likely, Davis cited some petty reasons for “necessary change”-  including immediately graduated alumni returning to help their team practice over the summer, and some instances of skin lesions (things that inevitably come with the sport of wrestling).  Anyone who knows anything about the sport of wrestling understands that athletes come back to their old room, or additional coaches are brought in to help the team get better. None of these rules applied to Davis and the girl's wrestling program though. Due to Davis’ best friend being the AD secretary, he was frequently allowed to break the same rules that he came after the boy's program for (non-cleared alumni in the room, alleged insurance issues, and allowing athletes with skin infections to compete or practice). There was even an accusation from Romo made up about Coach Spry about varsity jacket patches. When the question came to Romo, he claimed that there was a check written to the Boys Program for the purchase of them which went “missing." This is complete false. Coach Spry never contacted the Boosters Club Treasurer due to a family crisis and the request for space from programs. Coach Spry respected this but was publicly blamed for a missing check that was never written. Romo maintains that it was the reason he was fired. A question we are all asking, given all the information, is how was Davis ever allowed to be promoted?

Who are these coaches that supposedly needed to be fired? 

Meet the former Head Coach of the program, Ahmad Spry. Coach Spry has over a decade of experience with wrestling in the Coachella Valley. This was Spry’s second stint at Shadow Hills. His first was from the Fall of 2010 to the Spring of 2013 as an assistant coach. Shortly after, he became the Head Coach of the wrestling team at Rancho Mirage High School, a position he voluntarily left to come back to Shadow Hills in 2020. Coach Spry was loved by many and regarded as a great head coach. He was always doing the things necessary to make a team run smoothly. Things like attending tournaments that were appropriate for the team’s skill level, ensuring strenuous competition for those who needed it, as well as easier events for the novice wrestlers. He was the only coach in either program to wash the mop heads used on the mats and clean up the wrestling room in an attempt to slow the spread of skin infections. Coach Spry was known for his outgoing, friendly attitude, always making new friends on campus and encouraging new students to join the team. The team had a winning record overall during his time as head coach.  

With him came Coach Duke Ramos. Coach Ramos is an Indio High School alumni where he wrestled for their storied program under Coach John Rice - a Wrestling Hall of Fame inductee and US Olympic alternate. After graduation, Coach Ramos joined the Air Force where he proudly served his country. Eventually, Coach Ramos became a personal trainer and certified massage therapist. He has spent nearly 30 years studying the human body, muscular growth and recovery, the nervous system, sports medicine, and strength training. He has been a part of the coaching staff since before Coach Spry but stayed after the former Head Coach stepped down. Coach Ramos has been an integral part of the team - beloved by the kids for his wrestling expertise, his knowledge of the human body, and his willingness to go above and beyond for his athletes. Coach Ramos has helped several SHHS alumni make their way into various branches of the military, writing letters of recommendation and helping their families prepare for life in the armed services. 

Coach Nick Herington joined the staff in 2021. Coach Nick wrestled at Great Oak High School in the hotbed of SoCal wrestling - the Temecula Valley. He began coaching at Great Oak in 2014 alongside coaches J.P Santone and Joe Conroy. During his 6 years at the school, he helped coach over a dozen CIF and Masters Meet place winners, as well as several CIF State qualifiers. Leaving Temecula for a job with Indio Police, Coach Nick filled an opening at Shadow Hills where he saw immediate success. Since joining the staff, he has helped lead the team to a consistent 2nd-place finish, losing only to the #6 ranked team in the state. Coach Nick oversaw much of the drill and technique in the practice room, helping to lead Shadow Hills to their first appearance at the CIF State tournament, with their first qualifier in program history coming in 2024. 

To sum everything up, after 2018 the program was starting to show some progression, a wall was formed when the pandemic hit which resulted in a rebuild of the program, a rebuild that had big steps forward every year. High hopes for the program, but was ultimately taken away by a person who had no reason for his decision solely based on his emotions towards the program. The reason for this he claims is still generally unknown, but many know it was his resentment towards the program which he clearly shows but denies. Now this leaves many wrestlers without any quality coaches and parents confused, the athletic program claims to know what's best for their athletes but ultimately only cares about their own emotions. 

After the dismissal of the coaches, Davis tried to resolve this program confusion by having a meeting about what was going to happen. The meeting was useless, the only information included was informing the athletes about their uniforms and patches, right up Jody's alley of focusing more on looks than performance. When information came about coaching there was again no coach “yet”, no surprise with Jody's reputation. There were only a few people who didn't know about Davis's history and applied but couldn't fit the standards needed but the interviews were quite strange. Interviewees claimed that Davis said it's easy to get the job you just cannot “steal” and “touch kids." A very odd things to say instead of acknowledging other factors, very hypocritical  even coaches from the valley have acknowledged that while he was at Cat City there was roughly a couple thousand in the account but once he left to shadow it was gone, questions raised but  never cleared up. Even a member from the La Quinta High School Wrestling Program that would help around the valley to run tournaments allegedly claimed that Davis owed about 2,000 dollars to them. 

On the contrary to Davis' decisions, he was noticed blasting out emails to coaches near the Temecula area asking for any assistant coaches willing to step up and take the position, and as you would assume not respond. The only option Davis had since no one wanted to take the position while he was in office was Alfred Castro, a Coachella Valley native and a California State Champion in his prior years. Castro once coached at Shadow Hills but was released from the staff due to the lack of performance as well as the constant complaints his athletes said at the time. Castro would seem to be a good fit having his credentials, but looks can be deceiving. Castro is a very self-absorbed person, who doesn't grow with the evolution of the sport of wrestling and seems stuck in yesteryear. In past years Davis and Castro were on each other's nerves constantly bickering. Now that Castro is back, the same environment has returned; athletes resenting him, assistant coaches being pushed out of the way,  wasteful time in practice discussing his old accomplishments, and even recently on the verge of getting fired AGAIN from the principal of the school. Most recently, Shadow Hills lost to Yucca Valley, possibly for the first time in program history under Castro's coaching . The truth is he cannot get fired now because he is the only coach who applied, and without him it would leave the program with no coach, resulting in an entire backfire on the athletic department's decisions (something Davis clearly does not want to face). 

Now this leaves many athletes upset and unmotivated because of the lack of a quality season schedule for them by Davis. Their schedule is not fit for the team's skill level. An example of this poorly chosen schedule is their decision to attend one of the top 3 hardest tournaments in California. With such a young roster of new wrestlers, it does not fit the skill level and could potentially result in injuries . When asked about additions to the schedule, Davis shunned athletes away. Once a top 10 team at nearly all tournaments, Shadow Hills boys wrestling can no longer fill out a roster in the 24-25 season - a dramatic change in one year. A change brought on by the decisions of their vindictive athletic director, Jody Davis. The truth is the administration allowed all of this to happen with no consequences or questions and just conveniently swept it under the rug. We hope to see something change.

Davis personal grievance has ended an amazing era of Shadow Hills Boys Wrestling that was set to grow so much, now it is a dream completely out the picture leaving the bright future to be a "what it could have been".