By Rick Pedone
Sports Editor

Jim Bird will join two other Osceola County wrestling coaches when he is inducted into the Florida Chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame Saturday at Regal Sun Resort in Lake Buena Vista.

Bird, who led the Osceola Kowboys to the Class 3A state championship in 2009 and runner-up spots in 2008 and 2010, joins his OHS assistant coach, Rick Tribit (2008), and Celebration Coach Vic Lorenzano (2007), in the Hall of Fame.

Bird is the athletic director at OHS.

Eight of Bird’s wrestlers, including his son, Javier Maldonado, have combined to win 12 individual titles at OHS,

Bird, himself a four-time state qualifier at Spencer High in Spencer, W. Va., came to OHS as an assistant football coach in 1989 after playing at Glenville College in West Virginia. He assisted former OHS Coach George Bright and later joined with Doug Nichols to run the program for a decade. When Nichols, now the Kowboys football coach, stepped down in 2002, Bird took over the boys and girls programs.

The girls won four consecutive state tournaments.

Since 2007, the Kowboys won eight individual state titles by Alex Eggers (2007, 2009), Niko Brown (2008), Pete Baldwin (2008), Clemons (2009-10) and Locksmith (2009-10).

Maldonado, who graduated in 2003 after winning championships in 2001 and 2003, had his singlet retired during the Kowboys’ final regular season match in February. At the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga, he was a three-time All-American.

Bird’s son, Gabriel Bird, who graduated in May, is the county’s first five-time state wrestling qualifier. Bird’s oldest son, Angel Maldonado, also competed for the Kowboys.

Bird formed the Attack Wrestling Club to help young children learn the sport, and he has been reaping the dividends over the past several years as those children grew to become excellent wrestlers.

“That’s the way it has to be. You can’t have kids walk in as freshmen and compete. It’s completely changed over the past 10 or 20 years,” Bird said.

Pete Baldwin Sr., the father of the wrestler, said in a letter of recommendation to the Hall of Fame selection committee, that Bird is a tremendous influence to the Kowboys wrestlers.

“Some of the greatest things this man does goes unnoticed,” Baldwin Sr. said. “He has become family to many of (his wrestlers).”

Tribit, recently honored by Wrestling USA Magazine as Florida’s 2010 Man of the Year in Wrestling, said Bird sets high standards for his wrestlers.

“We have higher expectations here than at some places, but the kids know that if they take care of things in the classroom and with the family, that Jim will get them to where they want to go,” Tribit said. “He kind of flew under the radar for a long while, but when you look at what he’s done here, there’s no question that he belongs.”

As an example, Jeremy Strickland, who competed at the state tournament after one season with the the Kowboys, recently accepted a grant to Shorter College.

Bird said the support from Tribit, the OHS administrators, his wife, Olga, and the parents of his wrestlers have been instrumental.

“(Principal) Mr. (Gary) Preisser, he’s constantly out there supporting our team. We have great parents, like the Clemons and the Baldwins and the Browns and the Todds, who have done so much to make this program a success. And, you can’t say enough about our kids,” Bird said. “I’d like to thank every one of them. They made this possible.”