Lawlor Hired to Coach Wrestling at Pali High

By STEVE GALLUZZO | Sports Editor

Mike Lawlor loves the law and the mat—not necessarily in that order—and the 35-year-old from Massachusetts is excited to be the new head wrestling coach at Palisades High.

Lawlor is the fourth head coach in the program’s seven-year history and third in the last three seasons, following the departure of Steve Cifonelli in the spring of 2017 and the firing of Aldo Juliano in March.

“I just talked to Adam Hunter to get coordinated with the middle school,” Lawlor said, referring to   a conversation with Paul Revere’s wrestling coach. “He runs quite a successful program and many of the kids we get at Pali learn to wrestle there.”

Lawlor is familiar with the Palisades, having lived with his aunt in Castellammare for a year and a half beginning in late 2014, and remembers Randy Aguirre, who started the Pali High program in 2011 and died of a brain tumor in January 2015.

“When Randy passed away I was living in the Palisades and read about it in the paper,” Lawlor recalls. “I stopped in there a couple times when I could to help out Aldo. I heard they let him go and I had the email address from a few years ago. They brought me in to talk to with kids on the team, coaches, the principal, the athletic director and even had me run a mock practice. The kids wanted to end with this thing they do and I was happy to let them. I’ve never coached at a charter school before so I’ll have to get used to the idiosyncracies of that but I’m excited to get started.”

Lawlor, who currently lives in Palms and took the California Bar exam this week, was a licensed attorney working as an insurance claims investigator in Boston before moving across the country.

“Based on what I saw when I showed up to run practice a few kids stuck out as wrestlers who would be state champ-type guys back in New England,” Lawlor said. “Overall I think the competition is a little better here.”   

Lawlor is happy to have former Pali High wrestler Erik Miranda assisting him this season and the two have set up a meeting   to talk about the upcoming season with athletes and parents.

Lawlor and his brother ran the wrestling team at Malden Catholic High in Massachusetts for three years and were able to rebuild the program from a one-win team their first year to a school-record 15 victories in the third year with a lineup of mostly juniors. Their dad ran the youth program in their hometown of Haverhill and Lawor wrestled all four years in high school, three on varsity, before graduating in 2001.

“Despite a few opportunities to wrestle at some of the smaller Division III schools in New England I chose not to wrestle in college,” Lawlor said. “I was captain of my high school team, placed at states and all-states my junior year, won sectionals my senior year and was the No. 1 seed at the state tournament prior to getting injured in my quarterfinal match.”     

One of Lawlor’s top priorities will  be to grow the size of the Dolphins’ program.

“I want to get numbers in the room,” he said. “Dual success is dependent on depth, which creates competition and makes everyone better. I like getting my wrestling shoes on and getting on the mat. Back home it was family, school, and wrestling and that’s the environment I want to create here.”

Palisades took third place at the City Section Championships in February and four Dolphins qualified for the CIF state meet in Bakersfield.

Cifonelli, who was hired as a P.E. teacher and wrestling coach after Aguirre passed away, was dismissed after his contract was not renewed in March of 2017. An altercation with a parent led to Juliano’s removal four months ago, despite multiple team members and parents speaking out on his behalf.