Class of 1999

Gary Dillingham coached wrestling for 21 years at Cortland High School, including 19 at the varstiy level. His teams competed in three leagues (the CNYCL, the STAC, and the OHSL) as Cortland changed league affiliations and went from Section III to Section IV and back to Section III again. Gary, better know as "Dill", coached league championship teams in both the CNYCL and in the STAC as well as in both sections, at a time when league and sectional titles were determined, not by class, but on an overall basis.

Dill coached 14 sectional champions, eight in Section III and six in Section IV. Five of his wrestlers finished in the top three in the New York State Championships. Literally dozens of his wrestlers won league titles in the CNYCL, STAC, or OHSL. His teams compiled a dual meet record of 131-125-1, including an eight year stretch of 79-33 from 1965-66 to 1972-73.

One of the highlights of Dill's coaching career came in January of 1973 when his team traveled to Peru, NY and stopped Peru's consecutive victory streak at 125 in a match which Cortland won by a single point (after having lost to Peru the previous year by 2 points). At the time, Peru's unbeaten streak was the second longest in NYS history.

Larry Hinkle, one of the three Dillingham wrestlers to finish second in the States, and currently the wretsling coach and athletic director at Tompkins-Cortland Community College, summed up Gary's coaching style this way: "'Dill' was strict, let me tell you, so you didn't screw up. But no one could ever say that he wasn't fair and he never asked you to do something that he wouldn't do. He probably worked harder at practice than any of the wrestlers."

The wrestling community of Section III wishes Gary the best in his retirement from his teaching and coaching duties from Cortland Central.