Doug Axman, longtime staple in Long Island wrestling community, dies at 73

Doug Axman’s life was dedicated to wrestling, both on the mat and behind the scenes.

He began coaching as an assistant in the Plainview School District in 1973 and started a 33-year tenure at Locust Valley in 1974.

He spent 14 years there as an assistant under Matt Sanzone before taking over as head coach for the next 19 years.

Following his retirement, Axman joined Oyster Bay’s staff and helped its wrestling program reach new heights.

“His hands touched so many aspects of wrestling in Nassau County and much of it was behind the scenes,” Sanzone said. “Every coach respected him. Every coach I knew spoke highly of Doug and valued his opinion.”

Axman, a 2017 inductee into the Downstate New York chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame, died on Sept. 14 from a battle with acute myeloid leukemia, his family said. He was 73.

“It all happened so fast,” said Stephen Axman, his brother. “It was a complete shock.”

Born on April 28, 1951 in New Hyde Park, Axman grew up in Huntington Station and graduated from Whitman before wrestling at Farmingdale State College and SUNY Brockport. He received a master’s degree from Adelphi and was a health teacher and administrator in the Locust Valley School District for 27 years.

Axman coached eight individual state champions and 34 county champions. He also helped lead Locust Valley to a dual meet state title in 1979. Axman was the president of the Nassau County Wrestling Coaches’ Association from 1995-2003, and for several years, even after his retirement, he ran the county’s prestigious awards dinner.

John Hamilton joined the Locust Valley coaching staff in 1974 along with Axman, and after stints at other schools, he returned to Locust Valley in 1979. He said the friendship he made with Axman in 1974 remained the same for 50 years.

“The Nassau County Wrestling Coaches’ Association is going to miss him tremendously,” Hamilton said. “He was a go-to person for them. They’re going to come around next season and say, ‘Oh, Doug used to take care of that.’”

Ken DeStefanis was a senior wrestler at Locust Valley in 1974, who later coached with Axman. All four of DeStefanis’ brothers wrestled for Sanzone and Axman, three of whom won state titles.

“He just had a passion for the sport of wrestling and for helping students,” DeStefanis said. “It didn’t matter if you were a state champion or you’d never won a match in your life. He just wanted to help you any way he possibly could.

“He was very caring and sincere. We considered him a part of our family, but the wrestling world was his family.”

DeStefanis said he and Axman created All American Wrestling Camp, of which Axman was the director. DeStefanis ran Competitive Edge Wrestling Camp for 27 years at Central Connecticut State University and said that Axman would make the trip every summer and stay in a college dorm with no air conditioning for five days.

“Without anybody knowing it, he provided scholarship money to send kids to wrestling camps when they couldn’t afford it,” Sanzone said. “If they couldn’t get to those camps, he paid for their transportation. He was just a very generous human being.”

Axman also founded Nassau County’s first chapter of Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD) in 1976.

Axman is survived by his nieces Mary Beth Schuld, Jaclyn Grainger, Melissa Axman and Kimberly Manson.

“He was very close with my daughters,” Stephen Axman said. “Very often, my daughters would call him and he would call them. It was kind of like they were the daughters he didn’t have.”

His visitation was held on Sept. 18 at Oyster Bay Funeral Home and a funeral mass was held on Sept. 19 at St. Dominic Roman Catholic Chapel.