Edwin Arima
Inducted in 1999

Sumner High School 1971-1997

deceased September, 1999

Ed Arima was born and raised in Auburn, wrestling under Hall of Fame coach Gene Cerino at Auburn High School graduating in 1965. He continued wrestling at Western Washington under Boyd Long. Following college, Ed was hired at Sumner High School in 1971 as a Horticulture teacher, where he spent the next 26 years before he passed away suddenly in 1997. In his twenty six years, his first seven were as an assistant coach, and the last nineteen as head coach of the Sumner program. In 1996 Ed was selected as the "AAA" Wrestling Coach of the Year and was SPSL Coach of the Year in 1983. He coached 81 state qualifiers at Sumner including 24 state medal winners and 9 individual state championships. Three of his wrestlers were High School All-Americans and Dave Olmsted captured a Junior World Championship in both freestyle and greco. Ed was the founder of the Sumner Wrestling Club. As a teacher he received the FFA Outstanding Teacher of the Year Award in 1996 and the Master Teacher Award in 1995.

Coach Arima gave unselfishly to the Sumner athletes, whether it was a wrestler who needed shoes, dinner or some fatherly advice. Though he never had kids of his own, Ed's mother, uncle, wrestlers and students were his family. Phil Lyonais, a former wrestler and assistant coach writes, "As a coach at Sumner when Ed passed away, I was able to see the positive effect that Ed had on so many people. To this day people still tell us stories about what Ed had done for them or their son, their program. I know he has had a profound effect upon my life."

Nominated and inducted by Phil Lyonais, Sumner High School