Tom Justice wrestled at the University of Colorado for 3-time Olympic Team alternate, Linn Long. His coaching career began as an assistant to Coach Long at Southern Illinois University, 1968-72. During those years, SIU produced five All-Americans, including one Olympic team member.
He entered the high school coaching ranks as the head coach of Cheltenham High School in suburban Philadelphia in 1972-74. He moved to Mt. Zion High School, IL in 1974-75, and was named team leader and head coach of the Illinois All-Star team which traveled behind the Iron Curtain in the summer of 1975, training and competing in Romania.
He coached in Brush, CO from 1975-1980. Inheriting a winless team, he coached a state champion in his first year and in his second year upset the perennial state champions. In 1978 he served as a volunteer coach for the 18-U World Team. In 1979 he was named assistant coach for the Olympic 200 Project (training the USA’s top 200 junior wrestlers), head coach of the U.S. Nation- al Sports Festival Team, and assistant coach for the 18-U World Team, which won the ’79 World Championship. He performed the same duties during 1980, 1981, and 1982, winning three consecutive World Championships and finishing second to the Russians in 1982. In 1980 he moved to Woodland Park, CO, just 18 miles from the Olympic training Center, where he won the school’s first District championship and was named Coach-of-the-Year. In 1982 the AAU-Wrestling Division offered him the position of National Junior Coach, which he accepted. However, the National Governing Body changed hands, and the position was cancelled.
In 1978 he was elected President of the Colorado Wrestling Coaches Association, a position he held until he left the state in 1985. During that time, he instituted annual CWCA coaching clinics which featured top wrestlers and coaches at the national and international level. These clinics became bi-annual, then tri-annual. He also hosted Colorado’s Junior National training camps.
