Daniel Cormier doesn’t have to do any of this.

He doesn’t have to wake up at 6 a.m., drive to San Jose International Airport, fly to Las Vegas, help train fighters for the UFC’s TV show “The Ultimate Fighter,” then turn back around, fly to San Jose and drive back to Gilroy in time for an afternoon practice with his Gilroy High wrestling team.

Cormier, a former multi-division champion in the UFC and All-American wrestler at Oklahoma State, has a burgeoning media career and nothing left to prove as an athlete. So why is he still busting his butt to coach high school wrestlers every day?

“I love it,” Cormier told Bay Area News Group on Saturday in San Jose after leading Gilroy to its 22nd consecutive Central Coast Section boys wrestling championship at Independence High School. “These kids, man, they come to me as young kids, and they just grow.”

His wrestlers are bound for Cornell, North Carolina State, Nebraska, Michigan and Oregon State. Cormier has made it his personal mission to ensure as many Gilroy kids as possible follow in his footsteps.

“Now, they’re getting NIL money, so they’re changing their futures for themselves and their families,” Cormier said. “And that’s what means the most to me, because somebody took a chance. My coach did it for me. So I just want to give back what I got, because it changed my life.”

Cormier, a native of Lafayette, Louisiana, won three state titles in high school wrestling, then captured two junior college national championships at Colby Community College in Kansas.

Only then did he transfer to Oklahoma State. So he’s familiar with the road less traveled.

It’s a practice he’s utilized with his high school pupils as well. In February 2020, Cormier sent eight of his Gilroy youth wrestlers to train with top club athletes in Dagestan, an isolated Russian republic located in the North Caucasus Mountains along the Caspian Sea.

Six of those wrestlers — Elijah Cortez, Isaiah Cortez, Travis Grace, Moses Mendoza, Juan Carlos Puga and Daniel Zepeda — won individual section championships last Saturday at the CCS meet.

“My kids are committed, man,” Cormier said.

With school out last week, the team traveled to Las Vegas to train at the UFC Performance Institute. The parents paid for the flights, according to Cormier.

“My team spent three days at the UFC PI with rehab, training and using the recovery facilities,” Cormier said. “The UFC is helping these kids because they believe that they can go and try to win a team state championship. So this is an important week for us.”

Cormier’s wrestlers believe the experience at Gilroy is second to none, and they say the intense training will pay off this weekend.

“Whenever he is in the room, he comes in raring to go,” said senior Isaiah Cortez, who won a state title in 2023 and is now ranked third at 126 pounds. “He has a good game plan coming into each and every practice. Knowing the intensity that he brings into practice, that makes him that one step, one level better than everyone else within the state.”

Cormier is also involved with Gilroy’s girls wrestling program. He credits the emergence of female athletes in the MMA world for inspiring girls to join high school wrestling teams and continue to build the sport.

“It’s unbelievable,” Cormier said. “And I believe Ronda Rousey, in her ascension in the world of mixed martial arts, helped these young women know grappling is the best base for mixed martial arts. If you want to be a fighter, or have any idea that you’d like to try, you’ve got to start wrestling. And with all these young women, wrestling’s the fastest-growing sport in the world right now. And that’s important.”

It’s all important for Cormier, even though it doesn’t have to be. He’s set for life after earning more than $10 million in prize money, according to MMA Salaries. But he wouldn’t be fulfilled without everything he does with his Gilroy program.

Now, he and his charges are chasing a state title, something that has been a north star for the storied Gilroy program. As a team, the Mustangs finished second in 2008, 2018 and 2019 and third in 2023 and 2024.

They begin their quest for the program’s first state team title today at the CIF state tournament in Bakersfield, and this season’s journey will conclude with the finals on Saturday.

“Some things have to fall our way, I think, to win the team state title,” Cormier said. “I don’t know, because I’ve never won one. But I coached at Oklahoma State and won four national championships. You’ve got to catch some breaks, right? It’s not just what you do. You have to take care of the business that you’re supposed to, and it helps some things fall in line for you.”

Whether that day comes this year or in the more distant future, Cormier will keep grinding toward that goal. It’s all he knows.

“I love it, man,” Cormier said. “If you stop moving, you die. That’s what I believe.”