Favorite Coaching Story

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Valleyviewer171

Member
Trying to spread positivity and eliminate the divisiveness. What is your favorite coaching story? Maybe you had an athlete who couldn't do a forward roll when you met them, but they overcame the odds and qualified to the state tournament? Or, you have a story about an athlete who bought in and went on to win it all?

I have only been a head coach for 4 years, but I can name about 5 awesome stories. My favorite might be a young man with special needs, both mental and physical, who came to every off-season lift, open mat, and practice. Due to low numbers, he would occasionally spot start in our lineup. Always kept working. One day, we are in a tight dual. He is wrestling a young man who ended up being a state runner-up a few months later. All our guy had to do is not get pinned, and he didn't. He was a hero for getting teched. His teammates were so happy for him .The pride on his face, and the tears of pride on his parents' faces was such an awesome experience.

Success is different for all. That dual sticks out in my mind as why wrestling is so awesome. It puts things in perspective, while teaching us that everyone matters.
 
 
One small story (of the many I’m sure I have)...

We were hosting two or three teams for a scrimmage. For a week straight I preached wear your school colors! Go out now and buy a red shirt if you don’t have one. Buy a black pair of shorts if you need to. But make sure to wear red and black!!

Roughly 25 kids on our team and every single one of them showed up for the scrimmage in red and black. I noticed. My brother (head coach) noticed. The kids - whether they will admit it or not - even noticed. Needless to say, in my 13 years there, it was the only day I recall that I didn’t see a Cruiser wearing orange, yellow, blue, or green during practice. (Purple was off limits. We kicked a few kids out of practice for wearing that color.)

Bottom line: school colors matter!
 
I had a wrestler who got 4th in sectional and in the process separated his shoulder. He couldn’t practice for district all week other than run. First round at district he is beating a sectional champ by 7 or 8 points then gets caught and pinned. Shoulder goes out during the match. His dad, myself, and the athletic trainer at the site put it back in after the match.

He wins in the wrestle backs but his shoulder slips out. We put it back after the match.

In the conso second round he is wrestling a kid who was 4th in State the previous year and is ranked 3rd this year. The kid is very physical and knows my kid has something wrong. He starts to crank on the shoulder and they eventually go out of bounds. My kid gets up and a change goes over his face (it’s noticeable on film, borderline scary). Kid comes back from 3 down and proceeds to lay waste to the state placer and wins 7-3. We put the shoulder back in.
Conso quarters he has the kid who beat him in sectional and hurt his shoulder. We win 13-2 and it wasn’t even that close. We put the shoulder back in after the match and the trainer says “I wish the people in this gym knew what he is going through. This is the most inspirational thing I’ve ever seen.” Keep in mind the kid is not icing his shoulder between matches. He didn’t want anyone to know there was anything wrong. He wouldn’t even stay in the trainers room for more than it took to fix his shoulder.

Go to state match he has the kid who pinned him in the first round. The match starts slow but with a late second round flurry he builds a lead and wins 8-1. He is visibly hurt during the match but guts it out. State qualifier for the first time. Gutsiest thing I have ever seen.

He ends up getting 3rd. Tough draw at state, loses first round, wins conso match, in the match to place he is in a dogfight (still hurting and shoulder still slipping out). Down 3 with 22 seconds left gets slammed on the shoulder, hard. He’s in serious pain and could easily take the win but this kid refuses to take the easy way out (I would normally tell a kid to get up and wrestle but he was so hurt I left it up to him). He spends the next 22 seconds on an all out attack with one arm pinned to his side and the other doing all the work. Time runs out on him but he never gave up. I had to walk away as soon as I could so people wouldn’t see me crying like a baby. This kid deserved to place but it just wasn’t in the cards. If he’s healthy he’s probably anywhere from 3rd-6th.

The best part is the end...a few years later he married one of our wrestling stats...my niece. He’s the only boyfriend she ever had that I approved of and I knew after that district run that our family was lucky to have him because he has more guts and determination than anyone I’ve ever met. When he refused to take the easy way out to place at State from the slam I knew he had more character than anyone I’d ever met.

Every time I even think about that day at district I still tear up.
 
rr23724 said:
I had a wrestler who got 4th in sectional and in the process separated his shoulder. He couldn’t practice for district all week other than run. First round at district he is beating a sectional champ by 7 or 8 points then gets caught and pinned. Shoulder goes out during the match. His dad, myself, and the athletic trainer at the site put it back in after the match.

He wins in the wrestle backs but his shoulder slips out. We put it back after the match.

In the conso second round he is wrestling a kid who was 4th in State the previous year and is ranked 3rd this year. The kid is very physical and knows my kid has something wrong. He starts to crank on the shoulder and they eventually go out of bounds. My kid gets up and a change goes over his face (it’s noticeable on film, borderline scary). Kid comes back from 3 down and proceeds to lay waste to the state placer and wins 7-3. We put the shoulder back in.
Conso quarters he has the kid who beat him in sectional and hurt his shoulder. We win 13-2 and it wasn’t even that close. We put the shoulder back in after the match and the trainer says “I wish the people in this gym knew what he is going through. This is the most inspirational thing I’ve ever seen.” Keep in mind the kid is not icing his shoulder between matches. He didn’t want anyone to know there was anything wrong. He wouldn’t even stay in the trainers room for more than it took to fix his shoulder.

Go to state match he has the kid who pinned him in the first round. The match starts slow but with a late second round flurry he builds a lead and wins 8-1. He is visibly hurt during the match but guts it out. State qualifier for the first time. Gutsiest thing I have ever seen.

He ends up getting 3rd. Tough draw at state, loses first round, wins conso match, in the match to place he is in a dogfight (still hurting and shoulder still slipping out). Down 3 with 22 seconds left gets slammed on the shoulder, hard. He’s in serious pain and could easily take the win but this kid refuses to take the easy way out (I would normally tell a kid to get up and wrestle but he was so hurt I left it up to him). He spends the next 22 seconds on an all out attack with one arm pinned to his side and the other doing all the work. Time runs out on him but he never gave up. I had to walk away as soon as I could so people wouldn’t see me crying like a baby. This kid deserved to place but it just wasn’t in the cards. If he’s healthy he’s probably anywhere from 3rd-6th.

The best part is the end...a few years later he married one of our wrestling stats...my niece. He’s the only boyfriend she ever had that I approved of and I knew after that district run that our family was lucky to have him because he has more guts and determination than anyone I’ve ever met. When he refused to take the easy way out to place at State from the slam I knew he had more character than anyone I’d ever met.

Every time I even think about that day at district I still tear up.
Click to expand...

Great story - thank you for sharing.
 
Our team left a two day dual tournament(stay over)and stopped at a buffet for our annual feast. One of our wrestlers who had gotten the snot kicked out of him for two days(2-8) sat across the table from us coaches. He had mat burns on his face, a fat lip and a black eye too. He looked awful! He sat there and ate about five plates of food. He then said something that just blew my mind. Coach, "This is the second best vacation I ever had." His best vacation was when he stayed in a tent for two days on a camping trip when he was in junior high. Getting absolutely mauled and beat up on the mat was a vacation for him...Tough kid. He's in the Marine Corp now.
 
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I was lucky enough to get to impact a young man through the sport of wrestling and in many ways probably either saved his life or at the very least kept him from getting put in Jail. Was a GREAT kid loved football (just had some anger issues that we obviously addressed) never knew wrestling but in 2 years was able to win 38 matches and still to this day I get random messages from him where he thanks us for everything we did for him.
 
Driving to a dual meet and one of our kids gets a call and runs to the front of the bus and gives the phone to the HC. I was sitting towards the back the back so I sent a text in the group chat asking if everything was OK? Even the other guys on the team were a bit alarmed. The emergency? The kid's mother was wondering if the bus could take a detour for a quick orthodontist visit.
 
It was my brothers senior year, I had just gotten back from college and was helping out for the year with the team. He had a solid career up to that point but hadn't made the state tournament and obviously, this was his last chance. He ends up making it to the district semi's and he is set to face off with a kid that frankly had his number all year. On day two he is getting warmed up before the day starts and I am on the mat just rolling around with him. I knew from watching back some tape we had gotten to a front headlock situation with this guy before but because of his length he was able to drag into a single and we just were not winning this position. We went over a variation of a cement mixer out of the situation as a "what do we have to lose" option.

The semi's come and my brother gets beat pretty good never really getting into the situation we had gone over that morning. In his match to go, he was to face a guy he had beaten earlier in the year by pinning him while down big. I was nervous knowing this was going to be a really tough matchup as this kid had put together a great tournament and he just seemed on. As my brother is getting undressed to go out he asked "If that situation is there, can I hit it?" I said sure, that there was no reason to hold anything back. I am sitting down in the chair with the head coach and I look at him and tell him I feel like I am about to be sick. I don't know how fathers coach their sons but that moment before the match not knowing if my little brother was going to get to accomplish his goal was one of the worst feelings I had ever experienced being involved in wrestling.

The whistle blows and the other kid shoots immediately off the whistle. It felt like some sort of movie because they end up in the exact position we went over just a few hours earlier, the same position he just asked about seconds before, and without missing a beat he hits the mixer and has the kid on his back. 50 seconds later he gets the pin securing his trip to the state tournament. I hadn't thought about that moment in a long time but it still gives me goosebumps as I type this out.
 
A few years ago, I was coaching our Jr High team. We were at a dual tournament. I noticed a kid from an opposing team had a pretty serious physical disability, had a hard time even walking on the mat, had got pinned every match within 30 seconds. I told their coach I would have my son wrestle him. The Coach said "Are you crazy, your kid would kill him" I responded to not worry about it, I would take care of it. I told my son the situation, it would only be a scrimmage and wouldn't count against his record but to throw the match, do the complete opposite of every thing I say. "don't reach back means REACH BACK" and so on.
The great thing was that both kids were named Michael, so both teams were at mat side cheering the same name. My son lost the match 11-9. The young mans grandparents thanked me off to the side with tears in their eyes. My son certainly knows what it's like to be humiliated on a mat, but that day I think he learned the true meaning of humility, giving up something for somebody else. Even though it was 3 years ago, we still watch that match on my phone every once in a while, still brings a tear to my eyes 3 years later. Reality is,,,,, that day, both Michaels really won!
 
First year I helped out we had a kid who cried multiple times a practice. My goal was to turn this kid around. He ended up making the state tournament his freshman year and draws a stud who happened to win a title all 4 years. He was pinned in about 35 seconds. Fast forward to senior year, he makes the state title match and has the guy going for his 4th straight title. He got stuck but it was amazing seeing how far he had come.
 
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