Q: “How long have you been coaching?” 

A: “I started coaching 2006, 2007. So how many years that is.”  

Q: “What’s your role for the wrestling team?” 

A: “I’m actually the head coach, but I have been an assistant coach in the past. I was one of the assistant coaches for the first 10 years here at Staley, and this is year No. 8 of me being the head coach.”   

Q: “Do you know the size of the team?” 

A: “Right now we have over 100 kids signed up.” 

Q: “How are you guys preparing for the upcoming season?”  

A: “Wrestling is a sport for your upper-level kids that never really stops. And so, after last season ended, our kids did freestyle and Greco, which is the different international styles throughout the spring and the summer. We’ve also been lifting spring, summer, fall. They’ve been lifting after school with Coach Howk each day. So run, wrestle, lift.”  

Q: “Is there something you’re looking forward to in particular about the upcoming season?” 

A: “We have probably the most talented group of kids that we’ve had come through — our seniors. It’s been a pretty cool journey watching most of them as freshmen starting in our lineup. It’s their last year, kind of the apex moment. It going to be cool to see how they finish their careers and how far they’ve come.”  

 Q: “Do you have a favorite part of coaching?”  

A: “Yes. And this is going to sound a little bit cliché, but seeing kids do things that they didn’t know that they could do. Whether that’s a move or position at practice, whether that’s winning a match or whether that’s sticking it out all four years. Theres so many different things, and it’s different for everyone. There’s different levels of kids that we have on our team. We have kids that are happy to be there, that just want to be part of a program. And we have kids who want to win state championships. So, whether it’s one or the other, it’s just cool to see them do something like that, like the big aha-moment of, ‘Oh my God, I just did that!’” 

Q: “Is there any quote that you tell your students or a certain mindset that you try to instill in them?”  

A: “One of our quotes on the back of our shirts says, ‘Those who endure become champions.’ There’s a lot of times where we see tough things, that the world struggle is a bad thing in our society. But kids who are able to endure through struggle, and sometimes it’s just weathering the storm, they’re able to hopefully see the light at the end of it and get to the light at the end of it. Again, whether it’s a match, whether it’s a season, or whether it’s a career. That quote, ‘Those who endure become champions,’ that doesn’t necessarily mean a gold medal, but that might be working through struggle, working through tough parts, working through things they didn’t know how to do.”