It’s hard to put into words what Coach meant to so many of us.
He was a great man who impacted more lives than he probably ever realized. Not just the best wrestlers, not just the standouts, but every single one of us who stepped on the mat for him. If you wrestled for Coach, you were changed. Whether you saw it then or not.
Truth is, most of us didn’t realize it at the time. It wasn’t until we got older, faced real life, real struggles, that it all started to make sense.
In one of my darkest hours, Coach said something to me that I wasn’t expecting. Simple words, but they stuck. They helped me more than he will ever know. That’s just who he was.
He didn’t just teach wrestling. He helped make us men.
Rest easy, Coach. And thank you.