The Rehab Project

 

In 2006. I accepted an opportunity to coach at one of the nation's premier high school athletic departments in the country.  Everything was dominant at Dwyer.  Basketball was a perennial state power.  Football was a national power.  Track, Lacrosse won state titles. Heck, they even won a bowling state title. 

 

Everything was a winner. 

Everything but wrestling.  

 

Wrestling was the school's doormat since the school had opened 17 years before I arrived.  Over that time, the team had had a mere two state place-winners and 14 state qualifiers over that span.  The team had a culture of losing within the school and was an open joke.  My first week there I walked in on a coach in another sport teasing a team member about being gay because he wrestled.  

 

The situation was addressed; and it didn't happen again.  I was bound and determined to change the fortunes of this team, but it was a new experience for me.  I had only started programs, not taken them over.  It was a vastly different experience, but we experienced very similar results.

 

After a woeful first year where we went 7-14 with 3 wins coming by forfeit, we changed the culture.  We'd go 44-13 the next three years and rewrote the school's record book.  We won the team's first ever district title; then rattled offanother one.  We finished 2nd in the regional; also a first for a team that had no top ten finishes before I got there.  

 

Indivudually, we qualified 14 state qualifiers in 4 seasons and walked away with the school's first ever finalist.  We also earned 8 state medals over that time span.  We had a future college all-american, professional mma fighter and 4 year starter on a D2 National Championship squad come out of the program during that time.