Coach Sanderson

When I decided to start this blog, I started thinking back to the very beginning of my involvement with wrestling, and then I just started writing. I don’t really know where this will all go, but I am having fun right now thinking back on all of the great experiences I have had as a participant and as a coach. I may very well be the only one who ever reads all this stuff, but I’m enjoying reminiscing about the “good old days,” and just in case there is someone out there who cares to know more about my early experiences with wrestling and how this great sport has affected me and my life, read on . . .

THE EARLY YEARS:

• I grew up in Haywood County – Waynesville, to be specific.
• I wrestled as a junior on the first wrestling team ever at Tuscola High School. Overall, I was a pretty mediocre high school wrestler – a little better than average over the two years I wrestled, I suppose, but I dealt with some major illness issues my senior year (probably related to trying to lose too much weight), and I am certain I didn’t reach my potential in high school. But, regardless of my win/loss record, I came under the influence of two outstanding individuals at Tuscola HS: Art Boger & Paul George. Coach Boger came from Pennsylvania, and he had an extensive background in wrestling. He was probably the most intense person I have ever known – I promise you, he could make you feel like a laser beam was burning a hole in your body when he stared at you for having screwed up. But he was a fantastic coach, and I still have the utmost respect for him. He was definitely one of the most influential people in my life when I was young. Paul George, likewise, was a great person and a great coach. He was always supportive – if a little gruff and unreasonably demanding at times (at least that’s what I thought then). I still see Coach George occasionally, and I consider him to be a good friend.
• After graduating from Tuscola in 1968, I attended UNC-Chapel Hill, and I actually wrestled on the varsity team for a month or so. I was inspired to try out for the team by a couple of guys living in Morrison Dorm: Jim Zumwalt and Ken Coe. Ken had been a state placer for Myers Park HS the year before, and I found from talking with him and wrestling around in the dorm that I was just about as knowledgeable about the sport as he was. Zumwalt (no one ever called him by his first name), on the other hand, was an upper classman, and he basically threatened to kick my butt if I didn’t come to a practice or two after he found out that I had wrestled in high school. The Carolina wrestling program at that time was pretty weak – East Carolina and Appalachian State had the dominant collegiate programs in the state back then – so it wasn’t totally intimidating to go into the room and work out. Coach Barnes, the head coach, was a full time English professor who coached wrestling because he loved it, and he wanted to promote the sport in the south – I think he was originally from Oklahoma. I remember the first day I showed up, and Coach Sam Barnes treated me just like I had been on the team for years. He was very supportive and gentlemanly in all of his dealings with me and all of his wrestlers. I could never crack the starting lineup at UNC, though. I got to #2 on the depth chart at 167 lbs. (I think that was the weight), but I could never beat the guy who was ahead of me. So, I finally gave up my collegiate wrestling aspirations and focused on nothing but studying for the next three years – RIGHT!

HOW I LUCKED INTO A GREAT COACHING JOB:

• My first job out of college was at West Cary Jr. High, where I was given the opportunity to coach the wrestling team because Ray Chance (aka: “Fat Chance”), one of my most memorable professional buddies from my early days in education, was able to change over from coaching wrestling to coaching basketball, the sport he truly loved. Coach Jim Joyner, the athletic director, had given up his basketball duties, so Ray took over for him, and I took over for Ray. It’s actually pretty amazing, now that I think about it, that this little junior high school even had a wrestling team back then. But they did, and that fortunate happenstance made it possible for me to coach this wonderful sport off and on for the next 35 years. As I recall – and I am not trying to exaggerate here – I was paid a grand total of $75 for coaching the wrestling team that year. Obviously, I didn’t do it for the money. But I did receive some immediate positive feedback, because I had some outstanding kids on that first team, and although we didn’t win all of our matches, we won a lot more than we lost, and all of the boys were very excited about our prospects for the following year.
• Although I couldn’t know it at the time, the team I coached in my second year at WCJHS was to become my state championship team when most of these 9th graders wrestled as seniors. We had a great year, though, finishing undefeated, and I knew this was a pretty special group of young men. The event that convinced me that this just might be a genuinely great team, however, was a match that we scheduled with another undefeated team about two weeks after the regular season was over. The other coach, Randy Rogers, had a very strong team at Githens Jr. High in Durham County, and obviously we had not wrestled each other during the season. He called me to see if we wanted to wrestle a “match of the undefeated.” So, I polled the kids, and the verdict was unanimous, so it was on. The Githens team had two undefeated brothers who had won national AAU titles during the summer, as well as a bunch of other really solid wrestlers, so I was a little apprehensive. But I have always believed that going up against the best only makes you stronger, so I was probably more excited than worried. After all these years (that was in 1974, you know, and most of those 9th graders are now rapidly approaching their 50th birthdays) I can’t remember the exact score, but it was something like 59-6. As I recall, we won the first match, lost the second match by a pin (our only loss in the match), and then proceeded to roll to a very impressive win. Barry Armstrong pinned the lighter of the two national champs, and Richard Scott (one of the few guys on this team who decided not to wrestle in high school – what a pity) pinned the other. I know this match was disheartening for Coach Rogers and his kids, but I have to say it was a pretty special day for us. And it was after this match that I knew for a fact that this team was destined for great things.
• The next year a bunch of really good wrestlers – John Nedwidek, John Lamson, David Mann, Charles Cornwell, Barry Armstrong, Tim Blake, Charles Burns, & Mike Bristol – all moved on to Cary HS and wrestled, while I remained at West Cary. I know that other coaches in other places and times have had great teams, but just thinking about those kids makes me appreciate just how fortunate I was. My third year at WCJHS was the toughest of all as far as wins and losses go, mainly because we had to forfeit four weight classes every match. That year I still had some outstanding kids, however, and two of them, Bob Wagner and Clint Reese, were destined to win individual state championships when they were seniors – but I’m getting ahead of myself.
• The guy who coached the high school team that year was Calvin Northcutt, a really nice guy who had been an outstanding high school wrestler at Cary. But Calvin wasn’t a teacher, and his job kept him from being able to hold to a good practice schedule, and he even had to miss matches occasionally. At the end of that year, in fact, I went to Sanford, NC, where the Sectional Tournament was being held (I probably took a sick day), so I could see “my boys” wrestle. When I showed up unannounced, I found out that the school had sent a faculty member, who knew absolutely nothing about wrestling, with the team to supervise them because Calvin couldn’t get off work. The kids asked me to coach them at the tournament, so I did. That experience made me realize for certain just how much I wanted to move up to the high school so I could coach this bunch of boys.
• I had actually tried to go to the high school with my kids when they were sophomores, but my principal, Mr. A.B. Williams, was not very open to this idea. In a way it was a compliment, because he wanted to keep me at the junior high. But on the other hand, I was young, and I wanted to move to the next level – more than likely because I pretty well knew how good these guys could be. With my interest in the high school position kind of stifled at that point, Calvin was hired – but only to serve one year. During the early fall of that year, Coach David Riggs, the head football coach and athletic director, contacted one of his old acquaintances, Johnny Beane, to see if he would be willing to come to CHS the following year to be an assistant football coach and the head wrestling coach. Coach Beane agreed, and it was announced that he would be taking over after Calvin’s year at the helm.
• The event that created the opening for me to go to the high school after Coach Beane had accepted the offer was a genuine tragedy. I never had the opportunity to meet Coach Beane, but everyone who knew him said he was a tremendous person. There are probably some of you from Haywood County (older ones of you, that is) who can remember when the road over Black Mountain did not have truck lanes, runaway truck ramps, and dividing barriers. If you think back, you may also be able to remember that there was a horrific, multiple vehicle crash, and that this terrible event, more than anything else, probably led to all of the changes and safety improvements that have taken place on that stretch of highway in the years since. Well, Coach Beane, his wife, and their child were three of the victims who lost their lives in that awful crash.
• I have always been very grateful for having had the opportunity to coach and teach at Cary High School, but on more than one occasion I have reflected upon and regretted the fact that it was Coach Beane’s tragic death that made it possible for me to enjoy the success that came my way while at Cary. Thinking back on this still makes me feel sad and a little uncomfortable.
• Good old Mr. Williams finally gave in during the spring of 1975, and he “released” me to transfer to the high school. So, I bid adieu to all of my old buddies and pals at WCHJHS, and I went to Cary HS, where I taught social studies and coached wrestling for the next five years.

MY YEARS AT CARY SR. HIGH SCHOOL:

• I know you are eager to read the next chapter, so check back later for more . . .