Connellsville graduate Martin is Cadet Director for PAWF
Submitted photo
Connellsville graduate Kyle Martin holds the trophy after he guided the Pennsylvania Amateur Wrestling Federation to the National Freestyle Championship in Spokane, Washington.
Submitted photo
Connellsville graduate Kyle Martin teaches a class at the Olympic Training Center this past October.
Kyle Martin wants to give back to the sport he loves.
Martin, a 2004 Connellsville graduate who placed eighth in the state tournament as a senior, is the Cadet Director for the Pennsylvania Amateur Wrestling Federation (PAWF) and a development coach for USA Wrestling. He also was a freestyle and Greco-Roman state champion and placed multiple times.
“Van Plocus, who is the PAWF chairman, got me into coaching the school boy age group, then I kind of blossomed into coaching the cadets, then the juniors and it kind of took up the entire summer.
“Through that, I got my bronze certification through USA Wrestling. It is an education program where you are taught match strategy, technique, mental preparation, conditioning and strength, but a lot of it is just basic stuff that I would encourage any coach of wrestling to go through and get it.”
Martin is working towards adding his gold certification through USA Wrestling. He also believes he has grown as a coach the past three years.
“The last four years I really got drawn into it and started on my silver certification through USA Wrestling,” Martin said. “There are not a lot of guys in Pennsylvania that have it. I get invited out to the Olympic Training Center. It will be my sixth time out there in three years.
“I work on the development staff as a development coach at the cadet, junior and schoolboy level. At first it was kind of eye opening. You go out to the Olympic Training Center and you’re like, ‘OK.’ I thought maybe it was going to be my only time out there, but I must be doing something right if they keep inviting me back.
“This is really my third year going out and being a part of it. I go out three to four times a year for training camps, for coaches’ colleges. I presented at a coaches’ college in October at the training center. Since then, I have been working since my gold certification, and I only have one task left, and I should be finishing it up this summer.”
Martin, who received his master’s degree in history from Arizona State University, started his coaching career as an assistant at Slippery Rock High School under Fred Powell before coaching with the Falcons and Tom Dolde Jr. In addition to being a full-time teach at Connellsville Area High School, he is an assistant at Penn State Fayette, The Eberly Campus, under head coach Jerry Simon and assistant Mike Simon.
“I have had the opportunity to come out here (Penn State Fayette) and coach with Coach Jerry (Simon) and Coach Mike (Simon), and it’s been awesome,” Martin said. “The last three years I’ve become 10,000 times better of a coach, and mainly that was through USA Wrestling, but then also having the opportunity to coach here at Penn State Fayette.”
Martin has been named to the staff for the 15-and-under Pan-American Games in Panama this October. It will be his first experience coaching a world team.
“Bill Zadick is the freestyle head coach, but he will be working with the senior team, so they have a staff, usually of two each for freestyle and Greco-Roman,” Martin said. “They will have qualifiers over the summer and we will go down and coach them. Hopefully, we can go down and everybody comes back with a gold medal from the Pan-American Games.”
Martin has had success at the national level in leading the Pennsylvania Cadet Team to a national championship last year in freestyle.
“We won the national title last year in freestyle but we want to win in Greco-Roman, too,” Martin said. “We lost to Illinois and Minnesota last year. They are perennial powers with Greco. It is something you never really expect, but now that it’s there, I want to continue to improve as a coach. My ultimate goal is to develop Olympians for the 2024, ’28 and ’32 Games from this area. I really want to start doing that.”
Martin is working to have more wrestlers come to the camps and be a part of the PAWF and USA Wrestling programs.
“Pennsylvania is not well represented at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, but it will be easier to take guys out there once I get my gold certification in October,” Martin said. “I know Rocco Welsh from Waynesburg is one kid that has been selected to the camp.”
Martin wrestled for Dolde his junior and senior seasons at Connellsville, while Tom Dolde Sr. was the head coach his first two years, but continued to stay active with the program after retiring.
“This will always stick with me, and Dirt (Dolde Sr.) told me this when I started coaching at Connellsville: ‘The toughest part of coaching is when you want that athlete to win more than they do,'” Martin said. “And it really is. Dirt was a hard-nosed guy and intense, but at the same time, he could run you down in practice, but as you were walking off the mat, he’s cracking jokes; he’s doing magic tricks, just to completely break the ice. You were always on edge at our practices.
“My dad coached me from a young age, and he was outstanding. It was intense and we had great coaching staffs at Connellsville. I am happy with my career as a wrestler, but I am way better as a coach than a wrestler. I really love doing this part of it, and I could do it every day.”