Storm coaches 500th JV wrestling win

After coaching for 10 years at the school, Matthew Storm led the junior varsity wrestling team to earn their five-hundredth win. The tight-knit team works to create a comfortable, family-like atmosphere in order to succeed on and off the mats. Barely realizing the time that had passed, Storm was surprised and honored to have earned the team’s five-hundredth win. “We are extremely tight as a team, we’re like a family,” Storm comments, “We work together as a team to strive to reach our goals, we put in individual effort for a team outcome. In everything we do we attack it and put in one-hundred percent.” 

In the same night that Storm coached the junior varsity wrestling team’s five-hundredth win, he was jubilant in the fact that he was able to witness Emilio Haynes earn his hundredth win. Storm coaches each wrestler in a way that is unique and fits the needs of that wrestler. He believes that coaching must work with what each athlete needs to become successful in their athletic career. “Every kid’s got a different strategy for their matches, every kid’s got a different personality, every wrestler has got a different style,” Storm emphasizes, “You really have to be able to adapt your style of coaching to each kid for their success.” 

According to Storm, each wrestling practice lasts exactly two hours or a little less. The time the team puts into practice is filled with total effort, intensity and hard work, continuing to get better individually and all together. Storm thinks that because each person in the sport of wrestling has a different amount of experience, wrestling is an extremely interesting sport. Storm discloses, “To be a wrestler, it takes mental and physical toughness and a striving attitude to continue to get better.” 

Since each athlete is different, Storm continues to actively alter his style of coaching to maximize each individual athlete’s success. The day Storm stopped playing football was the day he began coaching, and he has not stopped with his involvement since then. “I never consider it hard, it’s just pure enjoyment for me,” states Storm, discussing the difficulties of coaching wrestling, “It’s a chance to help kids to become the best that they can be. I’ve never really thought of any of it as being hard.” 

His time spent at Central has created a sense of comfort and safety for Storm, the eagle’s nest is the right place for him to be. Storm is dedicated to helping students and athletes improve themselves and he wants to simultaneously encourage them to work towards success. Going forward, Storm is looking to make wrestler-by-wrestler improvements to help the team grow and strive to become better as a whole.  In relation to his place of work, Storm comments, “Central is my alma mater and it’s just a privilege to be here every day because it feels like home.”