As the mats roll out and community members file into the gym at the high school. They now come across a familiar face that was previously refereeing wrestling events, that is now being welcomed as the new head coach.
Andrew Stepanovich is the new head coach for the wrestling team after previous head coach Edward Wells retired. Stepanovich previously coached in a neighboring conference school.
“I first coached at Forest Hills Northern Middle School for a year and then at the high school for 2-3 years,” Stepanonvich said. “[Eventually,] I had to step away because I’m not a teacher and it didn’t fit my schedule at the time,” Stepanonvich said.
His passion for wrestling began in middle school at Forest Hills Northern and hasn’t dwindled since.
“I started late for most, but my mom was a swimmer and she raised me to be a swimmer as well,” Stepanonvich said “I tried wrestling out and I loved it so much more.”
As Stepanovich’s passion for wrestling was born and his journey through the sport began, he proceeded to earn an individual state championship title in 2008, and two All-State awards during his high school wrestling career. Stepanovich continued his wrestling career at the collegiate level.
“[After my four years of high school] I went on to wrestle in college at Grand Valley State University,” Stephanovich said.
For athletes, having a new coach after years of working with another can be hard. Senior Paige Vansetters likes the new coaching style Stepanovich provides.
“Most things are the same, but the way he goes about it is different I think it’s better because it helps everyone in the room build technique,” Vansetters said.
With Stepanovich coaching style comes new focuses for practices such as more weight lifting and technique focused. Junior Jesse Chandler enjoys the new workouts.
“We have focused more on newer techniques and weight lifting has become a norm compared to past years where we just did weight lifting during conditioning,” Chandler said.
Stepanovich is a player’s coach and takes time to validate his athlete’s thoughts, that is why the program is focusing on providing more opportunities for girls’ wrestling and is trying to build the program more than in the past.
“He wants the girls to succeed and he asked us what can I do for you, and we asked for more girls tournaments so he went out and scheduled more girls tournaments,” Vansetters said.
Steponavich has many goals for the team and sees a bright future for the program. He feels he is supported by the community. He is ready for the competition season and is enthused to see all of the team’s talent play out.
“My goal is for the high school to compete for a state title. It’s such a great community and there’s so many people in it that love wrestling,” Stepanovich said. “[My message] to my wrestlers is to embrace challenges. Wrestling is a challenging sport no matter how good you are and you are going to encounter difficult challenges, just like you are in life. I can attribute the mindset and discipline that I learned in wrestling to a lot of success I’ve had in my life.”
