New coach has Farragut winning and growing
By Steve Williams
A brand new coach took over the boys’ wrestling program at Farragut High this season and the re-sults have been surprisingly good.
Sixty-year-old Charlie Rohn and his family moved to Knoxville from Maryland last July and his son, Dylan, had been on two state winning teams the past two years.
“We came here and they didn’t have a coach,” recalled Rohn. “And he (his son) wasn’t going to be able to wrestle and he’s a senior.
“So, they were looking for people and finally my wife says, ‘Well, you should probably volunteer.’ I said well it’s been a long time since I wrestled. So anyway, I applied for the position and then they hired me. I told them I would stay at least a minimum of two to three years to add some continuity and to help out.”
Asked to describe his career as a wrestling coach last week, Rohn said: “This is the start of it. The last time I wrestled was 43 years ago (in high school).”
The start began with a lot of recruiting in the Farragut cafeteria. A senior on the team, Michael Stafford-Hedge, and the new coach’s son, Dylan, helped.
“I would go to the school everyday probably for at least a month straight and go to all three lunch periods to recruit kids,” Coach Rohn recalled.
He built Farragut’s roster up to 35 members. Other than four upperclassmen (three seniors and a junior), the other 31 are sophomores and freshmen “and brand new wrestlers,” said Rohn.
“They (Farragut) have had a wrestling program, but not many kids on it.”
The results on the mat have also been good after a little bit of a rocky start.
The Admirals entered last Thursday night’s meet at Clinton with wins in 10 dual matches so far this season. The top individual won-loss records on the team were held by Rohn (33-1), Stafford-Hedge (23-3) and Jonathan Laney (21-11).
Rohn wrestles in the 144-pound weight class, Stafford-Hedge at 165 and Laney, a junior, at 138.
“We ended up only having two matches, as Knoxville Catholic didn’t want to stay out too late (due to weather),” Coach Rohn said. “We won both matches, 42-36 over Clinton and 60-21 over Scott, who beat us in our first match of the season 42-38.”
Rohn pinned his opponent from Scott and had a forfeit from Clinton and Stafford-Hedge pinned both of his opponents. Zac Posey also had his first varsity pin.
“It was a good test for us against Scott,” said Coach Rohn. “I didn’t know they were going to be here until three or four hours before the match. We got an opportunity to redeem ourselves. We made some rookie mistakes in the first meeting. When you’re new, there’s a lot of growth opportunity.
“I have about five kids who have had wrestling experience.”
The Admirals as a team now have won 12 dual matches and lost seven.
Coach Rohn took his team to a tournament in Cleveland, a hotbed of high school wrestling and currently ranked No. 1 in the state, earlier this season. “They put us in a tough pool there and we won one and lost a few,” he said.
The new coach said he couldn’t take credit for the team’s top wrestlers. “Those kids were already wrestling. Other than my son, I helped them some, but he (Dylan) had some other good training.
“The key to the success of the team is all the kids are willing to work hard.”
A surprising development about a month into the season included the addition of Dalton Pearl to the coaching staff. He had gone to a high school in Maryland that Coach Rohn knew about and graduated five years ago. He came to Knoxville for a UT-K grad program to get his doctorate and an internship at Y-12 and just finished five years of college wrestling.
“I didn’t know who was more excited, him or me,” said Rohn.
It’s almost like someone’s looking out for the new Farragut coach.
“We’re very blessed,” he said.
Rohn also has two other wrestling assistants, football assistant coach Ryan Jacobs and Jason Stinnett, who is primarily over the girls’ program and also assists with the boys’ program.
