Successful past a key to future for Sandwich wrestling

Baseball legend Satchel Paige famously uttered the words, “Don’t look back, something might be gaining on you.”

However, that’s not true for everyone. The Sandwich High school wrestling team, for example, is looking back at the past in order to help build a brighter future.

If the Indians are going to make a state appearance this year either individually or as a team, they have their work cut out for them, starting with the stacked Coal City Class 2A Regional this Saturday.

However, there is plenty of inspiration to be drawn from those who came before them and achieved the greatest successes an athlete and team possibly can, the very thing they now seek. They see tangible reminders — state team trophies, state medals and signs, placards with brackets for state champions in cases and banners on the walls — every day on their walk through to the practice room, showing what’s possible to anyone who will work to achieve them.

Among those awards and honors is a trophy won exactly 20 years ago next week by a strong and talented club led by legendary coach Lon Gerrish, a team that won four individual state medals and the Class 1A dual state championship.

State champs Elliot Duy (135 pounds) and Ben Hay (152) and third-place finishers Kevin Gerrish (103) and Andy Gacek (171) shined for the deep squad that rolled through the dual bracket, defeating Mt. Zion 48-16 and Stanford Olympia 43-27 before crushing Byron 53-6 in the title match.

Predictably, Coach Gerrish wouldn’t say that the ’99 squad was better or more special than any of his other clubs, outside of his son winning his first state medal of his career. After all, he has so many great teams from which to choose, among them the Class 1A state champs in the 1990-91, 1996-97 and 2000-01 seasons.

In all, the Gerrish-led program from 1982 to 2002 claimed 17 conference championships, and at state placed fourth in 2001, third in 1985 and ’89 and second in ’95, along the way earning the coach a spot in the National Wrestling Hall of Fame, the 1994 Man of the Year by the Illinois Wrestling Coaches and Officials Association and Adminstrator of the Year in 2012 and an induction into the IWCOA Hall of Fame inductee in 1997.

“That’s a tough one, choosing one of those teams as the best over the others. I’d end up second-guessing myself, but ‘99 was certainly one of them,” said Gerrish, “That team was so dominant, very dedicated all the way back to junior high, which was a very strong program then. Yes, that was a great year.

“Two years before that in ‘97, we upset Mahomet-Seymour in the semifinals, and they had five state champions that year. That was extraordinary, but the ’99 team certainly had a lot of talent. … We knew (at dual state) we’d have our hands full with each one of those teams. Byron upset Oregon in the other side of the bracket, so we felt we had a good chance coming from the tougher side, and we had a good day.

"It was a lot of fun.”

The dual championship cashed in a stretch of extended excellence for those ’99 stars. His title was the second in a row for Hay, on the heels of a ’98 first at 140 and a ’97 third at 135. Duy the year before was third at 135, and Gerrish the next year placed second, again at 103.

Coach Gerrish’s influence remains intact today through current Indians wrestling coach Kris Cassie, who started out as an assistant coach at Sandwich Grade School in Gerrish’s last season, in 2002.

“I learned from the best,” Cassie said. “He’s been a fantastic mentor to me, both professionally and personally, and I consider him a great friend.

"The kids and I talk about his teams, including the ’99 team, all the time, about Coach Gerrish and all the success they had. The kids see those trophies and banners every day. His presence gives us all something to strive for. He proved you can win in Sandwich, and that makes it very real for our kids. It gives them something to strive for, a legacy to take great pride in, and a reason to work hard in an effort to add their name to that legacy and create a legacy of their own because the bar has been set so high.

“They do, as I do, feel very fortunate to be a part of this. We have some wrestlers having terrific seasons on this team, and hopefully we’ll take a step toward joining that legacy this weekend.”