Abbott Blog: A Labor Day thank you to my wrestling coaches, and all coaches across the USA

Photo of Coach Carl Adams by BU.edu.


Labor Day, which recognizes the hard-working Americans who make our nation great, is an appropriate time to thank our wrestling coaches all across America.


Being a wrestling coach is a labor of love. Wrestling coaches don’t command the kind of salaries as football or basketball coaches at the professional and college levels. Many wrestling coaches are paid, and deservedly so, but so many others are strictly volunteers, giving freely of their time to our nation’s youth.


For wrestling to continue to be an important part of our culture in communities across the United States, we need to support our existing wrestling coaches, and recruit new talented leaders to bring our great sport to the next generations of boys and girls, men and women.


I had an opportunity early in my early adult years to coach wrestling. My positions included serving as a volunteer coach at my alma mater Boston University, while at the same time, serving as the head coach for a private junior high school in Newton, Mass. called the Fessenden School. (I coached the sons of John Irving and Ted Kennedy at Fessenden). I spent a year as the head coach at Weymouth North High School in Massachusetts, and a number of years as the volunteer Greco-Roman coach for Massachusetts USA Wrestling. I enjoyed coaching and helping young wrestlers, so I understand a bit about why people choose to be wrestling coaches.


After joining the USA Wrestling staff in 1988, my coaching career ended. Yet I was surrounded by great coaches at all levels who have made an amazing impact on the lives of the wrestlers they mentored. I have kept learning from coaches, even though I no longer compete or coach. It is fair to say that wrestling coaches are the backbone of our sport, year in and year out.


A coach can make a life-long impact on the lives of the athletes they teach. I was blessed that I was coached by four excellent head coaches, numerous great assistant coaches and some talented club coaches. I take a few minutes on my Labor Day holiday to salute these coaches, including the four head coaches during my competitive career.

1. Dave Mayerson, Oldfield Junior High School, Greenlawn, N.Y.


Apparently Dave Mayerson did not wrestle himself, but you would never know that based upon the way he coached our Junior High team. Mayerson was famous for sinking half-court shots during gym class, so I think hoops may have been his specialty. When my eighth-grade brother Jim dragged me, his seventh-grade brother, to wrestling team tryouts, neither of us knew if we would be any good at the sport. Dave Mayerson taught us the basics of the sport, while challenging us to give our best effort and push ourselves every day. In seventh grade, I lost my first six dual meets on the B Team, but rallied to win the last two bouts of the year. From then on, I was hooked. By my final junior high year in ninth grade, I won the biggest Junior High event in our community, the Huntington Tournament, and also won a medal at the tough Nassau Junior High Tournament. Coach Mayerson laid the foundation for me in the sport.

2. John Szokoli, Harborfields High School, Greenlawn, N.Y.


We called him “Zoke,” which in his case was a term of endearment. John Szokoli (Za-Ko-Lee) was one the funniest guys I met in wrestling, with a subtle dry sense of humor which came out of him day after day in the wrestling room. He was also one of the best coaches on Long Island during his era. We were a small school in a quiet suburban community, just a few minutes from the state powerhouse program to our west, Huntington High School. Yet in my junior year, Harborfields was ranked No. 1 in the county (called sections in NY) going into the season. (Ironically, Huntington did not schedule a dual with us that year). We didn’t end up winning Counties, but we put two wrestlers into the top five in the state meet, Jim Abbott and Gary Gardner. I ended up wrestling freestyle and Greco each spring and summer, and never even placed in the county championships (let alone compete at states). Yet Coach Szokoli taught me how to wrestle and how to win, and I went on to be successful in Div. I wrestling. I was not the only one. One of my teammates in high school, Dave McEntee, qualified for the NCAA Div. I tournament at UMass, something nobody would have predicted back when we wrestled in high school. He coached all three Abbott brothers, Jim, Gary and Ken to success in high school. Zoke coached many strong teams for a number of generations. It is a shame that the New York Downstate Chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame has not yet inducted Coach Szokoli, but I will continue to talk it up, and maybe he will get what he deserves some year while he is still alive.

3. Fred Lett, Boston University


It is hard to explain Freddy Lett to those who never met him. Heck, I knew nothing about Coach Lett until I walked on for wrestling at Boston University. My college choices were Syracuse, Cornell and BU, which had great journalism schools. I may have liked Syracuse best, but their team was loaded with lightweights, including future NCAA champ and Olympian Gene Mills, and I wanted to be a starter. Cornell had a good coach, Andy Noel, but the journalism program was in their Ag school, which didn’t appeal to me. Since I wasn’t recruited, I just went to BU to give wrestling a chance and study journalism. I only knew two guys on the team, incoming freshmen who were on Team New York with me at Junior Nationals, Wade Genova and Kevin Egleston. That freshmen group was the foundation of the next four BU squads. Wade and I became starters in the first two weights, and we were tough enough that team captain at our weight quit. Fred Lett was a 1969 NAIA runner-up for Adams State, and you can find his picture in one of Bobby Douglas’ wrestling books. If you wrestled for Fred, you liked him. Fred gave me a partial wrestling scholarship after a year or two, which was appreciated for sure. I remember one day when he was not happy with how we practiced. He said he could take down our entire lineup, and starting at heavyweight, he took down nine straight, including me. He was so tired that in the last matchup, 118-pounder Wade Genova took him down. Our BU teams were good but not great, and those who stuck with it became good friends. We all have some great Fred Lett stories to last a lifetime.

4. Carl Adams, Boston University


My senior year, BU brought in a new coach. Carl Adams, the two-time NCAA champion from Iowa State, who had coached the regional powerhouse team at Rhode Island. His team beat BU every year in our conference. Rhode Island dropped the sport, and BU hired him. He brought three of his URI wrestlers with him, Tod Giles, Mike Enzien and Tony D’Arezzo. I had an opportunity my final year to compete for a legend in our sport, and one of the best people I have ever met. I learned so much that year from Carl, but I missed most of the season with injury. I ended up losing my spot to Enzien in the final wrestle-offs and wrestled up a weight at the conference meet. I never did make the NCAA Div. I event, but that was on me, not my coaches. BU won its first New England Conference team title in my senior year, with Carl as our coach. Even though he was 10 years older, Carl was the fastest wrestler I had ever seen. One day, I actually took Carl down in practice, which is something I still don’t know if I actually did or he just gave one to me (Carl won’t say, and actually doesn’t remember me ever getting a takedown, but I do). Carl is the person who kept me in wrestling, asking me to edit his new wrestling magazine Wrestling Masters. I lived with him for a while that first year, and helped coach his BU wrestlers. He introduced me to everybody in wrestling, and got me a gig as the PR guy for the National Wrestling Coaches Association. He basically helped me build a career in wrestling. Our magazine ultimately did not make it, and I went to USA Wrestling in 1988. I owe him so much, and he is still a mentor and friend. I was so pleased to be there in person when he was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame. How many people actually get to compete for a Hall of Fame coach? I did.


How about assistant coaches? They are huge factors in our lives as well. I wish to recognize Pete Barros, who was our assistant coach in high school and a long-time family friend. In college, BU assistant coach Matt Thomas worked out with me and helped me so much. Two other BU assistants I appreciate were Cliff Whelan and Rod Buttry. My senior year at BU, former Rhode Island All-American Scott Pucino was my assistant coach, and truly believed in me and my abilities. All of these great people are very dear to me.


I was never on a wrestling club, but I worked with many top coaches on the freestyle/Greco circuit. My dad used to drive me twice a week to Hofstra, where I worked with many coaches, but especially with Al Bevilacqua and Sonny Greenhalgh. Coach Bevi coached me and inspired me at Junior Nationals. I also thank my Junior National Greco-Roman coach Mark Faller, who coached Olympic champions Ed Banach and Lou Banach in high school, for helping me. In college, there were no RTCs or club programs, but the dominant club coach in Boston was Jim Peckham at the Boston YMCU, who also coached at Emerson. He was an Olympic Coach and about as old school as is possible. Peckham often came to BU practices and helped us and became my lifelong friend. I am proud to say I have been coached by two Hall of Famers. I was there in person when Jim Peckham was inducted into the Hall of Fame in Stillwater, another memorable day in my life.


My coaches were also key to guiding many of their athletes to become wrestling coaches themselves. There are some amazing wrestling coaching trees that have come from my coaches, something that is absolutely necessary to keep our sport strong.


As I look ahead as wrestling emerges from its COVID-19 challenges, I know it will be possible because of the hard work and commitment of wrestling coaches in every community across our great nation.


If you get a chance, thank your wrestling coaches. It doesn’t have to be on Labor Day. Any day is appropriate. I sure enjoyed thanking mine today.