Former Tiger coach Petterson returns to wrestling

By NABIL SHAHEEN
Hays Daily News

No matter where he was or at what level, all Wayne Petterson ever wanted to do was coach. Now, eight years after his last college coaching stint, the former Fort Hays State University wrestling coach has accepted the head coaching position at Neosho County Community College in Chanute.

"I've always wanted to coach Kansas kids again," Petterson said. "I didn't get in on it (Neosho position) when the program started, but eight years later I've got it now. I'm excited and really looking forward to it."

The Beloit native and FHSU graduate was a three-time All-American in his career as a Tiger.

Petterson began his coaching career as the head coach at Fort Hays and in 10 years his teams had two top-five finishes and five top-12s.

Individually he had two individual national champions, 18 All-Americans and numerous academic All-Americans. He has coached the most duals and is the third-winningest coach in Tiger wrestling history.

"It was just awesome to get the opportunity to go right in as a head coach right after wrestling there, and nothing will ever match that," said Petterson of his time at FHSU. "I want to thank Tom Stromgren and Tom Spicer for giving me the opportunity to be there. I obviously learned some things and also made some mistakes because I was young. But that's the experience you learn from. That's what developed me as a coach."

Upon leaving Fort Hays in 1993, Petterson became an assistant coach at NCAA Division I Northern Illinois University. He helped coach two national tournament qualifiers there before taking over the program at Colorado (Rangely) Northwestern Community College, where he had nine national qualifiers, two All-Americans and received the NJCAA Region XVIII Coach of the Year honor in 1996.

"My father raised me in construction work with his company," Petterson said. "I always knew I could fall back on that when I needed to, and that's what I've been doing. But, personally, I always knew I went to college to get my degree and coach. I decided it was time to make a move on it again."

Sports reporter Nabil Shaheen can be reached at (785) 628-1081 ext. 127 or by e-mail at nshaheen@dailynews.net.