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Maple Heights wrestling coach Jamie Milkovich's career record is 400-110-1 in 32 seasons. - (Lonnie Timmons III, The Plain Dealer)
MAPLE HEIGHTS, Ohio ? Wrestling dual meets aren't quite what they used to be, but in the case of Maple Heights and coach Jamie Milkovich, they do reflect something significant.
Milkovich earned his 400th career dual-meet victory as a head coach last Thursday at Aurora. It also was the 699th win in Maple Heights' rich history, which includes 10 state championships.
Though state records are incomplete, Milkovich is believed to be Ohio's all-time winningest Division I wrestling coach, owning a 400-110-1 record in 32 seasons, all at Maple Heights. The all-time leader is Bloomdale Elmwood's Dave Lee, who began the season with 437 wins.
Milkovich long ago passed his uncle, legendary coach Mike Milkovich, who won 265 career meets at Maple Heights in an era when no more than a dozen duals were wrestled in a season and many of those meets were like a Browns-Steelers playoff game.
Maple Heights is 27-4 this season, and the program has remained relevant, which is perhaps Milkovich's greatest accomplishment in three-plus decades. The Mustangs were ranked ninth in last week's final Division I state coaches poll, and they were sixth at last year's state tournament.
"I'm really proud of keeping Maple Heights relevant, and I'm excited about the future,'' Milkovich said. "There's been a lot of transformation. If you don't stay ahead of it, you get behind. I know what this year's team is. I'm coaching next year's team in my mind.''
Milkovich pointed to transformations in technique and approach to the sport in the community. He said Maple Heights was a takedown-escape team when he took over as coach in 1985 and he added emphasis on tilts from the top position. One wrestler who has taken that to heart this season is cradle expert Melvin Johnson, a 145-pound senior with a 35-4 record ? and a school-record 35 pins.
Milkovich said changing demographics within the community have forced him to adapt. He said many of his wrestlers' families no longer can afford summer camps and off-season wrestling trips. Other wrestlers have transferred into the school with little wrestling background.
So, instead of running before practice, he has lengthy warmups that emphasize basic technique.
"We spend an hour on it, the same basic moves, and after every day for four years, you can see it seeping in,'' said Milkovich, a 2003 inductee into the Ohio Wrestling Hall of Fame.
Milkovich, 54, teaches Career Based Intervention at Maple Heights.
Richie's right: Maple Heights senior 170-pounder Richie Robertson (39-1), a state runner-up last year, wrestled the Lake Erie League tournament at 160 pounds, but he will stay at 170 for the tournament.
"He needs to be alive. I can't have him worried about making weight. I need him to go full-force,'' Milkovich said.
Hiles and Heil: There's a unusual twist of brothers among St. Edward wrestlers with similar-sounding names. Eagles senior three-time state champ Dean Heil's brother, Josh, is a freshman at Brunswick, and he won the Northeast Ohio Conference recently.
St. Edward freshman 120-pound starter Austin Hiles' brother, Quinton, is a senior and returning state place-winner at Brecksville.
Payback: Sometimes there can be nothing more rewarding to a wrestler than beating a wrestler who defeated him previously. That was a key to St. Edward heavyweight Ralph Nichols' 4-2 overtime win against Massillon Perry's Stefano Millin in Saturday's state team tournament final. Millin had pinned Nichols at the Ironman.
It happened twice at the West Shore Conference tournament finals Saturday.
Rocky River freshman 106-pounder Aaron Kelly (26-7) pinned Bay's Vince Zitiello, who had accounted for two of Kelly's seven losses. Lakewood's Ralph Johnson won the 170-pound title with a pin of Bay's Don Ruma, who beat Johnson earlier it the season.
Lakewood coach Vinnie Curiale said Johnson (33-10) has overcome more than just one opponent. Curiale said Johnson lost by pin or technical fall in every match as a freshman, won six matches as a sophomore and also had a losing record as a junior.
Big winners: According to individual records reported to The Plain Dealer this week, two area wrestlers head into the weekend's sectional tournaments undefeated: Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy three-time state champ Nathan Tomasello and Beachwood junior returning state champ Ryan Harris. Both are 39-0.
Tomasello, an Ohio State recruit, has not lost since his freshman year. "I'm just trying to enjoy the last part of the season and looking forward to the next three weeks,'' he said.
Barberton seniors Aaron Tschantz and Vern Rowe were the victory leaders, both with 42-3 records.
Coaches are asked to email wrestler's records, year and weight class to Gary.Kanaga@nordoniaschools.org. The deadline is 10 p.m. Monday.
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