(Griswold) Colton Lear is the new head wrestling coach at Griswold.
The former Lewis Central Titan standout takes over a Tiger program that’s had low participation numbers in recent years. “As of now I heard there were only a handful of kids out last year. That is first on my to do list is to get as many kids out as I can, show them that it’s fun, show them the benefits of it, and show them we can have a good time and go from there.”
He’ll be seeking athletes wherever he can. “The biggest sales pitch for me plain and simple. I’m going to see how many football players and track guys I can recruit into coming out. The biggest example would be Kirk Ferentz and his offensive linemen. He looks for wrestlers. Almost college football coach would tell you a lot of their players were wrestlers at one time. It builds character, it builds agility, and many more things.”
Even though this will be his first head coaching gig, he’s no stranger to the wrestling room. “So far I’ve done a lot of kids practices and was a volunteer coach for a couple of years at Lewis Central. I knew I wanted to get in and be an actual assistant or head coach and once the Griswold opportunity opened up I knew that’s where I wanted to get my foot in and start at.”
Lear lists Doug Kjergaard and Keith Massey as a couple of his mentors in wrestling.
