(Guthrie Center) ACGC’s next head wrestling coach will be Lane Rumelhart.
Rumelhart follows in the shoes of Shawn Danker who retired from coaching wrestling after over 20 years at the helm. Rumelhart was an assistant under Danker the last couple of seasons. “I spent about 16 years of my life wrestling. I grew up in Guthrie Center.” Rumelhart says, “I went on and wrestled four years at Central College in Pella and have been on the mat a lot. Now I’m switching gears and am going to be in the corner.”
This is the type of opportunity Rumelhart has been envisioning for a long time. “My whole life since high school really I’ve known that I wanted to get into coaching and I didn’t know where or when, but as it turns out I’m back in my home district and couldn’t be more excited to get the season going.”
Like any new coach, Rumelhart will have some traditions he wants to carry on and some new ones he wants to start. “Coach Danker was really good at keeping everyone in the loop at all times. He had a good network of coaches around him and we were always on the same page about how to handle situations. A lot of those guys are gone now so I’m hoping I can build some of the same culture among the new staff. I’m still going to have Chris Lehman helping me out as an assistant and I’m hoping to bring some my college buddies from Central. I’m hoping to create that same culture, but just with some new faces.”
They’ll be looking to increase the size of the roster. “We have to get the numbers out. I don’t look at it as just being the head coach of the high school, but I look at it as the whole program across the board. I’d like to get somebody steady at the youth level and junior high level so we can start getting more kids out for our sport.”
He says the main goal is to help kids reach their own goals, whatever they might be.
