7 Minutes with a Staffer

Alex Cacciarelli - Staff Writer
February 19, 2010
Filed under Features

I will never forget my junior year, standing at the edge of mat 3, waiting for my semi-final match to start at the MICDS wrestling tournament. Across from me stood a two time state champion waiting to rip my arms out. In desperation, I turn to Coach Muelheisen for a few words of affirmation, or maybe my last rights. Yet, what comes next are some of the last words I expected to hear. I am greeted with a well rehearsed speech from coach about how I can, and will have a great chance to win this match. I do a double take, this guy realy thinks I can do this. And this is not sympathy encouragement, , 1980 US hockey team . Now this is where the miracle upset happens in every sports story. But not this one. After about 30 seconds of simply trying to keep this kid in my field of vision, I procede to blink at an inopportune time, and when my eyes re-open, I find myself staring at the ceiling. After a few more seconds of pain, I walk back off the mat and I find coach waiting for me with a grin on his face, and a handshake waiting for me.
“You did a lot of great things, I thought we had him for a second there.” I’m not quite sure exactly which second I had him, but regardless of how good or bad the match goes, coach has always been, and will always be, in my corner.
As a six year old, Tim Muelheisen wandered into his first little league wrestling practice at Parkway West High School. Looking up to his dad, did only little to ease his six year old nerves. But until he looked down at the mat did he realize where he was. Painted around the edge of the mat was a long, yet very familiar name.
“On the mat at Parkway West, every wrestler who places in the state tournament gets their name painted on the mat. And on the mat was my dad’s name, Mark Muelheisen. Once I saw his name on the mat, I knew that this was my sport.”
Since that day, wrestling has been Tim Muelheisen’s passion. And his enthusiasm and for the sport is evident year round.
While it is clear that Muelheisen loves the sport, it is also apparent he also loves every kid to come through his room. Not many kids are willing to put themselves through what goes goes on at practice everyday, yet year after year, the kids keep coming back. On the roughest of days, the only thing that can keep me on my feet and moving is Coach’s motivation and desire for us to compete and be at our best.“On the few days when he is not at practice, the whole atmosphere is different, because there is just not the same intensity and passion at practice,” Said Drew Wackerle, junior.
Wrestling is a sport where performance equals acceptance. A lot of kids are so afraid of failure that it destroyes their ability to perform. I always tell the kids that they are free to succeed, and that they are loved regardless of performance.So many kids are terrivied of their coach or loosing but on one wrestling for Muelheisien is urdened by this fear. Tim’s coaching theory is built on the foundation of love for the sport and the kids he is surrounded by.
Gary Mayab is the coach at Oak Park, one of the best wrestling schools in the country. And one day I asked him how he gets his kids to perform so well year after year, and he said ‘They will do anything to be loved. If you prove to them that you care for them, they will do anything for you.”
Mayab’s response inspired Muelheisen to find the potential in every kid he coaches. There is do doubt that he has succeded in his goal. The man has such a posative outlook on life, you would think he had won the lottery every day for the past four years. He also has the uncanny ability to see only the good in everybody, and in the sport of wrestling, it is pretty easy to see the frustration and negativity in everybody. This is the reason why kids keep coming back into his room. They feel so important and loved by him that they are willing to show up and pour their hearts into every practice and match, and they know he will pour his heart right back out to them.
In just a few short weeks, four of my closest friends and I will walk off the mat for the last time. Some of us will win and some of us will lose. But when it is all over, we will shake coaches hand, hear how proud of us he is, and we will know it is true. We will think about every miserable practice, every day without dinner, every great victory and tough loss. And we will see that coach’s love of the sport and positive attitude has been the only thing that was always there for the past four years. We will continue our lives with countless memories and lessons we have learned from our fearless leader and eternal optimist. But coach will stay in his room, and he will stay with his program.
“Westminster is where I am ment to be, this is what I am supposed to do with my life,” said Muleheisen
And next winter, he will find a new group of kids who want to become men, and start the whole thing over again.