WAYNESBURG, Pa. (June 26) – Fans of amateur wrestling on the national level are keenly aware that one of the biggest stories in the sport centers around Waynesburg native Coleman Scott's red hot run through several elite tournaments and events to earn a spot on the 2012 United State Olympic team. What many of them may not be aware of is the fact that two men who worked extensively with Scott make up the coaching staff at Waynesburg University.
 
Fourth-year Yellow Jacket head coach Ron Headlee served as Scott's junior high coach, while his primary assistant, John Yates, spent four years as the head varsity coach of one of Pennsylvania's finest mat competitors ever. However, if you ask Yates what his impact was on Scott, he felt his role was more of a hands-off caretaker, rather than a teacher of technique and imparter of competitive virtue.
 
“I was talking to people who really know wrestling and I try to downplay my role with his success. In four years at high school, I really don't know how much I taught him. It was more like I didn't mess him up,” Yates said with a laugh. “For me, his making the team was really satisfying.”
 
After going 156-12 and winning three Pennsylvania Class AAA state titles at Waynesburg Central High School, all under Yates' watch, Scott went on to Oklahoma State University, one of the nation's biggest and most consistent Division I powerhouses. Not only did he start four years for the Cowboys, but he earned All-American status four times and won the 2008 133-pound title with a pin in then-record time of 49 seconds. Not surprisingly, both Yates and Headlee were in attendance at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis to see the former Raider great celebrate what was, at that time, his biggest accomplishment in the sport.
 
Following Scott's national title, he moved onto the international arena where he quickly moved up the ladder as one of America's finest freestyle grapplers. That climb to Olympic status came to fruition over the past few weeks and months as Scott came out on top in three incredibly challenging events that proved he was the best in the country at 60 kg. On April 16, Scott won his weight at the United State Olympic Wrestling Trials, but wasn't awarded the spot because of some complicated circumstances involving the U.S. not yet qualifying for the weight at the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
 
After Shawn Bunch, another of the nation's top 60 kg competitors, placed third at the World Olympic Games Qualifying Tournament in Taiyuan, China on April 27, the pair, along with a third competitor, Reece Humphrey, who is a former All-American at Ohio State, were placed in the main event of the "The Grapple in the Big Apple," a fund raising extravaganza that included a three-man tournament between Humphrey, Bunch and Scott to determine who would represent the country in London. As if Scott wasn't hot enough following his win at the Olympic Trials, he went 5-0 at the 2012 Freestyle World Cup and looked primed for victory in the “Big Apple.” After dispatching Humphrey in the first match of the day, Scott took two out of three bouts from Bunch to finally punch his ticket for the Olympics.  As he had done through Scott's high school days, Yates, along with Headlee, was right there to watch arguably the greatest grappler to be under his guidance achieve the loftiest of goals.
 
“Everything is clicking with him right now. He won the trials and the world cup and then he went out and beat Humphries and Bunch. I watched him in April and he's never wrestled better than he is right now,” Yates said. “What he has done is really neat and it makes me proud as heck to say he came through my room.”
 
Although Yates had the honor of coaching Scott on his first major stage as one of tradition-rich Pennsylvania's top high school competitors of all time, Headlee did his part to help prepare him for varsity competition as his junior high coach. The Jacket head coach's son Drew, who was an All-American at the University of Pittsburgh, a former assistant at Waynesburg University and a solid international competitor in his own right, spent most of his competitive days near Scott's weight class.
 
“Drew and Coleman and some of the other really good wrestlers that wrestled at Waynesburg Central have all battled each other since they were in first grade, and I think that really helped make them into the competitors they are today,” Headlee said. “They all met each other and started competing against each other in the little leagues.”
 
While most coaches can only dream about the chance to work with a world class athlete like Scott, Headlee has actually received the opportunity on two separate occasions. During his nine-year run at Jefferson-Morgan High School, which is located just a few miles away from Waynesburg, Headlee coached perhaps the greatest high school wrestler in not only Pennsylvania's long and storied history, but in the entire country in Cary Kolat. Kolat went undefeated over four years as a Rocket and scored four PIAA titles. He, like Scott, also attained Olympic status and competed in the 2000 Sydney Games.
 
“Their styles are completely different, but they both have an amazing will to win,” Headlee said of the pair. “It's a great feeling to know that small towns like Waynesburg and Rices Landing (Jefferson-Morgan) have had two Olympians and so many places and programs haven't had any.”
 
Headlee, Yates and the entire Waynesburg program will do their part to help get Scott to London on Saturday, June 30, when the Rudy Marisa Fieldhouse will play host to a clinic featuring Scott and 1988 Olympic gold medalist Kenny Monday. There will be a $20 entry fee for those attending the clinic, which is open to all ages elementary school through college, and all spectators will be asked to make a $5 donation to view the clinic. For more information, contact Ron Headlee at rheadlee@waynesburg.edu or by phone at 724-984-2953. It is one of several fund-raising efforts being put on in and around Waynesburg.

Scott will make his run at a 60 kg gold medal on Saturday, Aug. 11, and Yates plans to be in England's capital city to see his most successful pupil add the ultimate prize to his vast collection of wrestling awards and achievements.s vast collection of wrestling awards and achievements.