Dorsey man McCoy leaves legacy with Edwardsville, Bethalto wrestling

Despite the fact that Kevin owned and operated McCoy’s Flooring, he still observed time to coach his boys in baseball, wrestling and any other activity they competed in as youngsters. Kevin cherished level of competition and handed that on to equally his boys and his grandchildren.

In excess of the previous 10 yrs or so it was his grandchildren, Luke, Josi, Dollars, Cooper, Nova, Kimmy and Holden, that stoked his aggressive fire and delivered Kevin a great total of pride as he viewed them compete in baseball, softball, football, soccer and wrestling in and around the group.

In the 1990s, Kevin was instrumental in serving to to form the Edwardsville Wrestling Club. Kevin employed his enterprise savvy and complex abilities to support secure funding and style and design a youth wrestling making in Edwardsville. Janelle contributed behind the scenes as the lengthy-time treasurer for the club. It was these endeavours that served establish the youth club and eventually the Edwardsville Superior Faculty wrestling plan into a state power.

Prior to Kevin’s involvement, youth wrestlers from Edwardsville were being forced to indication up with wrestling golf equipment in neighboring towns. Kevin thought Edwardsville would help a wrestling staff and his beliefs were proved proper as the Edwardsville Wrestling Club persistently features the major membership of youth grapplers south of Joliet. Around the decades, Edwardsville wrestling has created multiple youth and significant university point out champions with quite a few Edwardsville athletes going on to wrestle in higher education.

Now, 2018 Edwardsville graduate and existing Missouri Tiger, Noah Surtin, is the No. 14-rated collegiate wrestler in the nation at 125 kilos. A further Edwardsville graduate (2020), Luke Odom, wrestles for the College of Illinois. A lot of other Edwardsville graduates have competed collegiately because the Edwardsville Wrestling Club was launched. It was in part because of to Kevin’s and Janelle’s initiatives in the early years of the youth club that these successes ended up attainable.

Bethalto, also a prolonged-time wrestling power at each the youth (Bulls Wrestling Club) and substantial school degree (Civic Memorial High College), was a further benefactor of Kevin’s and Janelle’s generosity. All of Kevin and Janelle’s grandkids are in the Bethalto University District and Kevin’s oldest grandson, Luke, wrestled for both of those the Bulls Wrestling Club and Trimpe Middle College (Bethalto) right before high university. If Luke was wrestling, you could locate Kevin in the health and fitness center. Kevin let it be identified to his pals and household prior to his passing that he wished to leave a legacy to the wrestling systems and neighborhood that will effects his grandchildren.

With the developing of the new Civic Memorial Substantial School wrestling facility, the McCoy family members observed it to be the ideal opportunity to switch some of Kevin’s great fortune into assisting

mildew the new wrestling facility from vision to fact. Chad McCoy took his understanding obtained from working with his brother and his father in the flooring small business and mounted a awesome turf ground in the facility. Pursuing Kevin’s passing, the McCoy loved ones also donated sizeable resources to the Bulls Wrestling Club, Trimpe Wrestling Club and Civic Memorial Substantial University wrestling workforce to construct a subfloor below the mats in the new facility and invest in odds and ends necessary to finalize development. These contributions ended up vital as now the Bulls and Eagles are positioned to retain wrestling dominance in Illinois for a long time to appear.

Like Edwardsville, the Eagles have despatched several wrestlers to the Division I degree above the previous several several years. At this time, 2020 Civic Memorial graduates, Caleb Tyus (SIUE) and Vinny Zerban (University of Northern Colorado) are rated on Intermat’s Division 1 rankings with Tyus staying ranked 23rd in the place at 149 lbs and Zerban at 31st at 157 kilos.

Caine Tyus, also a 2020 Civic Memorial graduate, also continued his wrestling profession at SIUE. Abe Wojcikiewicz, an envisioned 2023 Eagle graduate, is ranked fifth in the nation among high college 170-pounders and has signed a letter of intent to wrestle at Stanford University in California upcoming 12 months.

With the new donations and endeavours to the new wrestling facility, it looks most likely that a lot more Eagle grapplers will consider the path from youth wrestler to college wrestler.

Luke, Kevin’s oldest grandson and at the moment a freshman starter on the Civic Memorial Eagles High College varsity wrestling staff, might be 1 of those kids. Luke has competed for the Eagles wrestling crew at 152, 160 and 170 pounds this calendar year accumulating a file of 23-11 and is a significant element of why the Eagles help twin crew file of 16-2 and a rating within the top 20 in 2A condition inspite of having 1A enrollment. With several condition rated wrestlers on the Eagle squad and a point out of the art facility, Luke and his teammates are poised to make improvements to on the mat in excess of the following various yrs.

Kevin still left an effect on the Edwardsville and Bethalto wrestling neighborhood that is most likely to reverberate for a lengthy time. A community leader and fantastic relatives man, Madison County and particularly the wrestling neighborhood, owe a personal debt of gratitude to Kevin and Janelle McCoy.