Martin named Cane蘑菇视频 WPIAL Coach of the Year
Connellsville graduate is the head wrestling coach at Norwin
Chances are Kyle Martin will not encourage his wrestlers to indulge on Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers, as the product is not ideal for someone who is looking to keep their body in tip-top shape, but the 2004 graduate of Connellsville Area High School and the Norwin head wrestling coach for boys and girls might have to stop for an order on the way home from practice after being selected as the Cane’s WPIAL Coach of the Year on Tuesday.
Martin, who has been the head coach of the Knights since 2021, was recognized for his role with the Knights in receiving over 3,000 votes to beat out the two finalists in Bethel Park softball coach Nicole Davis and East Allegheny middle school soccer coach Chris Goyke.
Cane’s has a partnership with the WPIAL, and Davis, Goyke and Martin were selected as the three finalists before voting was tabulated. The nominees were chosen from all coaches and sports around the WPIAL.
“I had over 3,000 votes, which was pretty crazy to me,” Martin said. “I was a little shocked because wrestling is kind of a smaller sport community. It was great to be recognized because it comes from the people who support our program. I don’t coach for any type of recognition, but I am still honored.”
Martin, who began wrestling in the Connellsville youth program before building himself up into an eighth-place finisher at the state tournament as a senior, works with his wrestlers to not only be great wrestlers, but great people. He is aware that the success on the mat is what drives the accolades he receives, but will not allow his athletes to slack in their academics and roles as human beings.
“People may say I’m not, but wrestling helped me to become a great human being,” Martin joked. “I also learned about taking accountability for my actions, grit, resiliency and working hard from my time in wrestling. Those seeds began to grow when I was just getting started in the sport.
“I love everything about the sport, and I want to know that I am doing all the right things for the kids to be better for the sport, and learn something from the sport. We had several ‘come to Jesus’ moments where the other coaches and I were brutal to the kids. It was not as wrestlers, but as human beings. Our mission statement is: ‘Developing Olympians in wrestling and in life.'”
Martin said there were about two weeks in the past wrestling season where his athletes weren’t being Olympians in life, which resulted in some rather intense workouts, but his students responded off the mat before getting back to winning on the mat.
“Our team GPA was through the roof,” Martin said. “It was the second highest since I’ve been here at Norwin. We had service projects and made sure our kids worked with the kids on our unified sports teams. We played games and interacted with them. Once we got all that taken care of, we were able to turn our attention to the mat, and we went farther this season than any since I started coaching here.”
The Knights were the runners-up in the WPIAL and PIAA dual meet tournaments and had all three qualifiers in the individual state championships place in the top eight, which was highlighted by junior Landon Sidun winning the 121-pound title. Sidun, a junior who has committed to Penn State, won his second PIAA championship after earning the gold at 114 as a freshman. He didn’t compete in last year’s postseason due to injury. Sidun is also a three-time winner of the nationally-ranked Beast of the East and Powerade tournaments.
Sidun’s teammates, Nathan Klingensmith (6th/145) and Jack White (8th/160) earned spots on the podium.
Martin’s “day job” is as the dean of students at Connellsville Middle School, and he was attending a civics competition for nine of his students Tuesday evening after learning of his award.
“I had one of those ‘small world’ moments yesterday when one of our students, Jade Benzio, who is in seventh grade, placed third and advanced to the state competition,” Martin said. “Her dad, Ben, was a teammate of mine at Connellsville when I was a freshman. I believe he was a senior.”