FORT WASHINGTON -- John Staudenmayer recently began his third season as the Head Coach of Germantown Academy's wrestling team. With the group having participated in three tournaments already, Staudenmayer gave some insight into why he coaches the sport.

How did you get your start in coaching?

I was a volunteer coach for a club when I was still in high school, so at that point, I kind of already knew that I was going to be coaching in some capacity. I was so invested in the sport that I just had to coach. 

Did your student-athlete experience influence your coaching style?

I didn't grow up in a wrestling family, so my brother and I didn’t have this expectation of being world champions. I knew I wanted to win a state title and I knew I wanted to wrestle in college, so it was, let’s work as hard as we possibly can and see how far we can take this thing. 

I think what I most emulate as a coach I learned from some of the best people that have ever come through the sport. I turned a corner when I realized I wanted to take it seriously, so when someone tells me they want to do this, I am now able to lead the way.

Who has influenced you in your coaching career?

The coach at University of Arkansas at Little Rock right now, Neil Erisman, was an assistant coach my junior and senior year of college at University of North Carolina, and he just gave me this edge. Another was Bryce Hasseman, and he gave me the crazy. So, Neil was the one who helped me learn to be laser focused and very intentional, and then Bryce was the one who helped me learn that sometimes you've got to go out there and be an animal. 

Malvern Prep's assistant coach, Nate Wachter '99, is one of the greatest wrestlers in GA history, and he was the first one who really taught me that it's okay to be a little different; it doesn't matter what anybody says, technique is what it is, and results speak for themselves. Everyone has given me something, but those are things that stand out for sure. 

How do you coach wrestlers of different skill levels?

I coach with my brother, and we have the same morals, standards, and expectations. With two of us here, it allows one of us to be with the more experienced group, and one of us to do the foundational work with the newer wrestlers. We try to pair up guys relative to their experience level so that even if they are 50 pounds apart, they're learning the same thing. We don’t want to just throw them into deep waters right away. 

How do you keep practice exciting?

Harvesting a fun atmosphere is, I wouldn't say impossible, but it is hard because if we stray away from the goal, we can drift, and intensity becomes less. We do games and things like dodgeball or competing in sprints to get the competitor out of them. Wrestling is a monotonous sport, and we talk about that a lot. You drill the same things almost every single day, so you kind of know what practice is going to be like; you just don't know how intense it's going to be. Sometimes we dial it back and go slower, while other times we're asking a lot of them right away. 

What is the hardest part of coaching wrestling? 

I'm not in control. As a wrestler, you are fully in control of the match, of the outcome, of what happens in your regard. Obviously, somebody else is trying to do the same thing, but as a coach, once it starts, there's nothing I can do. All other coaches see that in some instances, but when it's only one-on-one, you against me, you can't look to somebody else.