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By Kasi Greenwood
In the history of Mineral Point Wrestling, there have only been three head coaches, Jerry Olson, Al Baumann, and Scott Schmitz.
Schmitz had been Mineral Point's head wrestling coach for 32 years until his retirement announcement last month. The question of who would soon succeed him was quickly answered by a Mineral Point wrestling alumni.
Curtis Fiedler is a 2006 graduate of Mineral Point High School, and was a two time state wrestling champion under Scott Schmitz. He was recently hired by the Mineral Point School District as a Special Education teacher.
"I think when the administration was looking for a new coach, they were looking at our staff as a whole, and then what kind of attributes each coach brings to not only the program, but to the kids, and how they can make them grow" Schmitz said. "When Curtis applied for the job, they saw those same attributes, that he understands the program, and he's one of our homegrown people. And I think that was a big factor when they were looking at coaches."
Schmitz said that he felt that it was the right time to retire, and when Curtis applied for the job things began to fall into place. He is very confident in Fiedler's ability to be a head coach, as he was the co-head coach for River Valley for the last few years.
When Fiedler found out Schmitz's retirement, it came somewhat as a surprise to him however there were some hints by Schmitz with Fielder being involved.
"All of a sudden he announces his retirement without really telling anyone, including me," Fiedler said. "Once that happened, the process just started letting him know I was interested and that was all she wrote."
The Mineral Point Wrestling fan base has been quite large, and many times large clusters of Mineral Point fans have been known to fill the bleachers providing their support to the sport that is well known in the southwest Wisconsin community. With that in mind, Fiedler knows that he has big shoes to fill.
"To say there's pressure would be an understatement, knowing that there's only been three other coaches is pretty intimidating" Fiedler said. "But I know that the backing that this program has is second to none. I know that there will be a lot of support, being able to work with the people that support this program and the kids that work their tails off to get better in this program. That's an exciting thing."
He said that Fiedler taking over has made his decision a lot easier. Schmitz said that he won't be very far and he will support Fiedler in any capacity that he can. Schmitz is confident in Fiedler and knowing that Mineral Point Wrestling fans will also support him, like they did with him.
"I just want to thank all the fans, the parents, the cheerleaders, the managers and especially all the wrestlers that I had over the 32 years for everything," Schmitz said. "It was a lot of fun. We had our ups and downs and that, but in the big picture of it all I think we put out a good product and had a lot of fun from doing that."