by Zachery Kledaras (Digital Media '24)
27 February 2023
Delcastle wrestling coach, Coach Jeffrey Hewes, has reached the monumental milestone of 150 high school career wins this past week! Coming from a family of wrestlers and wrestling coaches as well as wrestling since he was in kindergarten, Coach Hewes had a spark inside him to pursue work as a wrestling coach, but he never imagined his long-lasting career would flourish the way it has. According to Coach Hewes, most modern wrestling coaches have careers lasting between five and twelve years, which makes it all the more impressive that Coach Hewes is in his 23rd year of coaching at the high school level.
Over his 23 years of coaching, Coach Hewes has come to cherish the individual successes of his athletes and has adopted the mindset that by making themselves better, his athletes are bettering the team. Coach Hewes’ successful coaching career has come with its fair share of challenges, including finding talent. Although a team still could have been built with the low number of athletes he was receiving, Coach Hewes pushed for more. With a mixture of social media and general promotion, Coach Hewes was able to reach more people and better his team building.
Along with the work Coach Hewes puts into promoting his sport, he also puts an immense amount of effort into planning and preparation for each match. Leading up to each match, Coach Hewes will write down all of his opponents' stats for the given season to understand their tendencies and how he can train his athletes to exploit their weaknesses.
Out of the 150 wins, he holds his 2017 win against rivals William Penn above all others. According to Coach Hewes, his 2017 win against William Penn ended a long-standing win drought against the school that had been going since 1977!
Although 150 wins is a large number of wins, Coach Hewes believes that his success as a coach comes not from his wins, but from his ability to instill core life values into each of his players. Coach Hewes shared, “Since I have gotten to the 150 wins I’ve had a lot of my athletes in the past reach out and say that they were glad that they were a part of it and that they learned a lot. I think that’s what makes a coach successful." Coach Hewes added that it was always his plan to have a 30-year career in coaching; whether this happens remains to be seen.
However, what is true is that Coach Hewes is an inspirational coach and this is cemented by every one of his 150 hard-earned wins, all of his many athletes--past and present--and his drive to succeed. Thanks for all you've done for Delcastle, Coach Hewes!