Congrats Auntie Kate!
GOODHUE -- It's safe to say Josh Grant has big shoes to fill.
Grant recently was named head wrestling coach at Goodhue High School. He will replace legend Bill Sutter, who coached the Wildcats for 39 seasons and retired last year with the second-most wins (760) in Minnesota history.
Grant, who was an assistant under Sutter last season, is a social studies teacher at Goodhue High School. He's married and has a young daughter.
Grant said he has mixed emotions about becoming the head coach.
"It's hard to put into words," Grant said. "I'm really excited about becoming a head coach. At the same time, I know that to do right by coach Sutter, I'm going to have to work harder. Not that I wouldn't have anyway, but I really want to do right and do a nice job for coach Sutter and for the wrestling community he's established.
"But because I have his continuing help, I'm less nervous about taking over for him. Coach Sutter is not leaving me high and dry to figure it out for myself. Knowing I'm a rookie head coach, he's going to mentor me as much as he's mentored his hundreds of wrestlers. And like his former wrestlers, knowing you have coach Sutter teaching you, I can go out there and do my job with a lot more confidence."
Grant is a graduate of Fillmore Central High School. He wrestled for Fillmore Central/Lanesboro/Mabel-Canton and was a two-time state entrant.
Grant went on to get his bachelor's degree from Augsburg College. While doing his student teaching, he was a volunteer assistant for former coach Brad Haugen at Rochester John Marshall High School.
The Goodhue teaching job was Grant's first after college. And it sounds like it might be his last.
"I just can't say enough good things about the school, the community and the people here in Goodhue," Grant said. "I love it here."
New Goodhue athletics director Josh Wieme, who took over for Tony Poncelet this summer after Poncelet resigned at the end of the school year, said finding a replacement for Sutter was his first "big" task. But Wieme said Grant was an obvious choice.
"We were able to see how dedicated Josh was over the last year," Wieme said. "We saw how he interacted with the kids and all the extra time he put in. We saw him in action, as a citizen and as a teacher, and we liked what we saw."
Wieme said there weren't many applicants for the job. But that was to be expected, partly because there were few teaching openings at Goodhue and partly because replacing a legend like Sutter won't be easy, Wieme said.
"I think (Grant) has realistic expectations; he knows nobody can ever really replace Sutter," Wieme said. "But I think Josh has a lot of the same qualities that Sutter had."
Wieme's selection was made easier when Sutter gave Grant his full support.
Sutter's support also was important to Grant.
"That meant a lot to me," Grant said. "Learning from Sutter was really an eye-opening experience. I've been in a couple other wrestling rooms, but I think Sutter does things different in a very simple way. It's been really neat to watch how he runs practices. The one year I spent with Sutter was invaluable. I just wish I had more time to learn from him."
For now, Grant is busy trying to line up his assistant coaches.
"We've been busy working together to get an assistant coaching staff put together and other items in line for the upcoming season," Grant said. "It will be nearly impossible to attain the success of Bill Sutter unless he allows us to clone him. But the coaching staff and myself are sure going to try to shine some light onto the large shadow of success he's cast over Minnesota wrestling the last four decades."
Hanging out with Cousin Benjamin
Elizabeth is 8 months old today. She is a busy, beautiful little baby. At eight months, she is preoccupied with getting around by herself (via crawling) and convincing her parents to do things her way. We love you so much Elizabeth!
