Winning two NJSIAA Group IV state wrestling team championships, coaching three individual state champions and last season’s state runner-up and 40-match winner Dallas Winston along with seven Region VI winners and 21 District 21 champions would satisfy most coaches over a long career.
Doug Withstandley accomplished all of that in just four seasons as the head wrestling coach at Jackson Memorial High School.
Withstandley, a graduate of the high school who won a state championship for the Jaguars, surprisingly stepped down recently after a 23-5 season, but he dispels any cliche about leaving big shoes to fill.
He said he hopes the Jaguars’ legacy continues with one of his two assistants who have applied for the job, Aaron Gottesman, who came aboard when Withstandley took the job, or Craig Salvatore, who has been an assistant for three years.
“They said to me [about filling big shoes] when Scott Goodale resigned and it started getting to my head,” said Withstandley, who was an assistant under Goodale for one year after graduating from Purdue University. “I did not try to replicate what he did. I learned to use things from his repertoire, but I tried to do my own thing.”
Goodale left the Jaguars to become the head wrestling coach at Rutgers University.
Withstandley did replicate one thing achieved by Goodale at Jackson Memorial — directing the Jaguars to two state team championships, but he did it in less time.
For Withstandley it was a challenge different from his predecessor, since Jackson has been split in recent years into two high schools.
Withstandley said that as a result, he is “extremely happy” with what he has done, but he said he felt he could not maintain the same level of intense resolve that goes with maintaining the program’s high level of performance. He said his decision to leave the position took some thought.
He said he will help his successor and always be available to give advice while remaining as a physical education instructor at the school in charge of conditioning in the weight room for the wrestling program.
“Part of my decision was being injured pretty bad last summer, which made it hard towork outwith the kids. But the main part is when you question yourself and what you are doing, it’s never a good thing,” Withstandley said. “It shows a lack of commitment.”
In one published report, Athletic Director John Lamela dispelled the idea of a lack of commitment, praising Withstandley’s effort during the Jaguars’ 81-14 dual meet performance during his tenure.
Former Jackson Memorial standout B.J. Young said he believes Withstandley had sustained his commitment as a coach. “He was a young head coach when he took over at 25 years old and in four years had two state championship teams,” said Young, a freshman at Newberry College who finished second in his weight class at the 2011 NCAADivision II Championships. “He gave us everything he had.”
Young, a two-time state tournament qualifier in high school, said he learned so much more about wrestling under Withstandley.
“He always worked with me when I needed something,” said Young. “His knowledge was very good. He would tell us stuff we had never seen before and tell us the little things we were doing wrong. He always wanted us to be champs on and off the mat. He is a great coach, a great person, a great guy. ”
Withstandley said some of his thoughts now are aboutmoving toward starting a family and getting a home. He said he would not coach anywhere but at Jackson Memorial and would like the team’s next coach to be chosen from within the school district.
He said his message from his own experiences to his successor is not about filling big shoes, “but to do what’s right in your heart. Learn things and don’t make the same mistakes twice.”
He waxed philosophical after he paused for a few moments and thought about the main point of coaching Jackson Memorial wrestling — which receives refined wrestling talent developed in youth programs — that he could tell his successor.
“Do not let your voice fall upon deaf ears,” said Withstandley. “When you talk to the kids, will they hear you, or will they listen? There’s a difference. They could hear you, but are they really listening? However you have to do that, you have to get their attention. If not, they won’t fully commit 100 percent, to make weight, do things right, compete well, dowell in school. If you don’t have the right hook, you can’t land solid fish. If you do that, wins will come and they will come more easily.”
It has not always been easy for Withstandley and at times it has been frustrating, with losses in the last two Shore Conference Tournament championship matches, this past season to a Southern Regional High School team, 28-23, that Jackson Memorial would eventually go on to defeat in the Group IV state semifinals, 27-24.
It was after that loss to Southern Regional in late January when Withstandley expressed uncertainty about whether his team had the determination to bounce back.
“I challenged them, and two days after that they beat High Point (31-28), which was the number-one team in the state,” said Withstandley. “After that, we did not look back. Anytime we had a loss, we followed it with a win. Our kids bounced back really well. We knew we would win Group IV and that nobody would beat us.”
It was a great way to go out on a storied, but brief, coaching career.