John Metcalf, a Fort Scott Middle School Physical Education teacher and student support employee, has received the Middle School Coach of the Year award from the Kansas Wrestling Coaches Association.

He  will be receiving the award on October 8 in Salina.

“I have coached middle school wrestling for five years,” he said.
“We have around 50 kids come out each year for middle school wrestling.”

“I enjoy coaching the sport of wrestling because wrestling is a one on one sport,” he said. “So the happiness on a kids face when they know they are the only reason that they won is amazing!”

“I kind of always coached wrestling,” he said. “Since I was in high school, I would show up and help out with the kids club practices whenever I could make it. While I was at Fort Scott Community College I was offered to help start the wrestling program as an assistant wrestling coach at Uniontown. I coached there for one year before I went to Pitt State for college.”

“I didn’t get back into the coaching side of wrestling until I graduated in 2018,” he said. “I then got a job at Fort Scott Middle School as a para and also got hired as an assistant middle school wrestling coach with my dad who was the head coach at the time.”

“This past year my dad retired and I was then hired to replace him as the middle school head wrestling coach,” he said.

Kathi Hall is a 6th Grade Language Arts, Reading, and Social Studies Teacher at Fort Scott Middle School and she helps coach wrestling.

“This is my fourth year coaching wrestling,” she said. “I did become an assistant coach because of the increase in girl athletes in wrestling. The count of female athletes in the program varies but you can be sure that they increase each year.”

“I have always been around wrestling for the last 28 years, since my three adult boys wrestled from the time they were 5, 7, and 9 in kids club and then in high school,” she said.