Character Champions and Olympian visits the HLG Wrestling Room

Last spring while I was the Mastor of Ceremonies for the Mark Twain Region Fellowship of Christian Athletes Banquet I had the privilege of meeting a gentleman by the name of Jim Benz. Jim is the Co-Chairman of Character Champions. Jim Benz explained to me that Character Champions is program that has been designed to promote, teach, and recognize sportsmanship in local high school athletic programs in this region of IL and MO. Every year one school is chosen to receive the Character Champions award which includes a $500 donation to the recipient school in honor of their achievement. Jim asked me if I knew of any excellent motivational speakers who may be interested in participating in the Character Champions annual student athlete and coaches meeting. Right away two people came to mind. One being my college coach and Olympic champion Ben Peterson and the other person being my fellow Maranatha wrestling alum and friend who is a two time Olympian and world team member Jim Gruenwald. Gruenwald recently left the US Olympic Education Centers assistant coaching position to become the head wrestling coach at Wheaton College. After considering both individuals Benz decided to invite Jim Gruenwald to be one of the keynote speakers for this year’s Character Champions meeting which took place yesterday. Since Jim is a friend and I have an interest in the Character Champions program I decided to attend the meeting. Gruenwald provided an excellent motivational message on setting high expectations and doing what it takes to reach those expectations.
During yesterday’s meeting Quincy High School was selected by area business leaders and sports media for their leadership in demonstrating outstanding sportsmanship and character throughout last year’s sports seasons. Unfortunately, I don’t believe any Northeast MO schools participate in this program. I’m not sure for their reason why, but after seeing and hearing firsthand what Character Champions promotes and hearing the messages that were shared I would think that MO schools would take advantage of the convenience of having their athletes challenged by world class athletes and excellent area college coaches on the topic of character and good sportsmanship. Traveling from Hannibal it only took me less than 30 minutes to find myself sitting down in the Pepsi Arena on the campus of Quincy University. I don’t know of any other program within a 30 minute drive of Quincy that has the potential to impact high school athletes like Character Champions does. I would like to challenge Northeast MO schools to utilize a program like Character Champions in conjunction with whatever programs they may already have going on in their schools. I believe if more voices are speaking to our athletes in this area of sportsmanship and sports ethics that it can have a positive impact later on in the lives and culture that our student athletes are destined to be leaders in. After the Character Champions meeting I was able to enjoy a trip to Buffalo Wild Wings with Jim Gruenwald, Jim Benz, my assistant coach Ian Northcott and one of my HLG wrestlers Jeff Kirwan. We had a nice time talking about wrestling, sportsmanship and management. If anyone knows Jim, you would have to assume that there were a few funny stories shared as well. As Hannibal was only 5 miles out of the way of Gruenwald's trip home I invited Jim to stop by Hannibal-LaGrange College to take a look at the Secker Field-house which the is home of Hannibal-LaGrange Wrestling and Jim accepted the invitation. While Jim was on campus he was able to meet the HLG wrestling team as they were arriving for open mat practice. I’m sure several of them were wondering who this little man with a goatee was, and little did they know that they were about to meet a two time Olympian in the wrestling room of Hannibal-LaGrange College. I’m thankful Jim took the time to stop by HLG to visit. His character, testimony, and work ethic have been a tremendous asset to USA wrestling and he will be an outstanding addition to Wheaton College’s athletic department. I’m looking forward to coaching against Jim this next season as we will see Wheaton at a few tournaments, and I can’t wait to get them on the schedule for next year.