The Bellefontaine wrestling program is undergoing a change at the top.

Rick Reed, an assistant coach last season, is taking over as head coach of the Chieftain wrestling program as former head coach Mike Bible is stepping down to take over the junior high program.

RICK REED

MIKE BIBLE

Both Bible and Reed share the same passion of improving Chieftain wrestling, and in order to do so Bible felt this was a change that needed to be made.

“The program has always struggled getting kids out and keeping them,” said Bible. “I’m hoping by bringing in (Rick) who they know, we will hopefully be more equipped when they come in and work to build the program up.

“I would like to see the program become more visible within the next two or three years and when teams wrestle us know they’ll have to work. That is the whole idea behind this, to make the entire program better.”

Reed has plenty of wrestling experience in his background. He was a state qualifier at West Liberty-Salem under current Mechanicsburg coach Brady Hiatt. He has been an assistant on the Chieftain wrestling team for one year and also was the junior high head wrestling coach at WL-Salem for two seasons.

“I just feel like we have to raise awareness about Chieftain wrestling in this community,” said Reed. “Other sports around here have kept a high profile and sometimes the sport of wrestling doesn’t do a good job of promoting to the younger kids.”

Reed is hoping to give BHS wrestling a volt of energy from the ground up and has already made an impact.

“I think the first thing is we have to increase interest,” said Reed. “The only way we can do that is by being available to wrestlers all yearlong. I’ve started to do that with open mats since April and we just had a camp at the high school.

“We want to incorporate all the kids in all the programs from the youth to the high school level. We want all of them to be buy into a program rather than individual teams.”

As a teacher at BHS who has a vast wrestling background, it is a natural fit for Reed to take over the Chiefs.

“I feel like one of my strengths is that I will be in the school, I know all the kids and have access to all the kids,” said Reed. “My two mentors are (Brady) Hiatt and Eric Harmon so technique-wise I have been taught by some of the best.

“I think our focus is changing and we have to improve our approach. It’s not always Xs and Os, it’s making the sport simple and developing a muscle memory to learn proper technique.”

Bible’s decision to step down has been on his mind for a few years, and Reed’s presence was the determining factor in making it final.

“I’ve thought about it for the past couple years when the junior high program struggled to find a coach,” said Bible. “I thought this might be something I could do to help the program. I didn’t want to take the chance then and not find a high school coach. Now after working with Rick, we are on the same page with our coaching philosophy and it is a good time to make this change.

“He is younger and has more energy and being a teacher in the school might help bring kids out and be a good fit. He will step in and do fine with a good group coming back. His ideas and energy will help the whole program out.”

Bible is one of Bellefontaine’s most accomplished wrestlers. He was a three-time state qualifier who placed third his senior year. He has been coaching in the program for 17 years, as an assistant from 1993-2001 and then as head coach from 2002-09.

During his tenure as the grappling boss at BHS, he coached seven state qualifiers, 28 district qualifiers and led the 2002 BHS team to a second-place finish in the Central Buckeye Conference Kenton Trail division and third place overall. His highest postseason finish was in 2003 when BHS was 15th at the district tournament.

“The entire 17 years has been nothing but fun,” said Bible. “If it wasn’t I wouldn’t have been around as long as I was. I’m looking forward to a new challenge and making the high school a better and stronger environment.”

Bible is confident he can make impact once he enters the junior high program.

“I’m going to try and basically just teach lower level stuff,” he said. “We want to teach things we expect for them to know in the high school and make it stick and make us more knowledgeable as a program than we have been in the past.”