MMA Wrestling Reborn

With a winning coach, the wrestling program is ready for a reboot.

On an April afternoon, everyone in the back of the field house grappled with all five of their senses.

1. There was the distinct smell of mat sanitizer…
2. The loud screech of Dollamur mat tape uncoiling from the roll…
3. The 15 student wrestlers participating were definitely feeling some pain and soreness as they went through their paces…
4. Seeing so many young wrestlers was hard to believe, given that MMA’s rekindled wrestling program was only days old.
5. It was a taste of what is to come.

After a few decades on the shelf, the wrestling program at Maine Maritime is ready for a reboot. The 2017-2018 season has already past, so this first practice was a chance for the newest club sport to dust off some cobwebs and build a bit of excitement for next year.

The return of the sport to Castine is serendipitous. Director of Athletics, Steve Peed, had the return of wrestling on his radar for a few years down the road.

“In my mind, it was the next program to get fully up and running,” said Peed, who wrestled both in high school and college, “but it would be dependent on the department’s ability to devote time and resources to getting it right.”

Enter Don McCann. McCann joined the MMA faculty as an Associate Professor of Engineering in January.

Prior to his arrival, Professor McCann helped start and coach the wrestling programs at the University of Maine in 2013 and Husson University in 2015.

The University of Maine team won the 2017 National Club Wrestling Association (NCWA) D-2 National Team Championship. McCann helped coach three individual NCWA National Champions, eight individual NCWA All-Americans, and 10 NCWA Academic All-Americans. For his efforts, he was named the 2015-16 NCWA Northeast Conference Coach of the Year and was a finalist for the NCWA National Coach of the Year.

“In the span of a week I received three emails, two from students and one from Don, inquiring about the possibility of getting wrestling going as a club sport,” Peed said. “The Academy decided to embrace it.”

With an expert coach in place and largely unused mats idling in the back of the field house, what had been a down-the-line item, was suddenly happening. McCann met with Peed and Peter Stewart, MMA’s Director of Campus Safety, who also has a strong background in the sport. One meeting became two, and then three.

“I’m excited to help restart the MMA wrestling program,” said McCann. “We have a great group of students who have shown a strong desire to wrestle on the college level, and I am glad Peter Stewart and I have an opportunity to help them do that.”

The mission is personal for McCann, who grew up in Bucksport. When he graduated from high school, there were no college wrestling teams in Maine. He has become the Johnny Appleseed of the sport in the Pine Tree State, now, with his third startup.

“I am thrilled that many of Maine’s colleges and the university now have wrestling programs that allow our student athletes to compete on the college level.”

Maine Maritime is the latest. On May 4, the program’s NCWA application was accepted.

The team will begin rolling in an official capacity once the calendar flips to October with an expected initial roster of some 20 wrestlers ready to take adversaries to the mat.

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