For Schnellenbach, record is secondary

by Jon Campbell, Delaware County Times

Posted on November 28, 2007

RIDLEY TWP. — Chuck Grassano never officially lined up as a Ridley wrestler, but he still found a way into the Ridley wrestling family — one fathered by Carl Schnellenbach.

Grassano's father never permitted his son to participate in organized team sports. Luckily for Grassano, he had Schnellenbach as a physical education teacher at Ridley Township High School. Schnellenbach gave Grassano a way to quench his thirst for athletic competition.

Schnellenbach pushed his students to their limit in gym class. And in 1963 he invited Grassano into the wrestling room to roll around on the mats with the team during practice.

The gym teacher began the Ridley wrestling program as a club sport in 1959 and quickly made a habit of recruiting good athletes from his classes to come out for the school's newest sport. This is what he did with Grassano, only this student would never see action in an actual match.

That didn't stop Grassano from learning the sport, learning about competition and learning about life from a man simply known as "Schnell."

"He is a mentor to me," Grassano said of Schnellenbach. "And in light of the situation I had with my father, Carl is kind of like a father figure to me. When you look at him, you look at him as a teacher and a coach. He was the best teacher I ever had; the way he got his points across. He is not somebody that you easily forget. That is why I remember so much about him."

Grassano soaked up everything Schnellenbach taught about wrestling and eventually went on to a highly successful 27-year career as Sun Valley's head wrestling coach. His tenure there began long after Schnellenbach's, but the mentor is the one still coaching.

With all those coaching years, a lot of wins have been produced.

Schnellenbach, now Ridley's wrestling coach of 48 years and an assistant football coach for nearly that long, begins this season needing 13 wins to reach 647 for his career and break the all-time Pennsylvania record for wrestling victories.

The mark is currently held by Neil Buckley, a 1934 Ridley Park High graduate who spent 47 years (1947-94) building up 646 wins as head coach of The Haverford School.

In 2000, Schnellenbach earned his 514th career victory to become the all-time winningest wrestling coach in PIAA history. This time, the Ridley icon is ready to break the state mark for all Pennsylvania wrestling coaches, public and private.

Granted, 13 wins aren't guaranteed this winter, especially considering that the Green Raiders are without a handful of wrestlers who still have a commitment to the school's football team. But Ridley went 22-3 last year and 23-2 the year before.

Barring an uncharacteristic down year for the Green Raiders, then, Schnellenbach will soon have his name stamped atop the wins list of one of the nation's most prolific states for high school wrestling.

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Talk to Schnellenbach's wrestlers, former and current, and most of them consider the milestone the biggest of deals. Talk to Schnell, and he'll play the record breaker off as any other win.

Like most people, he doesn't want to pat himself on the back. Like most coaches, he keeps things in perspective, never peeking too far into the future and always going game by game, match by match.

"The record is nice, certainly. But it's not a big deal," said the 74-year-old Schnellenbach, who didn't learn the sport of wrestling until he was 26 and attending West Chester State Teachers College. "People come up and congratulate you and that is nice. But we are in it to wrestle. That is the obligation."

Stick with Schnellenbach long enough and his mentality most likely will rub off. Join him on the side of the mat as an assistant, and that's a virtual guarantee.

"The wins ... I don't even count them, and Schnell would say the same thing," said Green Raiders assistant coach T.J. Meloney, a 1997 Ridley graduate who wrestled under Schnell. "That's just the way it is. We go one match by one match, one dual by one dual. Schnell's not worried about the record. He's worried about wrestling Bishop Shanahan, our first opponent Saturday (at the Knight Duals). After that, he'll worry about winning the next one and then the one after that."

Perhaps the biggest reason Schnellenbach has accumulated so many wins is his philosophy on the sport. While each scholastic season concludes with three individual tournaments that ultimately lead to the individual state championships in Hershey, Schnellenbach has always believed wrestling is a team sport.

"It's the Ridley wrestling team," Schnellenbach said with emphasis. He focuses more on team competitions. He has his squad participate in only one regular-season individual tournament, one that the Green Raiders host during the holiday season.

Many coaches take their squads to numerous tournaments throughout the wrestling year, holding no reservations about long commutes to body-up with top-notch competition.

Not so, Schnell.

During the winter, the focus at Ridley is on winning team matches. That focus has brought 17 Central League championships to Ridley. Once the scholastic season begins, Schnellenbach gives no wrestler preferential treatment, regardless of how good a wrestler is on the mat and what his potential is for the postseason.

It was that way in 1960 when wrestling became an official sport at Ridley and it is that way today.

"I don't even prefer the attention," said Green Raiders All-Delco Andy Lopchinsky, a senior 152-pounder who was a win away from qualifying for states last year and is the clear stud in the room this season. "I just want to have a solid team and I'm not the only kid on the team.

"Wrestling is a team sport and it's all about which team has the most points. If one kid loses, then the next guy has to pick him up with a win."

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Lopchinsky is one of many second-generation Ridley wrestlers.

"It's great to be a part of the team that helps Schnell break the record," said Lopchinsky, on pace to break the school's all-time victory mark of 94, a record currently held by John Rowles (1999 All-Delco). "Especially knowing that a lot of our dads were a part of it. My dad, Andrew, was part of it back in the early 1980s."

Many other dads and uncles wore a Ridley singlet. Chris Johnson is one of those uncles. He is one of four Ridley wrestlers to win a PIAA medal. He did so in 1978 by taking fourth as a 103-pounder.

After his scholastic career, Johnson came back to serve as an assistant under Schnellenbach from 1984-85, before serving as Widener University's head coach from 1986-89. Now Johnson can still be found in the gym for many of Ridley's matches.

He's still a fan of the team, but he's there mostly in support of his nephew, Sean Renish, the Green Raiders junior who was a third-team All-Delco performer at 112 pounds last season.

Due to his experiences as a Ridley wrestler, coach and fan, Johnson can spout off plenty of stories about the old coach. And the stories about Schnellenbach are like folklore. Anyone who knows the man can recite Schnell stories — some that are G-rated, some that are not.

That's part of what makes Schnell ... well, Schnell.

"You get very little praise with Schnell," Johnson said. "He is always hard on you. You could win a state title and he'd say that you gave up too many points. He is never pleased. But that's what motivates a lot of people.

"Kids have changed over the years, so he's had to change. But the respect is still there. When you are being coached by him, you hate the son of a gun. But after you get out of school and reflect, you realize all that he did for you."

Like Johnson, Dick MacRone is one of about 40 of Schnellenbach's former wrestlers who went on to either coach or referee in the sport.

MacRone had a stint as Interboro's head coach from 1978-81 and still serves as a referee within the county. Well before that, MacRone was on Schnellenbach's and Ridley's first official wrestling team in 1960.

From that first team, of which Schnellenbach is very proud, the coach can spout off names like MacRone and Tim Joyce, Glen Miller, Bill Netzer and Alan Drake. Like the Ridley wrestlers of today, those from that earliest team speak of the man as their coach, their friend and their mentor.

"Carl took kids that were average athletes and made them tougher," said MacRone, who became Ridley's first district champion when he won it at 127 pounds in 1962. "He instilled his will on them to be winners."

Schnellenbach also instills a no-quit attitude. It's a trait that can be found in most of his wrestlers and a trait for which MacRone is thankful. It's what MacRone still sees in the man that coached him over 40 years ago.

"Carl is an amazing man," MacRone said. "And I don't care if this is tiddledywinks. If you do something for 40-some years, that is amazing. And I see him doing this until he dies. He will pass out coaching on the football field or the wrestling mat. There is no quit in the man."

Just because he's on the verge of one of the most storied records in the history of Pennsylvania wrestling, don't expect Schnellenbach to up and retire after win No. 647. He's not in it for himself and he's not in it for records. He's in it for the kids and the love of the sport. And as long as he's standing, that will not change.

"Maybe I'll retire when I don't know a kid's name, or I can't count to 10," Schnellenbach said. "That's when you've got to get out, I guess. But I can still do all that stuff."

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