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Rolling up the welcome mat
Calvert wrestling coach Kistler steps aside after 20 years
Friday, July 3, 2009
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The landscape of the Calvert High School wrestling scene will have a decidedly different look this winter after longtime head coach Dave Kistler has decided to step down.
Kistler, who took over a fledgling program in 1989 and turned it into what is now a conference power, said he simply wanted to spend more time with wife, Suzanne, and 8-year-old son Nate.
"I thought it was a good time," Kistler said. "It's my 20th year, so it's a nice, even number and the other thing is for the last couple years I just felt guilty when I was there [in the wrestling room] and wasn't with my son doing what he does. And when I was there [with my son] I felt guilty that I wasn't there with my team. For the last couple years I didn't feel like I could give as much as the job requires."
Kistler, who teaches environmental science at Calvert, will be replaced by Jeff Fowler, a longtime Calvert County wrestling fixture and former assistant coach with the Cavaliers.
Kistler will stay on with the team as an assistant.
"I'm going to help Jeff out as much as I possibly can and in whatever ways he needs," said the 47-year-old Kistler. "He may not need me in the wrestling room every day, he may not need me doing some things. A lot of that is up to him.
"I've worked with Jeff in the past and like I said to him when it was announced he was going to be the head coach, ‘Jeff, this is your program and I'll help you do whatever you want me to but you have to remember, it's your program. You need to run it the way you need to run it.'"
But the Lusby resident will see a much smaller workload in order to spend quality time with Nate, an aspiring downhill skier.
"[Nate and I] had talked about [stepping down] a couple times," Kistler said in a telephone interview last week. "Skiing season takes us out of town a lot and for the last couple years it's taken him and my wife on the road for a lot of weekends. It was tough. Like any parent who is at work while their child is participating, you want to be there."
"Dave's still going to be around the program," Calvert athletic director Brad Criss said. "But I think he's come to a point where his son has gotten so competitive with his skiing that on the weekends he's going to be able to get away but still feed that competitive hunger he has on the weekdays."
Last season, Calvert compiled a record of 15-5 (8-5 SMAC) and placed seventh at the SMAC tournament and ninth at the Class 2A South regional tournament.
"He's leaving with a state title under his belt and many years of building a program, an extremely successful program," Huntingtown head coach Terry Green said. "A great thing for Dave is that he had his program strong and competing just about every year. He only had a couple off years in the last, what, 10?"
Over Kistler's regime, Calvert has posted double-digit win totals the last seven years and 12 of the last 14 seasons.
The other two seasons –– 1999-2000 and 2000-2001 –– Calvert won nine matches. Kistler posted winning seasons in 18 of his 20 years with the program.
He has coached three SMAC dual meet champions, three SMAC tournament champions, three regional dual champions and four regional tournament championship teams.
He has also led three teams to place at the state tournament and won a state championship in 2003-2004.
He was named the Maryland state coach of the year in 2003-2004 and is a three-time conference coach of the year.
Kistler's numbers with the Cavaliers are somewhat mind-boggling, but success wasn't always synonymous with Calvert wrestling.
In 1989-1990, Kistler's first with the Cavaliers, the team was made up of just eight grapplers.
"I said to [assistant coach] Mark Wilding, ‘We need numbers. We can't survive without numbers,'" Kistler recalled.
As a result, forfeits were the norm but Calvert still managed to win three matches, which tied the program's best win total. The Cavaliers fielded their first varsity team just three years earlier.
"We just kept telling the kids, ‘Listen, we're not constantly going to lose, we're going to win. What you guys have to keep doing is believing in us and working hard,'" Kistler said.
His wrestlers believed and soon enough they had the results to show for it.
By the next season, Calvert had upped his win total to seven and it would win at least that many for all but one more year until the present.
The pinnacle of the program's success came in 2003-2004 when the Cavaliers were a perfect 19-0 and claimed the SMAC, region and state titles.
When asked for his career highlight, Kistler paused briefly.
"The state championship in '04," he said. "From a team standpoint that was huge. And Ryan Buff, who is one of the winningest public school wrestlers in the state, that's a once in a lifetime talent to come through. And I remember the kids, and there's been so many of them, just being part of their lives was so amazing. There's been so many over a 20-year career."
Kistler said it was great to be able to mold the Cavaliers into what is now considered one of the most fearsome teams in the conference, year in and year out.
"It's been awesome coaching a team and taking it over," he said, "and building it to where it is now is pretty cool."
By the numbers
There have been numerous accomplishments by outgoing Calvert varsity head wrestling coach Dave Kistler over his 20-year career.
Here are a few:
226 – Career coaching wins
.731 – Career winning percentage
36 – Individual state placewinners
31 – SMAC wrestling champions
29 – Regional wrestling champions
20 – Seasons coached
13 – Seasons with at least 10 wins
4 – State champions (Scott McAdoo, Jake Hornick, Ryan Buff twice)
