Mike Young

Mike is a Chelsea High School alumnus who started wrestling as a freshman. Chelsea had no junior high wrestling program at the time, so high school was where he began.

He finished his high school career with a record of 127–9. He was never pinned, and he came home from the state tournament a medalist.

Kerry Kargel coached him. Over the years Kerry became his mentor and then his friend, and eventually the two of them coached together — a pairing Chelsea wrestlers came to know well.

Mike has spent his coaching career as an assistant coach by choice. The part of coaching that has always mattered most to him isn't the title — it's being in the wrestling room, teaching athletes, watching them improve, and helping them become better people.

That choice has held for 48 years of involvement with Chelsea Wrestling. He also spent 18 years coaching Michigan Cadet and Junior National Teams.

What he enjoys watching has not changed either: wrestlers improving, wrestlers working hard, wrestlers giving everything they have.

For a wrestler who is just starting, Mike keeps it to two things: have fun, and learn something at every practice that stays with you.

As wrestlers develop, he asks more of them:

Underneath the wrestling, what Mike is after is courage, discipline and confidence, and the understanding that failing is survivable. He wants wrestlers who grow into people who mentor others, who become good parents, and who become good stewards of their community — people Chelsea can be proud of.

He is direct that there is far more to wrestling than wins and losses. Plenty of successful people have lost. What mattered is that they kept working and kept moving forward.

Asked what “Building Bulldogs From the Mat Up” means to him, Mike starts somewhere simple: there always needs to be a starting point. The youth program is that starting point.

He is careful about who built it. In the late 1980s, Howard McCalla was the head of the youth program, and Gary Dosey later took it over. Mike worked mostly with the older wrestlers, roughly eighth grade and up. Steve Grau, a wrestler himself, also worked with the youth program.

What Mike has watched happen since is the part he talks about. Young wrestlers love being around the high school wrestlers, and they come and watch high school practices. The high school wrestlers know they are being watched — and that is how they become mentors and examples for the next group coming up.

Across generations of Chelsea wrestlers, Mike has become part of the continuity of the program: wrestlers become mentors, mentors become coaches, and many eventually return to give something back to the wrestling room that helped shape them.

One season still comes up: Chelsea took 20 wrestlers to the state tournament and 19 came home with medals. The one who did not place was unable to because of illness.

Across his coaching career, Mike has coached 12 state champions and more than 50 state medalists.

He counts something else alongside them. Four of his former wrestlers went on to coach at the college level, and two of them are still coaching. More than 12 went on to coach high school wrestling, including coaches of successful programs.

That legacy extends into collegiate athletics as well. Former Chelsea wrestler Darl Bauer went on to a career in strength and performance and currently serves as Assistant Athletics Director for Football Human Performance at TCU.

That cycle continues today. Club Director Stephen Kolokithas is one of the Chelsea wrestlers who learned from Mike and Kerry and later returned to help the next generation.

What Mike hopes Chelsea wrestlers remember is the fun they had and the thrill of competing — and that they are always welcome back in the wrestling room, and always welcome to give something back to it.

Every December he gets his answer. Alumni now in their 20s and 30s come back during their Christmas vacation and spend two or three hours on the mat helping the wrestlers who are there now.

Mike has lived in Chelsea since 1964, and he is retired from Chrysler Proving Grounds.

Away from the wrestling room he travels, scuba dives, hunts, and does chainsaw carving. He built his own log home.