High school wrestling: Buckeye assistant Jim Hewitt gets hall call

You have to wake up to experience the sweetest dreams. Buckeye assistant wrestling coach Jim Hewitt lived that moment when he dozed off in his recliner watching television. A little while later, wife Susan, who he will be married to for 60 years in February, woke him up to show Hewitt a letter notifying him that he was going to be inducted into the Ohio chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame. "For any coach to be put into the hall of fame, that's about as high of an honor as you're going to get," Hewitt said. "It means everything. To be truthful, I never, ever dreamt that I would get it. It's a tremendous honor." Hewitt, 82, is one of eight recipients that will be inducted Oct. 13 in Columbus. Hewitt's coaching career began with the Catholic Youth Organization, where he was prior to making the first of three stops at Medina. At the high school level, Hewitt has also coached at Brunswick and St. Ignatius. He also coached collegiately at Cuyahoga Community College and the club he started, Samson's, where he mentored six wrestlers to national championships and another handful to runner-up finishes. "I've always had a drive to coach," Hewitt said. "You play football, you play basketball, you play baseball. You don't play wrestling. Wrestling is a very big character-builder, and you get a chance to see how hard kids will work and how far they can progress along. "As much as it drives (the kids), it drives me, too." While working at Samson's, he started coaching a handful of Buckeye wrestlers who convinced him to return to the high school scene. He's been helping the Bucks for nearly a decade since. Hewitt coached Buckeye head wrestling coach Mike Tecco at Cuyahoga Community College and lauded Tecco and fellow assistants Steve Rupanovic, Steve Bartos and Nick Nutter, as well as the kids he has coached for making it fun to show up to work every day. "Over at Buckeye, we've been really good for quite a while," Hewitt said. "Buckeye nation is a real-tight, family community. The kids I've got a chance to work with are second to none. It's not hard, it's easy because it's a joy to work with them." Last season, Hewitt helped coach the Bucks to second in the Division II state tournament behind champions Blake Bartos (113), Colyn Limbert (120), Kaden King (157) and Eddie Neitenbach (190). "I've had the chance to work with a tremendous amount of good kids throughout the years," Hewitt said. "I've been blessed that way. I've been around very, very good people." Contact John Urchek at jurchek@medina-gazette.com.