Dave Williams returns as Charles City’s head wrestling coach

By John Burbridge
sports@charlescitypress.com
CHARLES CITY — It’s a tradition that when a wrestler, an official, or even a coach retires from the sport, they leave their shoes on the mat.

When Dave Williams resigned after 19 years leading the Charles City Comets wrestling team in 2014, he didn’t unlace for such a symbolic gesture.

Perhaps it was appropriate that he didn’t because Williams has left his footprints as well as his fingerprints on the program ever since.

He remained active in Charles City’s middle school program. And due to no longer having the constraints imposed by the Iowa High School Athlete Association which prohibits high school coaches of instructing athletes out of season, Williams was able to offer tutelage in Freestyle and Greco-Roman styles to keep local wrestlers well rounded during the offseason.

Williams has also been the tournament director for the long-time North/South All-Star Wrestling Meet annually hosted by Charles City High School. The meet has a revered history as it has featured several future NCAA champions and Olympians.

Recently, Williams — who teaches at the high school — was hired to take back the reins of the program on an interim basis for the 2019-2020 season.

“I saw an opportunity to help the program,” Williams said. “I know most of the kids coming back and I’m looking forward to the coming year.”

Williams takes over from the co-head coaching tandem of Ryan Fank, who resigned in May, and Robert Pittman, a CCHS teacher himself who will stay as the assistant coach.

Longtime assistant coach Les Staudt will also be back.

“They are two guys who have worked with me for a long time,” Williams said.

Williams will also have several volunteer assistants, including Charles City police officer and former Waldorf wrestler Dario Gamino, Luke Johnson and Jordan Smith.

Williams had a pretty good run the first time around. During his tenure, Williams coached 49 Northeast Iowa Conference champions, 87 state qualifiers and 40 state place-winners including four state individual champions — 3-time champion Drew Kelly (1997-99) and Tanner Schmidt (2008).

Williams was named Class 3A Coach of the Year 1999 after leading the Comets to third-place finishes in both the State Traditional Meet and State Dual Meet.

Williams also coached the Comets to fourth-place finishes in the State Dual Meet in 1996 and 2013.

Early into Williams’s tenure, Charles City was one of the more dominant programs in the state compiling more than 100 dual meet wins in just four seasons.

“I got to experience both sides … when we were winning all the time, and times when wins were tougher to get,” said Williams, who went on to coach the Comets to more than 200 dual meet wins.

The Comets are due to have several state qualifiers returning. They are also due to have an accomplished corps of female wrestlers who placed third at the inaugural Girls State Meet last season.

“It has been something that’s been getting bigger every year,” Williams said about high school girls wrestling. “We had a lot go out last year, but Charles City has had some good female wrestlers even back when I was coaching.”

If Williams stays on to coach another 87 state qualifiers, that remains to be seen.

“It’s on an interim basis, so we’ll see what happens,” Williams said. “I’m just going to focus on this season coming up.”