It’d be easy for someone who is approaching a significant milestone to solely focus on the achievement. With Lynnfield-North Reading’s Craig Stone, that isn’t the case.
With one win standing between him and 1,200 career wins between coaching wrestling and girls tennis, Stone remains focused on teaching his athletes core values – something he’s been doing since the wrestling program started in 1975.
“Sports have tremendous values that you can instill in the athletes. We are constantly stressing gratitude, humility, respect, working together, and striving through adversity,” Stone says.
When asked what he enjoys about coaching, Stone reflected on all the great people he’s coached along the way. Stone notes he coached the parents of some of the kids he coaches now, and takes gratitude in seeing student-athletes as they progress through high school.
“To see the student-athletes mature not only as a player, but as a person, is very gratifying. It is something that I take a lot of pride in,” Stone explains.
Stone aims to create a close sense of community with teams he coaches, and wants the players who have graduated to stay close as well. In the wrestling season, when most colleges are off for winter break, occasionally alums come to practice and help out.
Leading up to this season, Stone realizes there will be some challenges from a team standpoint. Similarly to last season, the number of students they have competing will be an issue. In wrestling, there are 14 different weight classes to compete in. Last year, Lynnfield-North Reading finished the season with just eight wrestlers.
Though they got some individual match wins without having enough students for each weight class, it was always going to be a tough challenge to win as a team. Even with the team not picking up a single team win, there were many teaching experiences that came with losing.
“Wrestling is a team sport, but it has an individual emphasis. The team can lose, but you can win,” Stone said. “…if you lose and the team wins, that is gratifying, too. In wrestling, players can see their progress even if the team does not get the win.”
This season, Lynnfield-North Reading has 13 students wrestling. Stone acknowledges it will still be a challenge to win a dual-meet since a few of the students wrestle in the same weight class. However, Stone is looking forward to seeing the improvement of his wrestlers – especially since seven students are returning this year with all-important experience.
Stone believes the experience his athletes got last year will benefit them when tournament time approaches. He is hopeful some of the group will get some sectional place finishes, and have a few wrestlers compete in the state tournament.
The wrestling season begins this weekend, but Stone is not coaching to get to win 1,200 specifically. When asked about the upcoming milestone, Stone laughed it off, stating it was a “longevity” achievement.
“If you hang around long enough, you will eventually get to that number,” Stone said.
The team travels to Methuen to compete in a quad meet Saturday, December 10. They will compete against Methuen, Greater Lawrence, and Hopkinton.
Mark Aboyoun can be reached at [email protected]
