TexasWrestling
Ready to Rumble: Plano Wildcats Welcome New Wrestling Head Coach Andy Rettke
Plano Wrestling is excited to announce that Andy Rettke has been named the new head wrestling coach for Plano Senior High School.
“I am honored and excited to have been given this opportunity here at Plano Senior,” Rettke says. “I want to push the wrestlers to be successful both on and off the mat, and will do my best to build a team whose focus is on the highest integrity possible.”
According to Rettke, that means paying attention to how the results are achieved.
Rettke returns to Plano from Illinois, where he has lived the last 8 years. Having most recently served as a social science teacher at Mattoon High School, Rettke also helps some of the biggest names in wrestling as they coach the state’s highly decorated men’s and women’s National Freestyle and Greco team.
No stranger to high school wrestling — or the impact a coach with those core values can have on athlete during his formative years — Rettke is the first to admit that the sport changed his life. “Wrestling is everything to me,” he says, adding that he knew early on that he wanted to help mentor young athletes to have the same opportunities he did. “I want to create an inviting environment that rewards hard work and commitment.”
While Rettke’s own wrestling journey began in 9thgrade, he took his sophomore year off before ending up at the wrestling powerhouse of Washington Community High School in Washington, Illinois. (The program boasts 9regional titles in the last 12 years as well as the last four IHSA Class 2A dual state championships.) Under the mentorship of then coaches Bryan Medlin and Nick Miller, Rettke discovered a passion for the sport and went on to become a two-time Mid-Illini Conference and regional champion–earning him automatic first-team all-league status—placing 2ndin state in Freestyle, 3rdplace in state in Greco, and racking up over 120 career wins.
Rettke’s rise to the collegiate ranks was swift, considering he had basically completed just two full seasons in the sport prior to graduating, and for that he credits his coaches. “They helped me to really understand the strategy and the methodology of wrestling,” he says. “I went on to wrestle in college at the University of McKendree—a dream I would have never thought possible when I was a freshman.”
Understanding first-hand that the legacy of any coach is remembered by his or her impact – both positive and negative – on the lives of her or her athletes, Retkke adds in closing: “My main goal is to create a ‘family atmosphere’ that wrestlers, their families and the community can be proud of in the years to come.”
Welcome to Plano, Coach Rettke! We are excited about the vision you bring and look forward to many years of personal growth, development and success!
