Meet Golden High School’s new wrestling coach Eric Kimble
GOLDEN, Colo. — Golden High School’s new wrestling coach, Eric Kimble, has an eye on honing the team’s talents and bringing program participation numbers back up to those of pre-COVID years. “I think Golden used to have a really strong program, and has a good reputation for having a strong wrestling team,” Kimble says. “We want to build it back to that, and we want to exceed that.”
This year’s team has a dozen wrestlers, which represents some growth in the last three years, but not close to previous years’ numbers, Kimble says. “I think the pandemic was rough on the sport of wrestling,” he says. “It’s hard to social distance in wrestling and the numbers got hit for a few years.” Kimble says a strong youth wrestling program in the Golden community is cultivating some passion for the sport and he sees it feeding into the school’s team in the coming years.
Kimble says the current team is a shining example of what the sport and its athletes can be. “This group of boys is having a blast with such great attitudes,” he says. “They are hard workers and they support each other. They have a bond going on; you can feel it in the room.”
Kimble brings years of experience as a wrestler himself. He started in middle school and competed through college. At Ohio University, he was Wrestler of the Year twice and an NCAA All-American athlete for several years. He left the sport after college and reconnected with it when his son started wrestling in high school. That’s when Golden’s now-retired coach of 25 years, Dave Sauer, asked Kimble to be an assistant coach. Kimble says he knows he has some big shoes to fill. “It’s been super great, because [Sauer] is still there to advise and consult,” Kimble says. “I reach out to him a couple days a week.”
Coach Kimble says that another goal is to start a girls wrestling team at Golden High School. Currently, girls at Golden who want to wrestle typically join other schools’ teams with larger numbers and dedicated coaches. “We talk about a girls wrestling program,” he says. “It was eliminated when the numbers went down. When I interviewed, one of the goals [I discussed] is to bring that back.”
While Kimble admits that wrestling doesn’t have the national popularity that other sports like football and basketball have, he contends that it has a lot of appeal and purpose for a variety of athletes. Wrestling focuses on strength, conditioning, balance, and leveraging one’s body’s unique strengths, which are essential parts of training for other physical, competitive sports. “I played soccer, I played football, and I ran track, but nothing pushed me as hard as wrestling,” Kimble says. “It’s going to teach your body and train your body to be the best it can be.”
The coach’s passion for the sport is evident when he talks about the lessons and benefits it brings to athletes. “The big lesson is that we are stronger than we think we are,” he says. “Not only will it help you be better at your other sports, but better in life, too.”
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