Tommy Edgmon graduated from Goddard High School after playing soccer and winning three state wrestling titles. He attended Pratt Community College and Fort Hays State University on a wrestling scholarship where he was a four-time national qualifier and received two All-American awards. He was also a National runner-up. He has been a P.E. teacher and head wrestling coach at Newton for two years and feels it is his duty to give back to the sport that paid for his degree; the sport he fell in love with.

What is your coaching style?
“I’d say we drill a lot. We work a lot on muscle memory, a lot of conditioning, and building mental toughness. Wrestling is a mental game. You may be tired, but you can always go one more. I try to build up their confidence mentally and really work that muscle memory.”

How have you prepared for this year?
“We’re trying to incorporate those new freshmen coming in, and get them to buy in on how we do things. A lot of that is our upperclassmen taking them under the wing and saying ‘Hey, we’re in high school now. This is how the high school team does it, this is what a duel looks like, and this is why it’s important to win your match not only for yourself but for your team.’ ”

How do you motivate your athletes?
“Tell them ‘hey, self confidence’, believe if they want to do it, they can make it happen. If you need to get extra workouts in, if you need to do this on your own time- there’s always opportunity to get better. We just give them that opportunity so they know that they can be as good as they want to be, but the effort needs to be put forth.”

What is your biggest obstacle this year?
“I think our biggest obstacle is staying healthy. Last year we had some injuries and had a lot of setbacks to where we ended up pulling up a lot of JV kids up to varsity, and having open weights. This year, if we can keep everyone healthy we can have a solid lineup from top to bottom. We have a very solid incoming freshman class and some returning players and starters, so obviously our goal is to do a little bit better than last year. Regionals is set up a little different and maybe a little bit harder to get kids to state.”