Former McNamara wrestling state champion Michael Kimberlin earns IWCOA Hall of Fame induction

It’s been 20 years since Michael Kimberlin wrestled his last match. And as the years continue to pile up, so do Kimberlin’s accolades.

Kimberlin, a 2001 Bishop McNamara graduate and 2005 Northwestern University graduate who currently teaches and coaches at Minooka, is one of 15 inductees into this year’s Illinois Wrestling Coaches and Officials Association Hall of Fame.

A two-time IHSA Class 1A State champion at 152 pounds, Kimberlin finished no worse than third at any of his four state championship appearances in high school. He won three Chicago Catholic League championships and finished with a 145-14 career record, earning both the Catholic League’s prestigious Lawless Award and Cliff Keen All-American recognition as a senior.

He was a two-sport star with the Fightin’ Irish, playing running back and defensive back for the team’s Class 4A state runner-up team in 1998, his sophomore year. As a senior in 2000, he set IHSA single-game playoff records for rushing yards (325) and carries (60) in a four-score game against Normal, earning three All-Catholic League honors and All-State recognition as a senior.

As a Wildcat wrestler, Kimberlin totaled 81 wins over his four-year career, one highlighted by a trip to the NCAA Division I National Championship Tournament as a junior.

Ever the perfectionist on the mat, Kimberlin looks back at his stacked resume and sometimes does so with a feeling there could have been even more added to it. After he “kinda poo-poo’d” his IWCOA induction initially, Kimberlin realized it wasn’t just an honor for him but for his wrestling-devoted family, coaches and friends that pushed him to the success he had.

“At first, I didn’t want it and didn’t think I deserved it,” Kimberlin said. “I did, I was just too stubborn to accept it. What makes it special is how the important people in my life, the people that had huge roles in my success, how proud they were of me, which was awesome.”

At the forefront of those people are his family. His brothers, Ryan and Jacob, also were state champion wrestlers at McNamara before they both went on to wrestle at the University of Illinois. Kimberlin’s dad, Dale, who assists Jacob at McNamara, was his longtime coach. His mom, Kim, is arguably the biggest wrestling enthusiast of the family and was one of his youth coaches. Even his step mom, Debbie, “got pulled in” to the family’s love of the sport.

And that’s why it’s not the hall of fame honors by the IWCOA and Chicago Catholic League that mean the most to him, nor is it any of the other awards, trophies or records he possesses. Rather, it’s the memories with his family.

Kim, fresh off of a cancer diagnosis, walked Kimberlin out at the state grand march as the only woman’s coach when he was in sixth grade. The year he qualified for the NCAA’s, he did so at the University of Illinois, where Ryan was a freshman, and where the Fighting Illini fans began chanting his name in his championship match. Another year at the Big Ten Tournament, he remembers Dale being in the stands and getting into a harmless verbal spat with WWE superstar Brock Lesnar.

“They went everywhere, all of them,” Kimberlin said. “They were always there for us, always there for me.”

And that family passion for the sport has made its way into the next generation of Kimberlin’s family. In addition to 5-year-old daughter Sophia, Mike and his wife, Allison, also have a son, Cole, a junior at McNamara who wrestles and plays football.

When Cole was wrestling youth club for the Brawlers Wrestling Club, Kimberlin served as one of his coaches, just like Dale did for him. And while he’s busy coaching at Minooka during the high school season, Kimberlin knows Cole’s in great hands with Jacob and Dale.

Kimberlin said that coaching and training with Cole is the “best thing I’ve done in my life.” And ironically, it’s not something he thinks he could have done if it wasn’t for the lessons he learned as a wrestler.

“It makes me emotional thinking about it,” he said. “I can look back at how I saw some guys as role models, guys who can control emotions, but most importantly be tough, but be there for him.

“Do it in a way that comes from love, but pushing him,” he said. “It’s tough, especially as dad, but it’s a cool thing, and I wouldn’t be able to do it if it wasn’t for wrestling.”

Kimberlin and the IWCOA Hall of Fame Class of 2025 will be honored at a banquet April 27.