Wrestling: Jacobs’ Gary Conrad steps down after 11 seasons

Gary Conrad said he always thought he’d coach wrestling until he retired as an educator, but sometimes plans change.

Conrad transformed Jacobs’ program when he took over 11 years ago and brought it to new heights, but he said the time commitment of running a wrestling program became too much over the past couple seasons with a young family. Conrad decided to step down after this season.

“You just start looking at things differently when you start having kids,” Conrad said. “[The decision] was hard, very difficult.”

He took over the program in 2012 after serving as an assistant coach at St. Charles North. Conrad had never heard of Jacobs and inherited a program that lacked consistency with eight coaches over the previous 10 seasons.

The first goal was to establish an identity and hardworking culture that students wanted to join. Students quickly became interested, and the Golden Eagles won their first Fox Valley Conference and regional titles in 2015 even though the team failed to qualify anyone to the individual state tournament.

“I think we did amazing things, I think we put Jacobs on the map,” Conrad said. “People had no clue who we were as a wrestling team. We never won a conference title in the 50, 60 years we’ve been open. We did some big things. We accomplished things that we were looking for.”

Jacobs won another FVC title during the summer 2021 season, but Conrad noticed that the COVID-19 pandemic hit both his Jacobs and youth wrestling programs hard with fewer students interested. Conrad has coached Jacobs seniors Dominic Ducato and James Wright since they were 7 years old, so their final ride this season made stepping away make even more sense.

Ducato took third in the Class 3A 113-pound state tournament, and Wright finished sixth at the Class 3A 132 state tournament as both wrestlers wanted Conrad to end on a high note.

“It was huge,” Conrad said of Ducato’s and Wright’s state performances. “It was a great way to end it, we were super pumped.”

Jacobs athletic director Jason Ziols said he was shocked when Conrad announced his departure but thought Conrad could consider stepping away from the program once his family continued to grow. Ziols said he’s hoping to post the position quickly and hire someone who can take over a successful program that Conrad built.

“He’s done tremendous things for our wrestling program over the last decade. He’s really put it on the map,” Ziols said. “So those are going to be big shoes to fill moving forward.”

Conrad isn’t stepping away from coaching and wrestling entirely. He’ll continue to be the Jacobs boys golf coach and he’ll serve as an official so he can stay connected to the sport and the FVC.

He also said he thinks he’ll return to coaching one day when his children get older and get involved in different activities. Conrad might be taking a step away, but he’ll always be close to the sport he loves.

“Wrestling is in my blood,” Conrad said. “I love what it does for kids. Even when they’re not super successful on the mat competitively, just being in the room around other boys, and with girls wrestling appearing now, it teaches such good life lessons. It’s so valuable.”