HIGH SCHOOL

Meet John Maehl, Don Bosco’s first wrestling coach whose grandson wrestles for Lisbon

Cody Goodwin
The Des Moines Register

The old wrestling coach picks up the phone and laughs as he shares a story. He last coached 52 years ago and his tenure lasted just two seasons. He kept a few things to remember, of course — his whistle, a yellow polo shirt, the royal blue shorts he wore to every practice.

“And they still fit!” he says.

John Maehl is 70 years old now, and as the conversation continues, the Cedar Rapids resident remembers more. He also kept a program from one of the school’s first meets, as well as the school newspaper article announcing his arrival.

Maehl was Don Bosco’s first wrestling coach. He was hired ahead of the 1968-69 season, just 19 years old at the time and still a student at Northern Iowa. During his two-year stay, he laid the foundation for what’s become one of Iowa’s high-school wrestling dynasties.

Here’s a fun twist: Maehl’s grandson is Lincoln Holub, a sophomore and starting 126-pounder for Lisbon, yet another one of Iowa’s small-school wrestling power. Lisbon and Don Bosco are expected to battle for the Class 1A team title at the state wrestling championships this week at Wells Fargo Arena. 

“My allegiance is with my grandkids,” Maehl told the Des Moines Register this week. “I like to watch Don Bosco from a distance. I chat with them a little bit, and I’ve stayed in touch with some of my wrestlers.”

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The Dons enter the week ranked No. 1 by IAWrestle, while Lisbon is No. 2. The two programs have combined to win 26 traditional state team titles since Lisbon first won in 1973. That includes each of the last three — Lisbon in both 2017 and 2018, then Don Bosco last season.

“Our guys like that challenge,” current Don Bosco coach Tom Hogan said. “It’s kind of fun to use (the history) to motivate them and see if they can set a new record. It’s fun to challenge them.”

Maehl has watched the rise of both programs, all of which seemed like a far-away dream back when he first started coaching.

He did not have much in the way of a wrestling background. He grew up on a farm in Elkader, and attended his first wrestling meet as an eighth-grader. After a failed attempt at basketball, Maehl attended his first wrestling practice — which was five days before the first meet. 

“I ended up wrestling varsity,” he says. “It was ugly.”

Maehl ended up wrestling all four years. He developed a passion and hoped to coach someday. He attended Northern Iowa and wrestled under Chuck Patten while studying business education and physical education.

He didn’t find much success on the mat, so Patten tapped into his bigger aspirations. Ahead of Maehl’s junior season, 1968-69, he and Patten went for a walk across campus. Patten had gotten a call from a nearby high school looking for a coach.

“He said, ‘John, we both know what your future looks like with the UNI wrestling team,’” Maehl recalls, “‘but I think you could coach this wrestling team.’

“I wasn’t sure what I was signing up for. I didn’t know enough to be worried, so I said sure.”

So every afternoon after class, Maehl drove the 25 minutes from Cedar Falls to Gilbertville. About 15 kids came out that first year, and maybe a couple had limited experience, he said. He helped the athletic director order uniforms and mats. They practiced in the music room next to the main gym. His salary was $6 a day.

“I would’ve done it for nothing at the time,” he says now. “The next year, I got a raise — to $8 a day.”

A copy of the student newspaper article announcing John Maehl's hiring as Don Bosco's first wrestling coach back in 1968.

Maehl spent that first season teaching his wrestlers basic positions and the rules of the sport. The next year, a few more kids came out, so he organized an entire schedule with home meets and tournaments. The Dons went 5-6 overall and sent one wrestler to districts.

“It was certainly a different level of competition from what Lisbon and Don Bosco do now,” he says. “It’s a whole different ballgame today.”

After two years at Don Bosco, Maehl left for a two-year stint in the Army. Before he left, he got married in Des Moines, and six of his wrestlers made the trip and sat in the front row of the ceremony. Don Mashek was then hired as Don Bosco’s new coach ahead of the 1970-71 season.

The rest, of course, is history.

Under Mashek, Ray Fox became the school's first state champ in 1977, and the Dons won state team titles in 1979, 1981, 1985 and 1987. In his 30 years at Don Bosco, Mashek piled up 421 dual victories and coached 22 individual state champions. Tom Kettman followed Mashek in 2000 and led the Dons to five more state team titles, then Hogan was hired in 2011 and has coached them to two more.

Those three were tasked with keeping pace with mighty Lisbon. Al Baxter led the Lions to five titles in 1970s, then Brad Smith took over after Baxter called the Iowa wrestling offices for his replacement. Smith has led Lisbon to nine more team championships, and recently became Iowa’s all-time leader in coaching dual-meet wins.

“On the back of our T-shirts, we put ‘Tradition Never Graduates’ and we talk about that,” Smith, a 1976 NCAA champ for Iowa, said recently. “It’s almost like Iowa wrestling. There’s a mystique when an Iowa wrestler steps on the mat. His opponent knows he’s got a tough match.

“That’s the way I feel when someone is wrestling us. When you wrestle someone from Lisbon, you know you’re in for a battle. I think that helps our kids, that mystique and tradition.”

Maehl, meanwhile, returned after three years in the Army. He settled in Cedar Rapids and had two kids, a boy and a girl. He hoped for another coaching gig, but instead worked in manufacturing and industrial engineering.

His daughter, Jennifer, married Heath Holub and they had three boys. The oldest, Lincoln, was a state qualifier for Mount Vernon last year. The family moved to Lisbon, and Lincoln became the starting 126-pounder. He did not qualify for state this week, but will wrestle in Wednesday’s State Duals, where Lisbon is the 2-seed in 1A (Don Bosco is the top seed).

Should the Lions and Dons meet again Wednesday night, it would be their third meeting this season. Lisbon won a 34-32 thriller at the Battle of Waterloo in December, then Don Bosco returned the favor in a resounding 37-21 win at Lisbon last month.

Midway through that dual, Lisbon honored both its 1980 state championship team and Smith for breaking the all-time dual-meet victory mark. But the announcer also made it a point to recognize Maehl, who sat in the stands and marveled at the talent and depth on both sides.

“I’m sure Don Bosco is happy and proud that you took the job that day all those years ago,” the announcer said over the loud speaker. That sparked a small applause from the Don Bosco contingent.

The speaker continued: “And remember, John, you’re always welcome at Lisbon, too — as long as you wear red and black.”

Cody Goodwin covers wrestling and high school sports for the Des Moines Register. Follow him on Twitter at @codygoodwin.

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