Duane Wohlfert saw greatness in kids before they saw it in themselves.
“He was instinctively drawn to kids who lacked con dence, kids who had potential but didn’t realize they had potential, kids who didn’t necessarily believe in themselves,”said Ken Wensel, former Fenton High School athletic director.
These were the types of kids Wohlfert used to build Fenton into one of the best wrestling programs in Michigan.
Wohlfert’s teams won state Class B championships in 1972, 1973 and 1990. His wrestlers won 14 individual state titles during a 36-year career that spanned from 1964-2000.
Those successes were the culmination of the daily grind in the wrestling room, as Wohlfert sought to get the very best out of each and every one of his wrestlers.
“The expectations were really week by week,”said Stacy Verhelle, who was fth in the state Class B tournament as a senior in 1986. “That’s what he concentrated on. He always did see potential in us, potential we didn’t even know. He pushed us to our potential.”
Mike Pickhover, the 1974 state Class B champion at 112 pounds, said Wohlfert sought out the kids who weren’t necessarily considered to be the best and the brightest.
“You could take a kid that’s already got great potential or you can take a kid that has potential, but it’s like a lump of coal,”Pickhover said. “But he stays with him until all of a sudden they see there’s something good in them.”
When Wohlfert died in 2006 at the age of 69, former wrestler Les Allen told the Tri-County Times: “He and the wrestling program helped keep me in school. He was fair to everyone. He made wrestling fun.”
Pickhover said such sentiments were common in the wrestling program.
“When (success) started happening, you’ve got to hold your grades up,”Pickhover said. “You had a reason to ght for the grades, because you wanted to wrestle. Some people say that’s a poor reason to go to school but, hey, they’re staying in there.”
Pickhover was a member of Fenton’s rst two state championship teams, but never would’ve had that opportunity – or the opportunity to eventually wrestle in college – had Wohlfert not sought him out back in elementary school.
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