Blaine

After the turn of the century, the Blaine Bengals wrestling program was in a holding pattern. The team was winning some matches, but expectations were not to win conference championships or state titles. What Blaine needed was a spark. In 2011 that came – in part – in the form of a young wrestling coach named Josh Prokosch. Prokosch, his staff, and a group of parents who were ready to get involved started the process of bringing the program to places it had not been in years.

Before Prokosch had any designs of sparking a high school wrestling program – he had to find his way onto a wrestling mat.

“I grew up in St. Paul and wasn’t really involved in sports,” Prokosch said. “(In junior high) I just kind of found myself in the wrestling room. I was never pushed into it by my parents. They never really played sports growing up. Wrestling wasn’t a big sport where I grew up. I loved professional wrestling as a kid, so it sounded fun. I walked into the room and fell in love with what wrestling actually was.”