By Brian Jerzak
When Pequot Lakes-Pine River-Backus head wrestling coach Travis Hoffarth took over the Roadcrew's head job, he did so with hall-of-fame mentors to back him up. All three of his varsity high school coaches from Albany are in their sports' Minnesota coaching halls of fame. Even though he didn't always listen to them when he competed for them, how he approaches dealing with his wrestlers now proves he listened when it counted.
"It is all about fighting for the kids," Hoffarth said, "making sure they know you are going to do anything you can."
The Roadcrew coach has been involved in wrestling his entire life.
"Wrestling has been part of our family since I have known. My uncles wrestled. My dad wrestled for part of his high school career. My brother (Brad) is ten years older than I am. He was a wrestler. He was the key for me – showing me the moves in the living room when I was four or five years old. He became a head coach at Osakis, the athletic director, and now is the high school principal."
With a future wrestling coach learning his craft in the living room teaching his younger brother, the younger Hoffarth had an advantage early.