See article by Rob Smith of Northwest Herald
AROUND TOWN: ISI coaches give wrestlers edge
By ROB SMITH - rsmith@shawmedia.com
Created: Sunday, February 24, 2013 10:59 p.m. CST
Updated: Sunday, February 24, 2013 11:17 p.m. CST
With the high school wrestling season over, Jerry Kelly begins the work of getting wrestlers ready for the next season.
Kelly is the head coach and co-owner at ISI wrestling in Crystal Lake and Naperville and is well known in Illinois as both a wrestler and a coach. He was a two-time high school state champion in 1977 and 1978 at Richards and a national runner-up at Oklahoma State.
Kelly coached at Monticello High School and MacMurray College in Jacksonville and was inducted into the Illinois Wrestling Coaches and Officials Hall of Fame in 1998.
Kelly said the move from competing to coaching was an easy transition for him. He began helping coaching youth teams while still in high school.
“When I was a freshman in high school I would come home from my high school practices and help coach,” Kelly said. “There’s a bunch of guys that came out of that and won high school championships and went on to wrestle Division I.”
While Kelly was the type of person who could look at a move once and be able to replicate it immediately on the mat, he realized that getting kids to understand why they were doing something was critical.
“For me it’s trying to break down all the little things that go into it,” Kelly said. “I try to get the kids to understand why we’re doing it this way. You learn it better doing it that way.”
Most of the training at ISI is for freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling. Kelly said such training is good for high school wrestlers to help them excel during the season in folkstyle, the style wrestled in high school. Competing in Greco and freestyle gives wrestlers a broader base of experience on which to draw.
“They’re learning a lot more new moves,” Kelly said. “Now they know [when they are in] a danger zone and how to stop it. It teaches them not to panic. They can go to some of their freestyle moves to counter it.”
That experience is important for excelling at the high school level.
“A lot more kids are wrestling freestyle and Greco and getting that extra 30 matches in the summer,” Kelly said. “They’re getting a whole other season in. They know that if they are going to get to state, they have to get in the extra time.”
Jim Herff is the other owner of ISI and has been impressed with how Kelly relates to wrestlers. As an assistant principal at Johnsburg, he understands what makes a successful teacher and coach.
“I evaluate teachers and coaches for a living,” Herff said. “I saw [Kelly] with kids on the mat literally for five minutes and said this guy is the best.”
Part of that success is being able to connect with wrestlers at all levels, not just the elite athletes. Because even the best wrestlers, at some point in their careers, have left the mat a loser.
“[Kelly] connects with kids who are 7, college wrestlers and everything in between.” Herff said. “For all the success that he’s had, he has a way of connecting with even the mediocre wrestler. He understands. Everybody’s been beat.”
• Rob Smith is a sports writer for the Northwest Herald. Write to him at rsmith@shawmedia.com.