Bluhm Continues Building on Trenton Tradition in 5th Decade as Coach
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
December 22, 2022
TRENTON – What Tom Bluhm likes about wrestling also happens to correlate perfectly into what his program at Trenton has been about as of late.
“It’s one-on-one,” Bluhm said. “You can’t hide and you can’t make excuses. That’s what I’ve always liked about it.”
Excuses aren’t in the vocabulary of the Trenton program that’s been presided by Bluhm for going on 46 seasons.
Last season, the Trojans went 22-9, solid on the surface but incredible when considering Trenton had only 14 wrestlers on the team and forfeited just one weight class.
Again, Bluhm and his group weren’t interested in excuses. They just forged ahead with what they had.
“There’s no planning for it,” he said. “It’s just something that happens. It makes it tough to run practices. It’s not like you have a room of 30 or 40 guys where you can group them into three based on weight and get after it.”
Numbers haven’t traditionally been a problem for Trenton under Bluhm, who said his 1978 team had 100 wrestlers competing for spots on varsity and 50 freshmen.
In recent years, the lack of a program at the middle school level has negated opportunities to develop a feeder system, so Bluhm just hopes for the best when tryouts come around in November.
Bluhm said it’s become an increasing scenario where athletes come out for the wrestling team who have never before wrestled in their lives.
Bluhm said one example was a sophomore who came out for the team last year, quickly learned the sport and ended up winning 36 matches.
“His mother supposedly called the AD last year saying he needed something to do because he was driving her crazy,” Bluhm said. “So he came out for wrestling.”
Nolan Diroff, a senior who primarily wrestles in the 189-pound weight class, but has also wrestled at higher weights, said the limited number of wrestlers on the team rarely comes up as a topic.
“I can’t really say that anybody has complained about not having a lot of people,” he said. “Nobody on the team complains when they get moved around in the lineup. We wrestle where Coach needs us to wrestle. We do whatever he says to try and win matches.”
Diroff said in a strange way, having a limited roster has made who is on the team better wrestlers because it has forced them to be versatile athletes who can compete at multiple weights.
“He’s kind of built us up to realize that and wrestle wherever he needs us,” he said. “He tries to get us as many matches as possible. It makes us better wrestlers and makes the team better.”
This year, there is a slight increase in the numbers.
Bluhm said there are 17 out for the team, including the first girl wrestler during his tenure.
“She fits right in,” Bluhm said. “She gets in there and does everything the boys do.”
Bluhm entered this season fourth on the MHSAA all-time coaching wins list for wrestling, carrying an 812-416-2 record with five seasons at Taylor Center before taking over at Trenton beginning with that 1977-78 winter.
Despite the struggles with numbers, Bluhm still very much gets a lot out of coaching after more than five decades.
He drives a little less than an hour to Trenton and back every day from his home in Northville, and said he’s stayed at Trenton out of his love and respect not only for the kids, but their parents.
“He tells a bunch of other stuff and random stories,” Diroff said. “Never ones that you really roll your eyes at. They are always enjoyable and shows you how long he’s been around.”
And when Trenton wrestles this season, the Trojans will do what they always do: Fight on with no excuses.
“I enjoy coaching,” Bluhm said. “I’ve always said show me some rules, and I’ll play.”
Keith Dunlap has served in Detroit-area sports media for more than two decades, including as a sportswriter at the Oakland Press from 2001-16 primarily covering high school sports but also college and professional teams. His bylines also have appeared in USA Today, the Washington Post, the Detroit Free Press, the Houston Chronicle and the Boston Globe. He served as the administrator for the Oakland Activities Association’s website from 2017-2020. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Trenton wrestling coach Tom Bluhm coaches Connor Charping during the 2016 Individual Finals. (Middle) Bluhm and current wrestler Nolan Diroff stand in front of the program's record board. (Top photo by High School Sports Scene; middle photo courtesy of Nolan Diroff.)
3 Michigan Coaches Earn NFHS Honor
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
January 16, 2019
Three Michigan high school coaches with long histories of championship success were honored Wednesday with 2018 National Coaches of the Year awards presented by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NHFS) Coaches Association.
Midland Dow boys tennis coach Terry Schwartzkopf, Pontiac Notre Dame Prep girls volleyball coach Betty Wroubel and Bloomfield Hills Marian and Birmingham Brother Rice golf coach Leon Braisted III – formerly the longtime coach of the girls and boys programs at Birmingham Seaholm – earned three of the 22 available NFHS awards and have led their programs to a combined 13 MHSAA Finals championships.
The following brief bios include excerpts from each honoree’s coaching philosophy, which they were asked to submit after being identified as candidates for the awards.
Leon Braisted III began coaching both the girls and boys Birmingham Seaholm teams in 1998 and guided those programs through the 2015-16 school year. He led the Maples girls to Lower Peninsula Division 2 championships in 2006, 2008 and three straight from 2013-15, and also to five runner-up Finals finishes. His Seaholm boys team was Division 2 runner-up in 1999. Braisted has coached the Bloomfield Hills Marian girls the last three seasons and the Birmingham Brother Rice boys the last two, leading Marian to a Division 2 runner-up finish in 2017. Rice finished seventh in Division 1 this spring. Braisted was inducted into the Michigan Interscholastic Golf Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2015.
“An athletic program opens the door for students to become involved in different sports. Any sport the student joins is quite a learning experience. A coach through practices teaches the players to be ‘team players and learn the rules of the sport.’ During the practices and playing the sport, players learn tolerance, become alert to their surroundings, and most importantly (the sport) offers exercise. As a golf coach for 21 years I recognize that golf is a lifelong sport. The player learns patience, perseverance and (the sport) motivates the individual to desire to improve (his or her) game. At the beginning of each new season, I encourage the students to join in participating on a golf team. I do not turn any students away from being on the team whether they know how to play golf or not. There is much one can learn from being a teammate and facing the challenge of self- improvement, along with meeting new friends. Joining a sports team is more than just excelling on the field. It is the ability to meet others, a place and time where a person can enjoy the moments away from the rapid pace of daily life.”
Terry Schwartzkopf took over the Midland Dow program in 2007 after seven years leading the junior varsity. He guided the Chargers to five straight Lower Peninsula Division 2 championships from 2009-13 and a sixth title in 2016. He was named the statewide boys tennis Coach of the Year in 2017 by the Michigan High School Tennis Coaches Association and led Dow to unbeaten seasons in 2010, 2011 and 2014. His team finished fifth at the Division 2 Final this fall and tied for second in 2017.
“I believe that the sport is irrelevant when it comes to coaching. Granted, specific content knowledge is imperative to success, but coaching is about creating a stable environment in which young individuals can mature as individuals and athletes. I believe that athletics help individuals learn how to cope with loss, cope with success, and how to work to achieve a goal. It allows them the ability to feel that they contribute to something greater than themselves, to put team before self, and serves as something that unites players regardless of age or circumstances. Due to this mindset, our teams tend to be a tight-knit bond of individuals who help each other to succeed. In fact, this year alone I have had seven alumni return at various times in order to work with the team, desiring to give back to the program. In fact, my original captain returned to serve as a volunteer assistant coach this year. These legends give faces to the names that my players have heard stories of as they continue to unite this team past, present, and future. … The records, trophies, and competition are a wonderful part of the game of tennis, but the real victories come in watching these young boys turn into productive men willing to serve others, live with integrity, and exhibit character and sportsmanship both on and off the court.”
Betty Wroubel is the third-winningest coach in MHSAA volleyball history at 1,486-308-130 after leading the Fighting Irish to a 64-6 record and Division 2 runner-up finish this fall. She started her varsity head coaching career in the sport at Clawson, guiding that program from 1979-82. She then led the Pontiac and Oakland Catholic program from 1989-94 and has coached Notre Dame Prep since its first season in 1994-95. Her teams won Class B titles in Fall 2007, 2013 and 2017. Wroubel also coaches the softball team – she led Pontiac Catholic to the Class C title in 1983 – and serves as Notre Dame Prep’s athletic director. She was inducted into the Michigan Interscholastic Volleyball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2014.
“My philosophy of athletics has changed considerably since I started coaching and has continued to change throughout my career. I believe that athletics provide a powerful vehicle to teach and prepare our student athletes not only in sport, but more importantly in life. My responsibility has never been solely to teach my players to play and love the sport of volleyball, but rather to pursue their passion for something they love and how to grow as young, strong females today – to prepare them to handle disappointment, failure, adversity and stress in a healthy manner and success with a humble heart. As important as it is to help the players develop their game skills, it is far more important to help them in their personal growth journey, to prepare them for a world that will be very different than the one I grew up in, and to create a team-oriented culture in a world that is all about ‘me.’ … I try to teach and empower my players to believe in themselves, embrace all opportunities of both success and failure, and how to achieve what they once considered unimaginable; to work hard, be humble, grateful, forgive oneself, forgive others, and always strive to be what God created them to be.”
Three more Michigan coaches earned honors in Section 4, which includes Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa and Wisconsin. Hartland wrestling coach Todd Cheney led the Eagles to the Division 1 title in 2016 – the school’s first in his sport – while Dexter swimming & diving coach Michael McHugh has led his school’s boys program to four MHSAA titles including three straight in Lower Peninsula Division 2. Sterling Heights Stevenson competitive cheer coach Brianna Verdoodt led her program to its first MHSAA title, also in Division 1, in 2018 after Stevenson finished Finals runner-up in 2017.
The NFHS has been recognizing coaches through an awards program since 1982. Winners of NFHS awards must be active coaches during the year for which they receive their award.