To the great state of Kansas wrestling community....I want to help stop the mountain of email and communication still coming my way, and to inform of our new coach at Turner.

After twenty-five years advocating wrestling, it was time to step back for some family time and recharge. I have stepped down as the head coach at Turner last spring. Paulie Hansen, who was a a 3X state champ, college All-American, is now Turner’s head coach.

Words cannot describe the great time I had coaching for Turner, and competing against many great coaches and wrestlers right here in our state. Wrestling is the ultimate teacher. Most of us know that. But it still is important to say and promote to young athletes.

There are so many great coaches in the state of Kansas. I cannot name them all. Some of the greatest coaches I know are not perennial team powers...they stay the course and really focus on developing young boys into men. Those coaches I admire the most.

I was blessed to have a great run at Turner High School. We did well as a program for 10 years. The last five we had some strong individual wrestlers. I had tremendous assistants and wrestling leadership help me along the way. Now that I am older, I can appreciate it much more than when I was a young hot head in 1997.

Coach Hansen will do great...I was blessed to be able to walk away on my terms and help name someone to take over the program. Not many coaches can do that anymore, especially in our administrative environment. So, please direct communication to Paulie Hansen, who teaches in our district as well.

I debated to whether to write this or not, but I felt obligated to thank all of you that I have met along the way.

For the many of the seasoned coaches still around, thank you for creating an atmosphere where mentoring young athletes into solid people still matters. Wrestling coaches have so many roadblocks thrown onto the coaching path. Many of us cannot cherry-pick our talent, much like the college coaches, or certain programs blessed with exorbitant resources. We have to develop our youth in the community we serve. I always wondered how some of the top coaches in Division I or II would fare in our high school environments. For the young coaches, thanks for picking up our torch and carrying it forward. Eventually, all of us older dudes have to step away.

God bless!

Peter Sierant