This is the latest story in the Emporia Gazette:

EHS hires wrestling coach
By Joey Berlin
Friday, May 15, 2009
E-mail story to a friend
Comments on this story
iPod friendly version
Emporia High is putting its storied wrestling program in the hands of a coach with a proven track record of winning.

EHS announced the hiring this morning of Dennis Charbonneau, who will become Emporia’s head coach after 13 years running the Clay Center program. Charbonneau’s Clay Center teams have won Class 4A State titles in four of the past eight years, including back-to-back titles in 2007 and 2008. The Tigers finished as the 4A runner-up to Colby this past season.

“He’s done a wonderful job,” Emporia athletic director Britton Hart said. “Obviously, he builds great relationships with kids. With those relationships, obviously, he has high expectations and gets as much as he can out of his kids on the mat and in the classroom.”

Before joining Clay Center in 1997, Charbonneau coached at Anderson County for seven years. In his 20 years of coaching, his teams have always finished in the top eight at State. Charbonneau won three State titles as a wrestler at Clay Center and graduated from Fort Hays State in 1989.

Hart said there were 10 to 12 applicants for the head coaching position, and the school interviewed four.

“He provides the support and the consistency that I think our kids deserve here at Emporia High School,” Hart said. “With the tradition that we have, I think it’s important that he was a good fit for what we were looking for, to not just maintain, but to move us forward in the program that we already have.”

Charbonneau will teach chemistry and physics at EHS. In inheriting the defending Class 5A State champions, Charbonneau will replace Greg Buckbee, who resigned last week to take the head coaching job at Arkansas City.

Hart also announced that EHS assistant coach Ryan Karjala will be leaving the wrestling staff after taking a job in the district’s central office. Hart said Karjala was part of the process of hiring the new coach.

Congratulations to Coach Charbonneau! And congratulations to EHS, what hire!

Good Luck Charby!! Quite a plum for Emporia!

Congrats and good luck to Coach Charbonneau. We will miss you in 4A (kind of).

Best Wishes.

Kit Harris
Baldwin HS

wow... thats bad news for any 5a school... not only does coach Charbonneau bring good coaching and a positive attitude... but i would presume he also brings his son, who is quite a little wrestler...

DITTO! Good luck Coach.

Congrats and best wishes to Coach Charbonneau and Emporia High!

Damn Emporia was already tough enough. I thought with Buckbee leaving we all might get a break, but not with Charbonneau taking over. He is a great coach and person. Look for Emporia to battle for the top spot every year.

Congrats.

Just wondering who is going to take over the Clay program

Didn't Buckbee leave Ark City to take the Emporia job. Whats up with that?? Why is he leaving his hometown again for the same job he just left a few years ago??
Just Wondering...
Great hire by both schools!!

The Dispatch Online

Great hire for Clay Center in Brandon Pigorsch. I would expect Clay Center to have continued success in wrestling.

It’s very interesting how this last month has gone with all of the coaches moving around that has happened in Kansas wrestling. If Silvis doesn’t leave Ark City you don’t see this little chain of events happening where Buckbee goes to Ark City, Charbonneau to Emporia, and now Pigorsch coming to Clay Center. It should make for an interesting year of wrestling and many more to follow.

I also found this interesting that both Pigorsch and Silvis graduated high school in 2000.