As George Derbyshire searched for a coach to lead the Manheim Central wrestling program back to new heights, he never thought a former collegiate coach would be a possibility.
But Derbyshire, the director of athletics at Manheim Central High School, made it clear the Manheim community is ecstatic to welcome former Penn State head coach Troy Sunderland as their own head coach.
"It's a great gain for our high school program," Derbyshire said. "We're simply elated he's here with us. He did great things at Penn State and now we're lucky to have him."
Sunderland resigned from the Nittany Lion position in early April following a disappointing 17th place finish at the NCAA Championships. Now, Sunderland has a chance to lead a storied high school program back to the top of the PIAA.
Manheim Central has won more than 700 dual meets in the more than 80 years of the program's history, and has produced eight PIAA champions since 1943.
"I'm looking forward to continuing working in wrestling and looking forward to the community support and the tradition of Manheim Central," Sunderland said in a recent phone interview.
The wrestling program has been down in years past, Derbyshire said, so bringing in a high-profile collegiate coach as the face of the program is great for the school. Sunderland is a McVeytown native and PIAA champion himself, so he knows what it takes to find success at the high school level, although he never broke through as a national champion.
This new positions also allows Sunderland to explore other areas of coaching and mentoring. Derbyshire said his new coach is going to be a counselor at River Rock Academy, an alternative reformatory school aimed at improving the wellbeing of students.
"It's a great opportunity to have a large impact on young adults and kids that maybe have made some poor choices in some shape or form," Sunderland said. "It's an opportunity to redirect them and share a lot of my experiences and things I've seen and been through over the years, in and out of the sport, and also just life lessons I've gained through sport and through wrestling."
The former Lion grappler said he is also going back to school to get certified to teach at the high school level. The plan is for Sunderland to eventually teach science at Manheim Central.
"That's the long-range plan and Troy is excited about it," Derbyshire said. "His family is young and it sounds like he's in it for the long term."
Sunderland's wife, JoAnn, will also follow her husband to Manheim Central. Derbyshire said she will teach in the elementary school in Manheim, probably as a kindergarten teacher. JoAnn Sunderland was a substitute teacher at Radio Park Elementary School in State College in the '07-'08 school year, State College Area School District's human resources department said.
Sunderland may have discovered his niche at Manheim. He won't need to travel around the country recruiting wrestlers, which will allow him to spend more time with his three children, Colton, Mallory and Olivia.
The former Nittany Lion coach is certainly taking the road less traveled to be a high school coach.
"It usually works the other way around, even if you're a Division III coach you work your way up the ladder of the road of advancement," Derbyshire said.
Resurrecting a historical Pennsylvania high school wrestling program may be the perfect position for Sunderland. He has already sensed the excitement from the wrestling community at Manheim.
"They have a great opportunity with coach Sunderland there," senior Nittany Lion wrestler Dan Vallimont said. "He was the coach of a great wrestling school for 11 years so I think it can only help their program."
