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Marko takes winding road to Hall of Fame

Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski Dave Marko has coached at Claysburg-Kimmel and Central.

By Todd Irwin

tirwin@altoonamirror.com

Dave Marko was a three-year starter on the Connellsville wrestling team, and he was a state qualifier as a senior in 1990.

He went on to wrestle for Pat Pecora at UPJ. After graduating from UPJ, Marko was substitute teaching at Connellsville, when his girlfriend and future wife, Rebecca, told him there was an ad in the newspaper for a wrestling coach at Claysburg-Kimmel.

“I had never even heard of Claysburg before,” Marko said with a laugh. “The only thing I knew of in this area was Altoona, where I took second at PJWs when I was in eighth grade. Then I met a girl in college who was from Roaring Spring. All I knew then was Claysburg was the exit before I got off the highway to go to my future wife’s house.”

He applied, interviewed for the job, and accepted the job offer later at the age of 23.

Marko went on to coach 18 years at Claysburg-Kimmel, amassing a 234-64 record, coaching three state champions in Derek Tipton (1999), Jarrett Musselman (2002) and Adam Whetstone (2005).

Now a month shy of his 47th birthday, Marko has coached the last five years at Central. He reached the 300-win plateau this past season, and on Saturday night before the District 6 Class 2A finals, he was inducted into the District 6 Wrestling Hall of Fame as Rebecca presented him the plaque and kids Logan, 18, who qualified for the Southwest Regional Tournament, Britton, 13, and Sophia, 1, watched.

“I was honored,” Marko said. “I was nominated probably about five years ago by (Altoona coach) Joel Gilbert, and I respectfully declined at that time because I wanted my kids to be a little bit older. I knew that I wasn’t done coaching and had some more years left in me. I knew it would just be a matter of time anyway, so I asked if we could just hold off until my kids were a little bit older, and maybe they could understand and be proud of dad. When Joel Gilbert nominated me again, I accepted.

“My kids are a little older, and I was looking at the season in hopes of getting the 300th win this year. Logan has applied to the Air Force Academy and to the Coast Guard Academy, and if he’s lucky enough to be selected to one of those, there’s no way he’d be able to be around for anything within the next four years. We just figured this would be a perfect time to do it.

“I’ve thought so many times about all of the different people that played a part in helping me get to where I am. I came from a family of coaches. My uncle was my elementary junior high coach. I thought back to my high school coach, Tom Dolde, and coach (Pat) Pecora, who’s been like a father to me. Nobody gets there alone. I’ve been very fortunate to consistently surround myself with good people who have bought into what we wanted to do.”

Philipsburg-Osceola runners-up Dan Gallaher (1969) and Henry Patterson (1960), Hollidaysburg state runner-up Ray Malone (1964) and former Huntingdon coach Fred Wilson are also among those being inducted into the Hall of Fame last week and this week at the District 6 Class 3A Tournament.

Marko said he never thought he’d be coaching this long. In fact, he applied to IUP for college because the school didn’t have a wrestling program and he was “mentally burnt” from wrestling.

“I think that is a big reason why I’ve tried to raise my kids in the sport the way that I have,” he said. “If they wanted to go to something, then we went. If they didn’t want to go to something, then we didn’t go. There was never any pressure. Logan learned to really, really love wrestling. Then there’s a part of me that wishes I could go back in time and demand that he had more opportunities, but if I had done that, he might not have enjoyed the sport.”

Marko still teaches at Claysburg-Kimmel, and he still hears from appreciative former wrestlers.

“At times, different guys I’ve run into have told me how much they appreciate what I did for them over the years and help them grow up into men,” Marko said. “I started coaching at such an early age, and I look back and think about how much I grew during that time period. Claysburg is still a very dear place in my heart. That time period will never be forgotten or be far from my mind.”

Marko developed the Bulldogs into a powerhouse, coaching them to Southwest Regional titles in 1999, 2000 and 20012, District 6 Duals and individual tournament titles in 1999 and 2000.

“It’s really easy to point to getting Derek Tipton a state championship, and getting Jarrett Musselman and Adam Whetsone state championships,” he said. “There were some of the team wins we had, when we made it to the state semifinals. But the wins come and go. It’s seeing these guys I coached and being good fathers now, being good husbands, working in good jobs. That’s the stuff that keeps you coming back at the end of the day.”

Marko said it was “really difficult” leaving C-K for Central in 2012, but it had to be done because his kids were attending school in the Spring Cove School District.

“I couldn’t bring myself not to be able to coach my kids,” he said. “Probably more to the point, I couldn’t bring myself to coach against my kids. It was actually one of my former wrestlers who said ‘Coach, if you’re not leaving because you’re going to be afraid that we’re going to be mad at you, don’t do that. You’ve always stressed God, family, academics and wrestling. If you don’t leave, we’re going to be mad at you because you’re going against what you’ve taught us all these years.’ It was sort of a light bulb moment.”

Needing two more wins to reach 300 for his career, it didn’t look like Marko would get to 300 wins this year. But when the Claysburg Duals were canceled due to weather, the Marion Center Duals were added, and the Scarlet Dragons went 4-0 to give Marko his 300th win.

“There were a few times when I thought it may not happen this year,” Marko said. “It honestly wasn’t a big deal to me in the big scheme of things whether we reached it or not because I know that my coaching career is not done. The only reason why it became important at all to me was because I think it became pretty important to Logan that he be on the team whenever we reached it.”

Many times when coaches reach 300 or more wins and are starting to be inducted into halls of fame, the question of retirement comes up. Marko was getting that question over the weekend. He said he has no plans to retire soon.

“The way that I look at it is the health stays good and if Central keeps having me back, then my outlook on it is I have 11 years until I can retire from teaching,” Marko said, “and maybe then I’ll start looking at things on a year-to-year basis. I love the chess matches with the other coaches, trying to steal wins where you can, and trying to get the most out of the kids.”

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