After 41 Years of 
Volunteering, Ferndale Wresting Coach John Olson Retiring
(Crystal A. Proxmire, April 19, 2016)
Ferndale, MI – After four decades of helping young people develop the strength and discipline of wresting, Ferndale Wrestling Coach John Olson is retiring.
Olson started in Hazel Park, a city with a strong wrestling heritage. Olson’s brother George was a senior at Hazel Park High when he wanted to start a wrestling club, so John stepped in to help. He’d never done wrestling before, but soon found joy in helping the wrestlers develop their skills. Volunteering stuck well with him and he coached the Hazel Park Wolves Wrestling 
Club for over 20 years. The past 20 or so he has been coaching for Ferndale.
“There’s this wall in the wrestling room with pictures of every Ferndale Student who went to State [competition]. There’s a lot of kids on that wall who wouldn’t be on that wall if it wasn’t for Jon Olson,” said Ferndale Police Chief Timothy Collins, who also helps coach the youngsters.
The Ferndale Wrestling Club is an independent organization that uses Ferndale High School facilities. The club is for kids aged 4-14 and is generally the precursor to high school wrestling. Kids come from cities all around Ferndale including Royal Oak, Berkley, Clawson and Detroit.
The coaches volunteer after school each day to help the kids practice, and they go with them to
meets. They teach the kids fitness and nutrition, as well as sportsmanship and strategy. And they do the extra work of hosting a tournament so that it helps underwrite the cost of membership for the youth.
Olsen and Collins continued to volunteer even when their own sons – who are the same age – opted to join the swim team. That meant extra juggling of schedules, but the men remained committed to seeing the little wrestlers grow.
“We take kids from all over, places where they may not have a lot of team sports or opportunities. Here they have something they can work at, get better at. There’s structure here for them,” Collins said.
Collins credits Olson with not only his giving spirit, but in creating a high quality wrestling program.
“We don’t do any recruiting and we don’t turn kids away,” Collins said. “Everyone comes with different abilities. But we still have one of the best clubs in the state.”
For the past 18 years in a row, Ferndale has had members make it to the State Finals. “That [success] is because of John Olson,” Collins said.
For Olson the reward comes in sharing the sport with the youth. “I love the spirit,” Olson said. “I love working with kids and seeing them achieve newer goals.”
Olson is being honored with a 2016 Ferndale Good Neighbor Award. The Awards, given by Citizens for Fair Ferndale, honor community members who give of themselves to make the community a better place. An award ceremony will be held this week to honor all of the Good Neighbors.
Oakland County Times
Reader supported local journalism
