Butler’s Lunn takes wrestling head coaching job
YORK, S.C. — Chuck Lunn has experienced plenty of winning.
Now he wants to build a winner himself.
A 1998 Butler graduate, Lunn was a football player and heavyweight wrestler for the Golden Tornado. He moved down south to begin a teaching career and wound up becoming an assistant football and wrestling coach as well.
He recently accepted the head wrestling coach position at York High School in South Carolina. He will be a world history teacher there as well as becoming a head coach for the first time. Lunn spent the past two years as an assistant wrestling coach for Fort Mill High School, which went on to win South Carolina Class 5A state championships both years.
Earlier in his career, Lunn was an assistant wrestling coach during four South Carolina 4A state title runs by East Side High School.
“Those are two of the wrestling powerhouses in the state,” Lunn, 43, said. “I’ve learned so much as a coach just watching those programs and what they do.
“I’m hoping to be able to use my experiences there to build the York program.”
Lunn said York is “trying to rebuild the sport there. They want to get it going. They were down to 25 wrestlers in the entire program last year.”
Lunn becomes the first Butler wrestler coached by Scott Stoner to become a head wrestling coach in high school. Stoner recently completed his 31st year as the Golden Tornado mat coach and has had a number of former wrestlers go on to become assistant coaches.
“Chuck was a big heavyweight for us, about 6-foot-6, 275,” Stoner recalled. “He was a quiet kid, a gentle giant type of guy. He was a good, hardworking kid.
“Having gotten into teaching, he’s been working with kids. He wants to give back to young people.”
Lunn was 45-18 during his wrestling career at Butler, including 23-6 his senior season. He was a two-time WPIAL qualifier.
“That was the early stages of Coach Stoner’s coaching career,” Lunn said. “He was still in the process of building the Butler program. Coach Stoner was such an influential person in my life. He was the male role model I needed at that time in my life.
“He kept me on the straight and narrow. He instilled the toughness and work ethic in me that you need to have to be successful, not only in sports, but in life.”
Lunn added that he plans to follow Stoner’s script as he goes to work on building the York wrestling program.
“Our athletes just need a little direction,” Lunn said. “My first goal is to get us to compete for playoff position in our first year, because I believe the talent is there to do that.
“The second goal is that I, along with the assistant coaches, go to work on changing the culture in the wrestling room, the first thing you have to do to have a consistent, winning program.”
Stoner may become his biggest fan.
“I love seeing someone like Chuck be touched enough by the sport and what it can do for young people, to want to run his own program and instill some of those traits in kids,” the Butler coach said. “It’s a good feeling as a coach and teacher, knowing you influenced somebody else to go out and do the same thing.”
