How Mary Motivates: A Wrestling Tale

Canon-McMillan senior Nick Catalano doesn’t remember exactly how old he was the first time he met Chris Mary. He guesses at 8 or 9 years old. But there is one thing that Catalano is sure of—how Mary treated him.

As he still is today, Mary was the Big Macs head wrestling coach back then, when Catalano was just a kid trying to tag along with his big brother, Mike, a varsity standout at the time. Mary allowed Catalano to ride the bus with the team.

And Mary even gave him a job to do—carrying the team’s medical kit—
though Catalano freely admits that he didn’t do much. But that didn’t matter.

“I thought it was awesome,” Catalano said. “I thought it was the greatest thing in the world—like I was a part of the team.”

That’s just the kind of impression that Mary has on people. It’s the kind of treatment that has inspired the type of loyalty that eventually led Catalano to follow in his brother’s footsteps—joining the team and becoming a standout wrestler in his own right.

And it’s the way that Mary gets results too.

In 11 seasons as Canon-McMillan’s head coach, Mary has led the Big Macs to 11 consecutive Section 4 titles and back-to-back WPIAL Class AAA team championships, in 2010 and 2011. He has been named the WPIAL’s Coach of the Year three times, including this year. He has also seen his share of PIAA place-
winners during his time with the team, and has produced two state champions in Colin Johnston (2006) and Connor Schram (2010).

, Mary gave Canon-McMillan its highest number of individual
WPIAL champions (five) in a single season since seven Big Macs set the bar in 1947. And today, Mary will attempt to add even more to his school’s history, when six Canon-McMillan wrestlers take to the mats at 4 p.m. at the Giant Center in Hershey, Pa. for the PIAA state individual tournament.

It’s a huge amount of success to cram into a relatively short period of time. But Mary has been able to do it because he treats all his wrestlers much as he did Catalano all of those years ago. He finds a way for them to contribute to the team, and he builds them up to the point that they believe they can achieve anything.

“He puts a lot of confidence in us,” Catalano said of Mary. “He makes us believe in ourselves, so that by the time we step on the mat there’s no doubt in our minds.”

It’s an approach that has served Mary well throughout his wrestling career.
An alumnus of Chartiers-Houston High School, Mary compiled a 98-6-2 record by the time he graduated in 1984. Wrestling in the 119 and 126-pound weight classes, Mary also earned three section championships and three Class AAA WPIAL titles during his years as a Buccaneer.

And after placing three times at the PIAA tournament, Mary then went on to a successful career at West Virginia University, where he was an NCAA qualifier in 1988.

Only that wasn’t good enough for Mary. He wanted to give back to a sport that had given him so much opportunity, and make sure that others could follow that same path. So, Mary carved out his niche at Canon-McMillan, where he served as an assistant coach for a few years before taking over as head coach in 2000.

And his approach is the same as it always has been.

“I’m fair. We work hard, we condition hard, and I think we add a little bit of fun to the sport,” Mary said. “We want these kids to have fond memories of their high school journey.”

Mary continued, “We want the kids to get a fine education and put them into college, maybe even get them some scholarship money. We want them to be set for life, and wrestling can be a tool for that.”

That certainly has been the case so far with Catalano. Since his kit-carrying days, Catalano has turned into a four-year starter for the Big Macs, has compiled a 44-1 record this season to go with Section 4 and WPIAL titles in the 145-pound weight class. And next year, Catalano will move on to the University of North Carolina, where he has committed to continuing his wrestling career. That is the kind of hope Mary holds for each of his wrestlers.

And it’s a vision that he pursues every day the Big Macs come to practice, and every time they step on the mat in a competition.

“He has a lot of passion for the sport and he does a good job of passing it along to his wrestlers,” Catalano said of Mary.

Mary passes it along with the way he runs practices—intense conditioning sessions in the Canon-McMillan wrestling room. And it’s in the way he mixes it up to develop different aspects of his wrestler’s abilities—running out on the track some times, sweating it out in the weight room other times, or even jumping in the pool for water training on occasion.

“We work hard, but we play hard too,” Mary said. “We don’t want it to be all about the practice room…we use a variety of workouts to keep the kids mentally and physically prepared.”

Perhaps even above physical preparation, mental focus is a key in Mary’s approach. He placed pictures of the Giant Center (the host for both the PIAA team and individual tournaments) on the walls of the practice room from the very start of the season so that his kids could see their goal each day they walked in. And he reinforces his message throughout wind sprints, bear crawls and pushups—no matter how exhausted his team might be.

“When you’re tired, you just have to keep pushing though it and not feel sorry for yourself,” junior heavyweight Cody Klempay said. “[Mary] yells that every day at us during conditioning.”

But Mary’s motivational methods reach beyond loud-mouthed shouts of encouragement. His quiet, one-on-one talks with his wrestlers seem to have an even greater impact on their confidence and will to win.

“Before sections he told me, ‘Once you win that title, no one can ever take it away from you,’” Catalano said. “When he tells me that there’s nobody better than me—coming from a good wrestler and a good coach—I believe it.”

Said Mary: “I just tell them to seize the moment, because it doesn’t last forever and there are no do-overs. Once it’s over, your career is over. So we want them to set their goals high and then do whatever they can to reach those goals.”

All of this motivation comes at a price though. Mary spends an insane amount of time with his team—during practice, in those conversations, and on road trips. And he also works nights as a compliance officer for the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board. It leaves Mary with precious little time to spend during the season with his wife and young daughter. But it’s time that Mary gives because he believes
the results are worth it.

“That’s what we chose to do. We were wrestlers, and we want to give back to the sport,” Mary said. “It’s tough. But I’ve got a strong balance. I’ve got a really supportive wife and an 18-month-old girl at home.”

Fortunately, Mary is not alone in this time-consuming task either. Mary constantly gives a large portion of credit for his program’s success to his coaching staff, which includes 2011 WPIAL and Section 4 Assistant Coach of the Year Glenn Haynes.

“It’s been an honor, and I’ve been privileged to coach some outstanding student athletes,” Mary said. “I’ve been blessed with outstanding assistants too. We want to keep the Canon-McMillan tradition as one of the best in our state.”

That tradition may very well get deeper this week, when Colton Shorts (103-pounds, 46-1 this season), Connor Schram (112, 44-2), Solomon Chishko (130, 42-4), Dario Dobbin (135, 39-11), Catalano (145, 44-1) and Klempay (285, 43-0) open the first round of the PIAA tournament in Hershey with state championship hopes in tow, and with Mary’s doctrines guiding their way—setting big goals, but reaching
them one step at a time.

“Over and over again we preach taking it one match at a time. You can throw the records out when you get up to the state tournament,” Mary said. “We’ll wrestle the man’s body, not his name or record.”