Gene Doyle

November 30, 1940 – January 14, 2018

Paths to success vary with every individual. Gene Doyle’s path to wrestling success involved coaching only, as he never wrestled competitively in high school or college.

“I was fortunate. My first mentor was Bill “Beets” Dotson at Dubuque Senior High” Doyle recalled after being hired as a teacher and football coach. “My second was Keith Young. I was an assistant coach at Cedar Falls for 11 years. The techniques and style of their wrestling have held up over the years.” a humble Doyle explains.

Doyle then recalled that the first two years after taking over at Cedar Falls for Young the squads struggled. “We were a bit down at the time.

My sons and I started coaching the kids program and got the high school athletes to take pride in being in the program…we made it the thing to do’,” Doyle stated.

Success followed with Doyle being the head coach at Cedar Falls from 1985-2000. During his tenure his teams won state team titles in

1993,1997 and 1998 while also claiming a dual meet title in 1993. His dual meet teams went 251-52 while also placing second, third and fourth in state dual meet competition.

Doyle describes himself as a organizer and motivator who worked at making his wrestlers work techniques he saw in college programs. “I tried to copy the things Chuck Patten, Don Brigs and Jim Miller were doing in their programs. I wanted our wrestlers to be pretty aggressive,” Doyle stated.

Those wrestlers flourished under his guidance as Cedar Falls racked up ten individual state championships. The Tigers also had 43 state place finishers in those 15 years with the teams winning five district titles, five Mississippi Valley division championships, three Mississippi Conference tournament titles and two Big Eight Conference titles.

Doyle stressed that administrative support was another key to having a successful program. “I was able to hire who I wanted,” Doyle stated as he noted most of his assistants were former college wrestlers who were not teachers.

“I was able to talk Rich Engel out of retirement. Then I had Keith Carman, Ken Gallagher, Jeff Gard, Mark Olmstead, Jay Llewellyn and Greg Halsor all come in at some point in time. They all loved wrestling and transmitted that desire to the student wrestlers.”

Noting he had coached wrestling for over 30 years Doyle retired from wrestling in 2000 when he said he believed the squads for the next couple of years would remain strong.

Individual coaching honors are numerous (see additional copy) but Doyle was named State Coach of the Year twice and Coach of the Year by the National Wrestling Coaches Association in 1997.

Doyle was inducted into the Iowa Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2012 along with Marv Reiland, Bob Buzzard and Mark Sindlinger.Paths to success vary with every individual. Gene Doyle’s path to wrestling success involved coaching only, as he never wrestled competitively in high school or college.

“I was fortunate. My first mentor was Bill “Beets” Dotson at Dubuque Senior High” Doyle recalled after being hired as a teacher and football coach. “My second was Keith Young. I was an assistant coach at Cedar Falls for 11 years. The techniques and style of their wrestling have held up over the years.” a humble Doyle explains.

Doyle then recalled that the first two years after taking over at Cedar Falls for Young the squads struggled. “We were a bit down at the time.

My sons and I started coaching the kids program and got the high school athletes to take pride in being in the program…we made it ‘the thing to do’,” Doyle stated.

Success followed with Doyle being the head coach at Cedar Falls from 1985-2000. During his tenure his teams won state team titles in

1993,1997 and 1998 while also claiming a dual meet title in 1993. His dual meet teams went 251-52 while also placing second, third and fourth in state dual meet competition.

Doyle describes himself as a organizer and motivator who worked at making his wrestlers work techniques he saw in college programs. “I tried to copy the things Chuck Patten, Don Brigs and Jim Miller were doing in their programs. I wanted our wrestlers to be pretty aggressive,” Doyle stated.

Those wrestlers flourished under his guidance as Cedar Falls racked up ten individual state championships. The Tigers also had 43state place finishers in those 15 years with the teams winning five district titles, five Mississippi Valley division championships, three Mississippi Conference tournament titles and two Big Eight Conference titles.

Doyle stressed that administrative support was another key to having a successful program. “I was able to hire who I wanted,” Doyle stated as he noted most of his assistants were former college wrestlers who were not teachers.

“I was able to talk Rich Engel out of retirement. then I had Keith Carman, Ken Gallagher, Jeff Gard, Mark Olmstead, Jay Llewellyn and Greg Halsor all come in at some point in time. They all loved wrestling and transmitted that desire to the student wrestlers.”

Noting he had coached wrestling for over 30 years Doyle retired from wrestling in 2000 when he said he believed the squads for the next couple of years would remain strong.

Individual coaching honors are numerous (see additional copy) but Doyle was named State Coach of the Year twice and Coach of the Year by the National Wrestling Coaches Association in 1997.

Doyle was inducted into the Iowa Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2012 along with Marv Reiland, Bob Buzzard and Mark Sindlinger.

Coaching

High School: Cedar Falls

• 251-52 dual meet record
• 3 State tradition championships: ’93, ’98, ’98
• Finished in top 5 six times
• One state dual meet championship: ’93
• Also placed 2nd, 3rd, 4th in state dual meets

Special Honors:

• Coach of the Year: ’92, ’98
• Coach of the Year by National Wrestling
• Coaches Association: ’97