“I kind of got the coaching bug,” says Chance Van Gundy, the wrestling coach at Dublin Coffman High School.
Chance has been wrestling for as long as he can remember. Raised in a family of athletes, he always felt drawn to the rush of adrenaline that comes with friendly competition.
“I consider myself very lucky to have coached all of the driven and successful wrestlers I’ve coached throughout the years. Their drive and discipline are what makes coaching fun,” says Van Gundy.
Early life
Van Gundy was born and raised in southeast Columbus in the mid ‘70s. His childhood along with his older brothers, Casey and Clancy and their youngest sister, Courtney, was filled with sports and athletic feats of all kinds. All four siblings participated in various sports from football to baseball to wrestling, which Van Gundy took up a particular admiration for.
At 8 years old, Chance started wrestling and continued pursuing the sport into high school and through college. He attended Groveport Schools before transferring to Bloom Carroll halfway through his junior year.
After only a year and a half at Bloom Carroll, Van Gundy earned a spot in its Athletic Hall of Fame for his excellence and sportsmanship. He wrestled all throughout college and graduated from Ashland University with a bachelor’s degree in health and physical education and a minor in coaching.
Van Gundy finds a lot of his inspiration from his son and daughter who are both invested in sports and work hard to achieve their goals. Similarly to when he was growing up, his son Blaze is pursuing athletic goals in wrestling.
“My son is also a huge inspiration. He, much like a lot of my wrestlers, works extremely hard and lives a healthy lifestyle to be as successful as they possibly can,” says Van Gundy.
Career of coaching
Van Gundy has spent 25 years of his life teaching and coaching. His years of dedication and hard work paid off after taking on a few coaching positions at various schools throughout his career.
“I was a head wrestling coach right out of college, I’ve never been an assistant coach,” says Van Gundy.
Once he moved back to Columbus a little more than 20 years ago, he coached for several different schools before landing his current coaching position at Dublin Coffman High School where he has been for the past 12 years.
Throughout his time at Coffman, Van Gundy has established a reputation for himself as a wrestling coach. He recently received the Columbus Dispatch’s All-metro Coach of the Year award in honor of his dedication to the sport and the kids on the team.
Despite the awards and team titles he has won, Van Gundy chooses to measure success through the outcome of the wrestling teams he coaches.
“I’m trying to get them to look at it from a different angel and not have such a fixed mindset. It’s not all just ‘did you win or lose’ but having that growth mindset,” says Van Gundy. “Did you get better today? Are you one percent better today than you were yesterday? What did you do to make that happen?”
Amber Phipps is a contributing writer at CityScene Media Group. Feedback welcome at aphipps@cityscenemediagroup.com.