Here is what David Grant achieved in 21 seasons as Westerville North wrestling coach
Whether as a coach or athlete, David Grant has been synonymous with the Westerville North wrestling program since the late 1980s.
That’s why his recent decision to step down as North’s head coach after 21 years was a difficult one.
Grant, 53, plans to remain active with the Warriors, assisting with his successor’s transition and providing guidance for the new coach. However, the most successful coach in program history won’t be calling the shots. He said it’s time for a new voice in North’s wrestling room.
“It’s a good time to make the transition,” Grant said. “I don’t want to leave here with everything run down. We’re in a good spot. We have a great freshman class. We had three seniors this year. It’s a really young team.”
Under Grant, the Warriors captured seven OCC championships, including the OCC-Capital title this winter. They also had two top-10 team finishes in the OHSAA Division I state tournament, placing third in 2008 and eighth in 2021.
Grant guided four wrestlers to individual state titles – two won twice – and had 21 state placers and 46 state qualifiers. He also helped form the school’s girls wrestling program in 2022.
When taking the job, Grant didn’t envision leaving this type of legacy, one that saw him inducted into the school’s athletics hall of fame in January 2023. Grant was an assistant coach at Worthington Kilbourne before serving as an assistant at North and eventually taking over the Warriors.
“I thought I would be coach here for four years,” he said. “I had a monkey on my back. I failed to become a state champ, so my motivation was to come back here and turn North around and coach the first state champ.”
He coached the first two state champions in 2008, then saw his wrestlers win four more. Grant was a three-time state qualifier for North, placing third at 125 pounds in 1988 and second at 130 in 1989 as a senior.
Jesse Dong and Chris Kline were the first to win state championships under Grant. Dong won at 152 and Kline took the title at 160.
“We’re still extremely close,” said Dong, who owns luxury retail clothing stores in Ohio, Michigan, New York City and Miami. “He’s like part of my family. He’s somebody who had my back since I was a child.”
Dong, who wrestled at Virginia Tech, joined Grant as a member of the school’s athletics hall of fame in January, and he made sure his longtime friend and mentor was his presenter.
“It was a very emotional experience just to come back,” Dong said. “I hadn’t been back to Ohio in probably over six years. It was a surreal moment, and it wasn’t about me whatsoever. It was coach Grant continuing to think of ways to support me and to make me feel like I had accomplished something in the time that I spent at Westerville North and the time that I spent in Ohio.
“His overall mentorship of me and providing me with the award and watching him cry and me having tears in my eyes showed how much Westerville North meant to David Grant.”
Kline, who wrestled at Ohio University, is preparing for his first season as coach of the newly formed women’s wrestling program at Otterbein.
Josh Demas followed by winning state titles at 152 in 2009 and 171 in 2010, and Connor Euton won at 145 in 2021 and 157 in 2022. Demas went on to wrestle at Ohio State, and Euton is a redshirt freshman wrestler at Iowa State.
The program’s practice room, located on the upper level of the auxiliary gym, features brackets for the state champions and photos from Grant’s tenure.
“I really wanted to put a bracket on this wall,” Grant said. “If you would have said I would put six up there, I wouldn’t have believed you.”
Athletic director Wes Elifritz said the search for Grant’s replacement has begun, but the next coach will have a tough act to follow.
“Coach Grant has been such a massive part of everything we’ve done at Westerville North for (parts of) five decades, first as a wrestler in the late 80s and then coming back as a coach,” Elifritz said. “I don’t think we’re truly getting rid of him. We’ve talked about him sticking around in some capacity.
“It’s going to be a big change for our program, but I can't share enough appreciation with how he has not only built things up but sustained it, so he’s handing off a pretty nice car to whoever we bring in to replace him.”
Grant, who also founded the Westerville United Wrestling Club in 2009 and remains its director, believed in creating a family atmosphere at North. His brother, Chris, has been an assistant coach since Grant took over the Warriors.
“All my brothers are really close and we’re best friends, but wrestling has allowed David and I to share a lot of good times together,” Chris said. “It’s super special from that standpoint.”
After graduating from North, Grant went on to wrestle for two years at North Carolina, where his son, Jon, is now a freshman. Grant earned his undergraduate degree from Ohio State in public health in 1995.
An insurance agent, Grant and his wife, Carolyn, also have a daughter, Julia, who is a sophomore at North.
“We’ve put out competitive teams, but also kids with big hearts who want to help other people,” Grant said. “We put a lot into character development with our assistant principal (Stephanie McGeorge). We spend a lot of time on that part, too, the human part.”
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Here is David Grant's legacy as Westerville North wrestling coach
