Quote from EdumacatorAndre on February 27, 2022, 9:33 pm

I felt compelled to write something today and ended up making a really long Facebook post. I am not under any delusion that it’s a great piece of literature but wanted to share it here nonetheless.

“Lunatic Fringe”
A short essay(or long winded thoughts) by Christopher Andre

I don’t claim to be a poet or wordsmith. I also apologize now for grammar, punctuation, and spelling errors.

The 2022 SDHSAA State Wrestling tourney concluded this weekend, and I was fortunate enough to be in the stands as a spectator. I coached wrestling at Harrisburg for 13 years(9 as an assistant and 4 as head coach), so for the 4 or 5 days surrounding the state tourney, my Facebook Memories have consisted of posts from past years’ state tourneys. From 2008-2021 we took 6-14 wrestlers to state every year. My last 2 years we also qualified for the state duals. My last year we qualified 3 girls for the first ever Girls state tourney. My point in mentioning the numbers of kids is not to brag, but to give an idea of what the pictures in my Facebook memories looked like. As I looked at these memories, pictures of the coaching staff and state qualifiers, I was flooded with emotions. I remembered the blood, sweat, tears, and laughter that make wrestling the amazing sport that it is. I remember details about the different coaches and the individual wrestlers. I thought about sharing those memories to my Facebook feed but just didn’t get around to it.

Then I ran into a former wrestler who wasn’t in any of those pictures. He wasn’t in any of those pictures because he never qualified for the state tourney. I have great memories of the kid and we had a great conversation. This got me thinking about all of the other wrestlers that were not in those pictures, those kids that never made it to state. Kids that never quite made it. Kids that came to practice every day, worked just as hard(or harder in some cases) as their teammates, but could never break the line up. Kids that stepped up to wrestle offs every chance they got, but fell a little short. Kids that maybe wrestled varsity but never quite made the state tourney. The kids that were always on the “fringe” of the team.

Over my 13 years of coaching, there were alot more of these “fringe” kids than there were kids in those Facebook memories. The thing about those kids is that I have just as many good memories of them as I do of the kids in the pics. While thinking about all of this, and referring to them in my head as “the kids on the fringe”, I started thinking about the song Lunatic Fringe featured in the movie Vision Quest. The song gets my generation of wrestling fans fired up and ready to wrestle like no other. We think of ourselves as that crazy group of people that enjoys the insanely grueling sport of wrestling. I know that’s not what the song is really about, but somehow we have managed to make a connection with the struggle of the wrestlers in the movie and the intro of that song.

Then I realized that real “Lunatic Fringe” is that group of kids that comes back every season without any guarantee that it will be more rewarding than the last. These kids may battle for 4-6 years in a high school wrestling room and never get more than a participation certificate. They may never be recognized for their contributions, however great or small, BUT they keep coming back. What lunacy!

I think that says alot about their character, drive, and tenacity. I think it also says something about the this sport that keeps bringing them back. Wrestling has a way of connecting everyone that is involved in ways that I don’t think any other sport does. They wouldn’t come back if they didn’t connect in some way. They wouldn’t come back if the wrestling room, the wrestling team, the wrestling coaches didn’t connect with them at some level. That sense of family, of connection, of belonging is one of the greatest aspects of wrestling.

I want to wrap this up with a few words to all of the wrestlers that I have had the honor of coaching up to this point in my career. To all of the state qualifiers, state placers, and state champions I say; “Thanks for the memories”. To the “Lunatic Fringe” I say; “I know you’re out there” and “Thank you for the memories as well”.

With love and gratitude,

Coach Andre