Bendorf named Cyclones new wrestling coach

Adam Bendorf said he was super excited to be named the new head wrestling coach for Harlan Community High School.

“It’s something that I’ve always kind of joked about that if I had a second life to live, I’d be a preschool teacher and a high school wrestling coach,” Bendorf said.

Bendorf will be taking over for John Murtaugh who coached HCHS wrestling for 20 years.

“I think coach Murtaugh has done a fantastic job with the program here,” Bendorf added. “There’s a sense of excellence within the community and it’s certainly been carried through wrestling since Murtaugh has been here. I think some of the challenges I’ll face is learning how to do some of the things that he’s learned to do, but as long as he’s been here he’s learned how to do a lot of things more efficiently and so I’m sure I’ll struggle with those smaller details that he didn’t have to think twice about.”

Bendorf brings a background of wrestling to the team, something he did during his high school days at Lewis Central and during his college days at BYU.

“In high school, I graduated from Lewis Central in 1995 and was a 3-time state finalist and a 2-time state champ,” he said. “Then I went on and wrestled at BYU and actually started my freshman year and ended up with a record of 12-12.”

He credits his college coaches for his success during the time he wrestled.

“As far as coaches that I had, I had coach Keith Massey who I think is one of the best wrestling coaches in the country,” he added. “I also had coach Mark Schultz at BYU who was an Olympic gold medalist, so I feel like I’ve got a pretty good pedigree as far as coaches I’ve learned from.”

Bendorf talked about goals he has for the team entering the new season.

“I’d love to see Harlan have another state champion,” he said. “Other goals I have are to play hard and work hard and I think we’re going to have a lot of fun. Wrestling is a lot of fun when you’re winning and most importantly above all, I think is the life lessons you learn from wrestling.”

Bendorf feels that since he got done wrestling, society has changed and it’s more of a challenge to bring kids into the program and get excited about it.

“The challenge is getting young men to dedicate and sacrifice time and energy,” he added. “I know there are boys out there that are willing to do it, but there may be fewer than there was when I was a kid. We didn’t have distractions like video games and social media.”