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BENNETT'S MINUTES: Fallen wrestler earned respect from all who knew him
I didn’t know Charlie Pingleton.
But from talking with several of the former coaches of the great former Greencastle wrestler, who passed away last week after a bout with cancer, I feel like I do.
And not knowing him was clearly my loss.
Besides his wrestling talent — which led him to back-to-back runnerup finishes in the Indiana high school state tournament and an NAIA national championship — Pingleton epitomized all of the characteristics of hard work and dedication that lead to championships when coupled with athletic ability.
Of all the comments made by former coaches, a few stand out above the others.
Many of them come from former Tiger Cub wrestling coach Daniel Struck, who got Pingleton interested in the sport.
“Charlie was the first kid I met in first period when I got my first teaching job in Greencastle in the fall of 1999,” Struck said. “I was gonna take the coaching and teaching world by storm and I had to recruit wrestlers for a middle school wrestling team — my first teaching/coaching combo. Charlie was quiet and in my first period class, and I talked to him every day about football and basketball and how good I thought he would be as a wrestler.”
Struck recalls Pingleton liking him as a teacher, so he talked him into doubling that winter and being on both the middle school wrestling team and the basketball team.
“To my knowledge, at that time, Greencastle has never had a state qualifier in wrestling and I started telling Charlie how cool it would be if he did that.
“I got him to come out for wrestling, and he went 21-0 with 21 pins that year in a headlock. It was kind of amazing — especially that at the end of the season he told me he would still play high school basketball.”
Which, he didn’t.
That year went on, and Struck got Pingleton to wrestle in the inaugural “Team Tiger” Greencastle ISWA wrestling club.
“It was rough for him, he went from wrestling a 21-0 season as an 8th grader to losing EVERY SINGLE OFF-SEASON MATCH HE WRESTLED,” Struck recalled. “It was frustrating, but he was a competitor. We traveled every single weekend to a tournament somewhere in the state. In the last match of his eighth-grade club season, he had not won a match. He drew a young lady, Monica Clay of Bloomington North and she beat him. It started a big argument in the gym.”
Struck recalls that Charlie was quiet and always classy, not liking the cheering or the booing.
“He didn’t like any of it,” Struck said. “We got in the car me, him , his dad. Charlie had a medal on - the runner up medal that he got for losing to the girl. His dad threw it out the window and I thought — ‘man, there is the greatest wrestler I ever got to coach, and I’ll never get to coach him again. He will quit because of this.”
Of course, he didn’t, and the rest is history.
Jarrod Duff was also instrumental in steering Pingleton in the right direction.
“He was a good basketball player in eighth grade,” said Duff, teaching at Greencastle at the time. “I heard a rumor that he was going to play basketball in high school, but I knew he was an exceptional wrestler.
“When I heard this, I asked him if it was true,” Duff continued. “He told me that he was going to play basketball. My response to him was, ‘No you aren’t!’ He was surprised that I said that and he asked me why? I told him that he was a good basketball player, but had a chance to be a great wrestler in high school. The type of wrestler who could win a state championship.”
Or a national collegiate championship.
Current Greencastle principal Russ Hesler was Pingleton’s coach for the last three years of high school.
He recalls one time when a highly-regarded opponent brought out the fierceness in Pingleton by an action he didn’t like.
“The only time I ever saw him get mad was when an opponent from Avon blew a kiss to his girlfriend up in the stands,” Hesler said. “He saw that, and he said ‘coach, let me know when 30 seconds is left in the match. I asked him why, and he said he was going to pin this guy. He pinned the No. 5-ranked guy in the state. I still remember that. That kid didn’t blow a kiss to his girlfriend again.”
Hesler noted that Pingleton has fought cancer for nearly two years, and his tenacious temperament also showed in that battle.
“He was a heckuva battler in that up until the very end,” he said. “Last week, I fed him popsicles and water. We were scheduled to do the Lindsey Wilson Hall of Fame induction ceremony here, but he just couldn’t make it.
“He’s in a good place ... a better place,” Hesler added. “He’ll be waiting on us up there.”
Memorable recollections of Charlie Pingleton
Jarrod Duff, former Greencastle teacher/coach
“Charlie was one of the toughest people I ever coached — not only physically, but more importantly, his mental toughness was special. I’ve used him as an example many times as a coach in talking about toughness, and overcoming adversity. Coaching him made me a better coach, and a better person.”
Corey Ruff, head wrestling coach, Lindsey Wilson College
“Charlie was a mentor to all of the members of our new wrestling program at Lindsey Wilson College. He really took on the big brother role, and inspired everyone to push themselves.”
“Charlie had a toughness that everyone could see, but he had a tenderness to him that just made me want to hug him. He was courageous and humble. Funny and sincere. Compassionate and confident. He was so many things, but what I’ll probably cherish the most about Charlie was his loyalty.”
Dan Struck, former Greencastle wrestling coach
“We also had a practice of doing one set of dips to see who would win, we did this every single day. Sometimes I would win, sometimes he would win. but I became impressed with is determination, his level of competition. Sometimes we never even talked — we would just walk in and do these things and leave. I was amazed how strong he got doing this, I would tell coaches around the state that I had a kid that weighed 135 lbs that was bench pressing over 300, the never believed me until they saw him wrestle and saw how quick and powerful he was. Charlie was a competitor. That season we got to the Putnam County championships, and to win it you had to wrestle all three of the other county schools in the same weight class to call yourself a county champ. Charlie asked to bump around weight classes to get the best competition. Charlie never lost a match in Putnam County — but the funny thing for this two-time IHSAA runnerup is that he never won Putnam County because he never ever wrestled the three kids in his weight class, he bumped around and wrestled the best. He was never concerned with titles — only with seeing how he did against the best kids.”
“When he called me to tell me he had brain tumors a while back, it was another ‘I cry’ moment. Shortly after he wrote me a Facebook message telling me that he in fact did read the letter I wrote to him in high school telling him I believed in him. All those years and I never knew he read it. Never knew if I meant anything to him — if he was one of just 1000s of students I had had. He was special to me, I had no idea how special I was to him. I’d tell him i loved him ever time we met.”
“Five weeks ago I got to go see him. I went and saw him. He couldn’t really talk but we laughed anyway. I told him i was going to go have my fifth shoulder surgery and it was still his fault. I told him that he still never beat me in a match. I told him that he lost to a girl, and that he still used him to inspire any kid in that situation. I told him I loved him and that I had to go. He couldn’t get the words out, but he started hitting his hand to his chest and all he said was HEART. It was maybe the best coaching moment of my entire life — Charlie Pingleton looking at me and saying ‘heart’.”
“I got a text message last Wednesday that he passed away. I called people that I knew would want to hear it from a voice. I was kind of amazed I held it together. Then when I got done with all the phone calls, I cried.”
Russ Hesler, former Greencastle wrestling coach
“I am truly going to miss him as a coach and as a friend. He was a good all-around kid, just an unbelievable human being. I never saw him get upset, and he always just worked harder. That was our philosophy, to outwork our opponent, and he did that. He was an unbelievable competitor. He was a great leader by example, not in a boisterous way. That was the way he lived his life. That’s one thing I’ll always remember.”
Charlie Pingleton career highlights
Charlie Pingleton (2010-12) became Lindsey Wilson wrestling’s first-ever NAIA National Champion after winning the 157-pound weight class at the 2012 national championships.
Currently, he is one of five Blue Raiders to capture an individual national title.
During the 2011-12 season, Pingleton added NAIA All-American and Mid-South Conference Wrestler of the Year honors to his national title. He concluded the 2011-12 season with 32 wins, including 11 major decisions — which is the most in a single season in the program’s history.
Pingleton helped the Blue Raiders to a fourth-place finish at the 2012 national championships. At the time, it was the best finish in the program’s history.
Pingleton concluded his two-year Lindsey Wilson career with a 34-12 record.
Was IHSAA state runnerup in 2003 and 2004.