Jeff Chaney
Sports Scene
Mark Uyl is a self-described baseball junkie. As a former player, coach, and umpire of the sport, he loves America’s pastime.
But in the course of his working career, Uyl has found a new love.
Uyl is one of the Assistant Directors of the Michigan High School Athletic Association, in charge of officiating baseball and wrestling in the state.
In his 11 years as Assistant Director, Uyl has developed a fondness for the sport of wrestling and the excitement that the sport brings. And as February ends, March ushers in his favorite time of the year, the MHSAA state wrestling tournament.
“I always tell everyone, this is my favorite two weeks of year, and I say the next two weeks,” he said, as individual regionals began on February 21. “I love wrestling, I love the people in wrestling.”
Wrestlers, former wrestlers, coaches, officials, and families of wrestlers knows what it takes to be successful in the sport, and they all know the ups and downs of a sport that has a team aspect but that is centered around the individualism of competition.
Uyl sees that firsthand as he works on improving the sport of wrestling in the state.
“I love the mentality of the sport and love the people,” he said. “Wrestling is on each kid’s shoulders. There is no place to hide, no excuses, and I have found wrestling people are straight-shooting and hard-working and will tell you like it is. And I wish there was more of that in other sports. I wish we saw that kind of work ethic in all of sports. To me, it’s the most difficult six minutes in all sports.”
Dealing with people who have competed in has helped Uyl make the sport better in the past decade.
“The biggest thing I have tried to bring to wrestling, not being a wrestler, coach, or official, is trying to be the best listener,” Uyl said. “To try and do everything we can and have done in wrestling to come from our membership, or coaches, and the whole wrestling community.
“One reason we have been effective, if you ask me something in baseball, I have sacred cows and say ‘not doing something over my dead body,’ because I have done that; I don’t have that baggage in wrestling. So I listen, and I have taken what I have heard and try and implement it.”
One of the changes that Uyl has accomplished is limiting the paperwork with which coaches have to deal. And for the fans and wrestlers, the big change is to seed teams in the Team Finals to try and give the best matchups as the weekend in Battle Creek progresses.
“[Former Assistant Director in charge of wrestling] Bill Bupp did some great things, and I tried to take things and improve and streamline them,” Uyl said. “I wanted to get right to the issues, and be straightforward.”
Some issues that Uyl still wants to tackle are transfer rules and helping the sport expand and grow throughout the state.
“The overall quality of wrestling in our state has never been better,” he said. “You look at some of our top teams and top individuals, and they would stack up anywhere. The downside, the thing I worry about, we are losing those middle-of-the-road programs. You look at league scores, you see some strong teams, but there are other teams at the other end of that. We are losing those middle-of-the-road programs. Whether it’s number of kids taking part, or transfers, and we see that in other sports, but we lose some of those middle-of-the-road programs. Twenty years ago, the top programs were maybe not as good as today, but I would like to see some of those programs in the middle have some success.”
Uyl also has opinions on how transfers affect wrestling in the state. “We have strengthened the transfer rule over last year,” Uyl said. “There are several instances now where kids are now ineligible for full year. But from an education standpoint, it is a choice world in academics, as well, where we have school of choice. But the problem is amplified in wrestling, where kids can transfer and not figure into an offense or defense in a team sport. You have it where kids graduate and have openings in a certain weight class, and parents pull off a transfer or move kids. Rules are not perfect yet, but tougher than they have been.”
So Uyl will continue to listen and learn and enjoy his new love – the sport of wrestling.