Photo courtesy of Henry Ford Community College
The HFCC Wrestling Club Coach MacKenzie (left) and his team: Trey Berry (second from left) of Plymouth, 125-pound class; Jesse O’Neal of Westland, 133; Ali Saad of Dearborn, 141; Jeremy Stankewitz of Plymouth, 157; Hass Doueik of Dearborn Heights, 285; and Dave Velez of Southgate, 285.
DEARBORN – Henry Ford Community College’s National Collegiate Wrestling Association wrestling program has earned a great deal of respect and recognition during its inaugural season of 2013-14.
All six wrestlers on the HFCC team qualified for the NCWA National Championships, where they competed in Dallas in March. In addition, HFCC Coach Grant MacKenzie was recently named Great Lakes Region Coach of the Year.
“It’s just nice when hard works pays off,” MacKenzie said. “It’s amazing. I’m proud of my wrestlers. Many tried out at the beginning of the year, but only six remained and they were willing to pay to play.”
The grandson of Grant MacKenzie, namesake of the MacKenzie Fine Arts Building on the main campus, Coach MacKenzie, of Dearborn, has taught physical education at Allen Park Middle School for 16 years. A 1992 alumnus of Edsel Ford High School, MacKenzie attended Olivet College where he was a Division III wrestler.
He graduated from Olivet in 1996 with dual undergraduate degrees in Elementary Education and Physical Education. In 2003, he earned his Master of Public Administration from the University of Michigan-Dearborn. Additionally, MacKenzie is a graduate of the NWCA/Fellowship of Christian Athletes Academy.
MacKenzie, who has wrestled since high school, has coached since 1998. For 12 years, he served as the assistant wrestling coach at Allen Park High School. For some time he believed there was a need for collegiate wrestling in southeast Michigan. As a result, he founded the NCWA wrestling program at U-M D in 2010. He founded the NCWA wrestling program at HFCC at the beginning of the 2013-14 academic year.
“The reason why I went to the west side of the state to wrestle during college was because of the absence of college wrestling teams in Wayne County,” he said. “I wanted to change that. There are approximately 38 high schools in Wayne County with wrestling teams.
“There will be some kids who may want to continue competing after high school, but do not have the grades nor the money for an NCAA school. The wrestling clubs at HFCC and U-M Dearborn have filled a void.
“I’m very honored to have been named Coach of the Year in the Great Lakes Conference. I received compliments from wrestling clubs in Ann Arbor and Bowling Green, Ohio. It’s been a wild year, but I’m looking forward to next year even more.”