There’s no doubt that Brian Whittemore leaves a legacy on the ConVal athletics program that will be almost impossible to match.
For 39 years, Whittemore spent each winter, teaching hundreds of athletes about the finer points of wrestling. In that time, he also spent many years coaching softball and helping with his wife Carrie’s field hockey team.
But wrestling was Whittemore’s passion. He picked up the sport in seventh grade during a tournament in PE class, where he finished second. The following year, Whittemore won the tournament and couldn’t wait to compete in high school.
He was only 107 pounds as a freshman, but worked his way up to 132 by his senior year and won an individual state championship for ConVal.
Whittemore wrestled all four years for Dick Hebert, the same physical education teacher who introduced him to the sport, and spent the first few years helping out after graduating in 1978. In 1981-82 he became a paid assistant and two years later he took over as head coach – and has been in the position ever since.
But this spring, Whittemore came to the realization it was time to step back. He wanted to spend more time with his grandchildren and not be tied down by practice five days a week and tournaments almost every weekend. Abe Ewing, Whittemore’s assistant for the last four years, has officially taken over as head coach.
While Whittemore didn’t want to be in charge anymore, he can’t totally leave the program. So he’ll help out when he can because the passion for coaching is still there.
“I can’t quit cold turkey because I still like coaching,” Whittemore said.
There’s no question that Whittemore made an impact on the athletic careers of countless ConVal athletes. But it’s what he did for them outside of the scope of athletics that has made the biggest impression on those who had the opportunity to learn from him.
“If there were thing you needed to work on outside of wrestling that would come first,” said Jake Essex , a 2010 ConVal graduate.
Ask any of his former athletes and they’ll say they became better people because of Coach Whit. He has a notebook full of letters, contracts and other mementos to prove it.
“It’s all the different little memories you have,” Whittemore said.
For Whittemore, it didn’t matter if you were a perennial state champion contender or a first year wrestler unsure about the sport. He gave everyone the same attention and it went a long way.
“I enjoyed watching the kids progress, get better and helping them to reach their goals, whatever that goal was,” Whittemore said. “Giving them respect, you get respect and you get more work out of them.”
On the mat, Whittemore had a calm demeanor that kept his athletes from getting too high or too low. And you knew when he meant business.
“When Whit got quiet is when you knew it was serious,” Essex said.
Whittemore did more than just teach the fine nuances of the sport that he first learned in seventh grade. As a coach, his job was to make each student that came into his wrestling room better on the mat, but at the same time teach lessons that reached far beyond the mat.
“I played multiple sports growing up and I can say he was favorite coach I ever had,” Essex said. “I truly believe I became a better person because of Coach Whit.”
Dan Curran owns the most wins in ConVal history and is currently wrestling at Norwich University. He appreciated the fact that Whittemore allowed him to seek coaching from others. But he also learned so much from him during his four years at ConVal.
“He has so much knowledge of the sport and was so dedicated to the kids,” Curran said. “He was someone I looked up to. He knew that wrestling was a powerful influence in a lot of kids lives, especially mine.”
AJ Corliss was one of the first second generation wrestlers to go through ConVal wrestling under Whittemore. There have been many more since.
“He’s a great person. I can’t say enough good things about him,” Corliss said. “He’s impacted so many people. He had so much passion and knowledge for the sport and he never treated it like a punch in, punch out kind of job.”
Corliss said Whittemore had a way of keeping you grounded and showed so much respect for every kid on the team.
Whittemore always said if you gave him a roster that could compete at every weight class, he’d put them in contention for a state championship. Everything lined up for that during the 2009-10 season, but the Cougars still had to go out there and prove it on the mat.
“The best working group was the 2010 team. I didn’t have to push them,” he said.
They were one of a few teams vying for the Division II team title when state championship day rolled around, but the biggest test would be Goffstown, who finished runner-up the year before and Plymouth, the defending state champion.
It was tight all day, but with six wrestlers in their respective finals, Whittemore knew there was a chance that squad could bring home the first team championship in program history.
“Everything had to fall into place that day,” Whittemore said.
And when Essex secured an upset at 140 pounds, Whittemore knew his longtime goal of the ultimate team success was final attained.
“If Jake Essex doesn’t upset that No. 1 kid from Goffstown and pin him, it doesn’t happen,” Whittemore said.
ConVal finished with 188 points, 8.5 ahead of Goffstown, and was the only time Whittemore had three individual champions in one season.
The first ConVal wrestler to reach triple digit wins was Justin Mitchell in 2009, one of seven to eclipse the mark during Whittemore’s final 11 seasons. The accomplishment shows the dedication Whittemore instilled in his athletes, but he takes no credit in what Mitchell, his brother Jesse, the Smullen brothers, Adam and Dan, Chad Brouillet, Dan Curran and Matt Kimball were able to achieve.
As a high school wrestler himself, Whittemore knows how hard it is to win just a single match, let alone 100 of them.
“They were the ones who had to put the work in,” he said.
Whittemore knows he wouldn’t have been able to coach as long as he did without the support of his wife Carrie. He started coaching ConVal wrestling so long ago he wasn’t even married when he joined the team.
It’s been nice to have a fellow coach in the house, understanding the unusual practice schedule, long trips to away meets and getting paid a very small amount for a lot of work.
“I have always been very lucky that I’ve had that kind of support,” Whittemore said.
He coached his son Rory, who was a state champion in 2003, and looks back at those moments with fond memories, even though it isn’t the easiest thing in the world to coach your children.
“That’s why I started yelling,” Whittemore joked.
For his career, the younger Whittemore only wanted one thing.
“His only goal for his four years was to fair better than I did at New Englands,” Whittemore said. “And all he did was win one match.”
Both of his daughters, Kelly and Shauna, served in the role of team manager, so for eight years straight he was able to share his passion for the sport with them.
The year ConVal won its only team championship, Whittemore was named Division II coach of the year. It was a season filled with highs and while Whittemore appreciates his fellow coaches voting for him, the team title means so much more.
In 2008, Whittemore was elected to the NHIAA Hall of Fame for his longevity with the program and commitment to the sport of wrestling. And it earned him a lifetime pass to any NHIAA sporting event.
When Hebert decided to retire following the 1982-83 season, Whittemore applied for and got the varsity coaching job. Well, there was no JV team, so Whittemore was in charge of the whole program.
There was no athletic director in those days, so he was hired by principal Bob Butson. It wasn’t easy in those early years with not a lot of interest leading to small teams, even having six wrestlers one season.
At one point, Butson even told Whittemore it might be time to go in a new direction. But Whittemore’s passion for the sport and love of coaching wasn’t about to let that happen. He slowly built the program back up and the impact on the students didn’t go unnoticed.
He got into the middle schools and began working with kids to get them excited about wrestling. He knew it was something that needed to be taught earlier in order to ensure that once students got to high school, they chose to go out for wrestling instead of trying to recruit them into a sport they had never participated in.
For the last five years, Whittemore has been toying with the idea of stepping away. It wasn’t a decision he intended to make on a whim, but this spring he knew it was time and the first person he told was Carrie over lunch.
That led to a conversation with ConVal Athletic Director John Reitnauer, who knew exactly what it’s like to be conflicted. As a longtime coach himself, who began his career at ConVal in 1985, Reitnauer wasn’t caught off guard when Whittemore broke the news in his office during the spring.
“I won’t say I was surprised,” Reitnauer said. “Family is the most important thing we have and when you have grandchildren, it takes a lot of time.”
For Reitnauer, who is in his second go around as athletic director, it was nice knowing that Whittemore would be back.
“You knew he was always going to be there and give 100 percent-plus to his wrestlers, his program and to ConVal,” Reitnauer said. “It was always a confident feeling that Brian was going to be there.”
Having been there almost as long as Whittemore, Reitnauer enjoyed his many conversations with the longtime coach.
“He’s been a good confidant for me,” Reitnauer said. “He’s always someone I could have a conversation with about coaching and what we could do as an athletic program.”
And he admired Whittemore’s style.
“The way he was able to get his athletes to perform in that one on one pressure situation, it’s something I have a lot of respect for,” Reitnauer said.
The decision didn’t come easy, as Whittemore still has that passion to coach. But after more than four decades involved with the program it was time to hand the reins over to someone else.
“I’m leaving on my own terms,” Whittemore said. “I didn’t want to become that coach that hung on too long.”
While he won’t be in charge, Whittemore still plans to be around to help when he can – and is needed. The plan is to stop by practice from time to time to help Ewing.
He’ll miss the time on the mat, working with both state champions and first year wrestler alike. He’ll miss watching the athletes grow both as wrestlers and people. What he won’t miss is the long bus rides and endless amounts of paperwork.
Look at the wrestling banners in ConVal’s Robert McGuire gymnasium and Whittemore has his fingerprints all over them. In addition to his name being up there as a state champion wrestler in 1978, he coached 17 state champions and led ConVal to its only team state championship in 2009-10.
Every year holds a special place for Whittemore, but that Division II title team is one he’ll remember for the rest of his life. Everything came together that year, one of the few where he had a roster that was able to fill each weight class.
As a way to honor Whittemore, Ewing has decided to rename the annual ConVal December tournament the BW Early Bird Classic.
“If you coach somewhere for 39 years, you better have a tournament named after you,” Ewing said.
But for Whittemore, it isn’t about the wins, the state champions and the team title. It was about making an impact on every kid that joined the ConVal wrestling program. Through wrestling, Whittemore was able to teach life lessons that would benefit his athletes well past their days on the mat.
“I don’t think wrestling would exist at ConVal without Brian Whittemore,” Ewing said. “Because I don’t think you do something for 39 years if you don’t have a passion for it.”
What speaks volumes about his years as coach is the fact that he still keeps in touch with a number of his former athletes. Many of them have come back to help with both the high school and middle school programs, showing the impact he had.
“I’ll miss coaching,” Whittemore said. “But it was time.”
In five years, when his eligibility comes up, Whittemore will be a shoe in for the ConVal athletics hall of fame. It will be another nod to the legacy he built over his 40-plus years involved with ConVal wrestling. And an honor that’s well deserved.