Kansas Wrestling Coaches Association

KWCA Announces 2021 Award Winners

Burlington, KS – In early March, the Kansas Wrestling Coaches Association Executive Board held their Spring Board Meeting to finalize the 2021 KWCA Annual Award Winners.  These winners will be recognized Oct. 2 at the KWCA "Fritz Knorr" Awards and Hall of Fame Banquet.

"The Kansas Wrestling Coaches Association is excited to announce our 2021 State Wrestling Awards. This year we are honoring 55 individuals and organizations that go above and beyond the call in helping to lead, support, and participate in our great sport," said KWCA President Doug Vander Linden of Burlington High School.

The Head Coach and Senior Wrestlers of the Year are voted on after the state championship finals by KWCA Members. Winning coaches will not be eligible for the award the following two seasons.  

State Championship Awards

Kansas Wrestling Coaches Association Hall of Fame Class of 2021

Coach Robert Gonzales has spent the past 16 seasons as the Head Coach of the Manhattan High School Indians.  A Garden City native, Gonzales also served as the head coach at Shawnee Heights (1985-05) and Kenneth Henderson Jr. High (1977-79). He was an assistant at Topeka West from 1979 to 1985 before he was hired by Shawnee Heights.

In a coaching career that spanned more than four decades, it’s at Manhattan High where he left his greatest legacy, building a strong program into a contender for the state title year in and year out since taking over in 2005. MHS won state titles in 2007, 2012 and 2017.  MHS was the state runner-up in 2016 and 2019, and earned third place in 2008 and 2018.  The Indians won seven regional championships, and finished as a regional runner-up eight other times. MHS also has won six Centennial League titles since the league formed in 2005.

Coach Gonzales has coached 20 Sate Champions, had 47 state finalists, and 134 overall placers at the state meet. Gonzales had 256 wrestlers qualify for the state tournament during his career.  Nine Gonzales-coached wrestlers went on to earn high school All-America honors.

In addition to his time teaching young grapplers, he was a member (and served in leadership positions) of various national and statewide wrestling organizations, including the Kansas Wrestling Coach Association (KWCA), the Kansas Coach Association (KCA), the National Wrestling Coach Association (NWCA), the National Wrestling Hall of Fame & Museum (NWHOF) and the Kansas Chapter of USA Wrestling (USAW).

Coach Wayne Petterson was inducted into the 2019 NJCAA Hall of Fame.  Petterson started his wrestling career in Beloit, Kansas before attending Fort Hays State University where he was a three time NAIA All-American and a 1982 graduate.

Petterson was the head coach at Fort Hays State University from 1982-1992. While there, he coached 18 NAIA All-Americans, two NAIA National Champions and two top 5 NAIA National team finishes. Coach Petterson was also active in USA Wrestling, serving as director of the Kansas freestyle and Greco teams from 1983-1991. He had the honor of serving as the Head Freestyle coach of the 1988 NAIA All Star team that was team champion of the Oceanic Championships held in Melbourne, Australia.

In 2005, Petterson was hired as the head wrestling coach for Neosho County Community College. During his 12 years at the helm, Coach Petterson qualified 61 individuals for the NJCAA National tournament. He had 23 NJCAA All-Americans, six National finalists and three NJCAA National Champions. He was the 2012 NJCAA Wrestling Man of the Year and was elected as the President of the NJCAA Wrestling Coaches Association from 2014-2017.

Post-Season Awards

The following awardees were nominated by KWCA members who wrote personal recommendations touting the many great things that they have done to support not just their local programs, but the sport of wrestling as a whole.  

President Vander Linden closed with, "From head coaches, assistant coaches, senior wrestlers, administrators, the media, team support personnel, and our 2021 Hall of Fame inductees, Wayne Petterson of Chanute and Robert Gonzales of Topeka, we have an incredible group that we want to recognize for a job well done!”

The KWCA will be releasing the Team Academic and Junior/Senior Academic All-State awards in the near future.

About the KWCA

The Kansas Wrestling Coaches Association is a non-profit comprised of volunteers concerned with Leading, Honoring, Promoting, and Serving Kansas Wrestling.