Takedown Report

USA Wrestling Coach’s Corner: Scott Honecker (Mass./Conn.)

TDR Editor’s Note; Coach Honecker was a head coach at Greenville J.H. Rose before moving on to New England and the college coaching ranks.
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By Tristan Warner
Saying ‘yes’ to opportunities has been the story of Scott Honecker’s life. It is also his best advice for coaches, and even the many student-athletes he mentors on a yearly basis.
Head coach at Williams College in Williamstown, Mass. since the 2012-13 season, he also serves as the national team director for Connecticut USA Wrestling. More recently, he has picked up steam in the Greco-Roman coaching scene, as Honecker will lead Team USA at the 2025 U20 World Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria in August.
He has taken a winding path, at least geographically, to get where he is now, but for Honecker, taking advantage of opportunities, no matter where they take him, has been the recipe. “My competitive career concluded, and I wanted to continue in wrestling,” explained Honecker. “It wasn’t realistic for me to be decorated on the Senior level, so I started coaching because I really was mostly motivated to stay with the sport. “I have been able to make a life and a career in this sport without having the competitive accolades of  many of my peer coaches. If you are passionate about wrestling and helping young people, it doesn’t matter if you had a medal around your neck.”
Fresh out of Ithaca College, Honecker’s first coaching gig took him to the Tar Heel State, where he served as varsity coach at J.H. Rose High School in Greenville, N.C. in 2005. He spent six years at the helm of the Rampants, at a time when wrestling in the state of North Carolina was still in an emerging status. “North Carolina was sort of coming out of the dark,” Honecker recalled. “Super 32 had just started on two mats. The best thing about being a high school coach in North Carolina as a 22-year-old was that, through USA Wrestling, there was a lot of opportunity. I was able to break into roles that, if I was in a more established state, would have taken me longer to earn my way into.”
This is when Honecker got involved with coaching the national teams. He was named North Carolina State Coach of the Year in 2009 by USA Wrestling. “When I was ready to transition to a full-time coaching role, doing things in Fargo helped make me a more realistic candidate.”
Upon his move back to the northeast region, … more at … https://www.win-magazine.com/2025/07/10/usa-wrestling-coachs-corner-scott-honecker-mass-conn/

August 9, 2025 Posted by The TakeDown Report | Uncategorized | ncaa, sports | Leave a comment