It’s been quite a year for OPRF High School wrestling coach Mike Powell, who just a few weeks ago watched his former wrestler, Ellis Coleman, compete in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. It wasn’t long ago that Powell was featured in Sports Illustrated and USA Wrestling named him its Cadet Development Coach of the Year.
In October, Powell will be inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and presented with the organization’s Medal of Courage.
“It’s a great honor, and I’ve been honored to work with some great people in Oak Park,” he said. “The plaque will go up next to people I have looked up to my whole life, so, to me, that’s very humbling. To think about it makes me blush.”
A 1994 graduate of OPRF, Powell won the Class AA 171-pound IHSA State Wrestling title and went on to become a 167-pound NCAA All-American at Indiana University. In the last nine seasons as OPRF’s head wrestling coach, he’s accumulated a record of 155-39 in dual competition.
Since 2009, the same year he coached the Huskies to a Class 3A State Dual Team Championship, Powell has battled polymyositis, a rare autoimmune disease that attacks muscle cells.
“As of right now my diet and the traditional meds I’m taking seem to be working,” he said of his progress. “It’s manageable at this point. The goal is to get it into remission, although the disease doesn’t exactly have such a state. However, I feel I’m mastering it or getting closer to mastering it anyway.”
Powell said his weight, once at a lean 200 pounds pre-diagnosis, is currently “at a fat 188 pounds.”
“I’ve been celebrating Ellis Coleman’s Olympic bid since April,” he said. “I need to lose 10 pounds.”
The Illinois Chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame will honor Powell and the rest of its inductees at a banquet on Oct. 21 in Bloomington, Ill. The award winners will receive a plaque and a jacket from the National Wrestling Hall of Fame of Stillwater, Okla., and their names will be engraved on a bar to be displayed at the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.
The medal of courage is presented to “a wrestler or former wrestler who has overcome what appear to be insurmountable challenges,” according to the Illinois Chapter’s press release.