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There was a time when the length of his coaching career wasn’t even on the radar of veteran Noble High School wrestling coach Kip DeVoll.
That was then. This is now.
“You turn around and you’re 53,” he said last week after being honored for his 500th career dual-meet coaching win. “I never looked too far ahead. It was always a year at a time.”
Now in his 33rd year — 29th as head coach — DeVoll is marking time differently. His youngest child, Jack, a seventh-grader, wrestles, and he wants his dad to coach him. Now there’s a time line. Five more years.
“It sneaks up on you,” said DeVoll, who has coached the Knights to 12 Class A state titles, including, at one stretch, 11 in a 13-year span. Noble captured eight titles in a row from 1998 to 2006. “You enjoy it, you’re not keeping track and then, holy cow, that’s a long time.”
DeVoll is a 1979 Noble graduate where he was a wrestler — “If you want to call it that,” he jokes. He joined the wrestling program as an assistant coach in 1981 and became the head coach in 1985. Noble won the 1985-86 Class A title, but the program was far from stable. There were struggles. One year they went 5-20.
“There’s been ups and downs,” he said. “We didn’t have a full team in 1990. We wanted to build it up to be more competitive.”
DeVoll saw 1990 as a turning point. The last of the kids from the old program were exiting and DeVoll was putting his stamp in place. One key thing DeVoll initiated is the team traveling more around New England and New York to compete against a wider range of competition. The peewee programs were in place and by 1992-93 they were turning the corner. By 1997 the high school team was seeing the results.
“It was a process that we kept building until the freshman came in with a skill level,” he said. “It was a planned thing, but not to be successful. We wanted to get more numbers. It snowballed more than I expected.”
Sometimes, DeVoll said, he’ll be driving and it will hit him that the program won eight state championships in a row.
“It brings a smile across my face,” he said. “Eight in a row. All the planets perfectly clicked.
“Us coaches,” he added, “we steer the boat and the kids do all the work. We’ve had great coaching all the way down to the peewees.”
Noble was so good for so long that when things went south three years ago it left DeVoll in a dark place. The Knights had won the last of three consecutive state titles in 2011, but the 2011-12 season turned nightmarish after the New Year. There was a combination of discipline and academic difficulties. DeVoll even contemplated stepping down.
“I was disappointed with the way things ended that year,” DeVoll said. “We’re still recovering. It‘s one of those things that happened and you move on. But we don‘t let the kids forget it.”
Rival Marshwood is the top wrestling dog in Maine right now. The Hawks have won the last two Class A state titles and are the team to beat this year.
Noble is slowly getting itself back into the mix. The Knights were runners-up to Marshwood at last year’s regional meet, but suffered another setback when they stumbled to fourth at the state meet. They have not had an individual state champ since the team title in 2011.
Still they have good numbers at the freshman and sophomore level and DeVoll says the seventh- and eighth-grade classes are strong. This year’s team is still young with only three seniors onboard.
“It’s not easy,” DeVoll said. “Numbers are down and in other sports too. This is a very tough sport to participate in. You’re out there in front of your peers and there’s no place to hide. You stand up out there and they raise your hand or you see them raise the other kid’s hand. It teaches you a lot about yourself. It teaches kids about adversity.”
DeVoll admits there have been times he doesn’t feel like doing it or that the old drive isn’t what it used to be. He’s given up some of the duties to a great bunch of parents to lighten his load, and that has helped.
You can still see the fire in DeVoll. He growls, urges, and guides Noble wrestlers from the sidelines with a spark that has been burning going back over 30 years.
“Kids come back and tell me that life is a lot like this and you really helped me,” DeVoll said. “At the end of it all, that’s good to hear.”
Mike Whaley is the Sports Editor for Foster’s Daily Democrat and the Rochester Times. He can be reached at mwhaley@fosters.com or 603-516-2949.
That was then. This is now.
“You turn around and you’re 53,” he said last week after being honored for his 500th career dual-meet coaching win. “I never looked too far ahead. It was always a year at a time.”
Now in his 33rd year — 29th as head coach — DeVoll is marking time differently. His youngest child, Jack, a seventh-grader, wrestles, and he wants his dad to coach him. Now there’s a time line. Five more years.
“It sneaks up on you,” said DeVoll, who has coached the Knights to 12 Class A state titles, including, at one stretch, 11 in a 13-year span. Noble captured eight titles in a row from 1998 to 2006. “You enjoy it, you’re not keeping track and then, holy cow, that’s a long time.”
DeVoll is a 1979 Noble graduate where he was a wrestler — “If you want to call it that,” he jokes. He joined the wrestling program as an assistant coach in 1981 and became the head coach in 1985. Noble won the 1985-86 Class A title, but the program was far from stable. There were struggles. One year they went 5-20.
“There’s been ups and downs,” he said. “We didn’t have a full team in 1990. We wanted to build it up to be more competitive.”
DeVoll saw 1990 as a turning point. The last of the kids from the old program were exiting and DeVoll was putting his stamp in place. One key thing DeVoll initiated is the team traveling more around New England and New York to compete against a wider range of competition. The peewee programs were in place and by 1992-93 they were turning the corner. By 1997 the high school team was seeing the results.
“It was a process that we kept building until the freshman came in with a skill level,” he said. “It was a planned thing, but not to be successful. We wanted to get more numbers. It snowballed more than I expected.”
Sometimes, DeVoll said, he’ll be driving and it will hit him that the program won eight state championships in a row.
“It brings a smile across my face,” he said. “Eight in a row. All the planets perfectly clicked.
“Us coaches,” he added, “we steer the boat and the kids do all the work. We’ve had great coaching all the way down to the peewees.”
Noble was so good for so long that when things went south three years ago it left DeVoll in a dark place. The Knights had won the last of three consecutive state titles in 2011, but the 2011-12 season turned nightmarish after the New Year. There was a combination of discipline and academic difficulties. DeVoll even contemplated stepping down.
“I was disappointed with the way things ended that year,” DeVoll said. “We’re still recovering. It‘s one of those things that happened and you move on. But we don‘t let the kids forget it.”
Rival Marshwood is the top wrestling dog in Maine right now. The Hawks have won the last two Class A state titles and are the team to beat this year.
Noble is slowly getting itself back into the mix. The Knights were runners-up to Marshwood at last year’s regional meet, but suffered another setback when they stumbled to fourth at the state meet. They have not had an individual state champ since the team title in 2011.
Still they have good numbers at the freshman and sophomore level and DeVoll says the seventh- and eighth-grade classes are strong. This year’s team is still young with only three seniors onboard.
“It’s not easy,” DeVoll said. “Numbers are down and in other sports too. This is a very tough sport to participate in. You’re out there in front of your peers and there’s no place to hide. You stand up out there and they raise your hand or you see them raise the other kid’s hand. It teaches you a lot about yourself. It teaches kids about adversity.”
DeVoll admits there have been times he doesn’t feel like doing it or that the old drive isn’t what it used to be. He’s given up some of the duties to a great bunch of parents to lighten his load, and that has helped.
You can still see the fire in DeVoll. He growls, urges, and guides Noble wrestlers from the sidelines with a spark that has been burning going back over 30 years.
“Kids come back and tell me that life is a lot like this and you really helped me,” DeVoll said. “At the end of it all, that’s good to hear.”
Mike Whaley is the Sports Editor for Foster’s Daily Democrat and the Rochester Times. He can be reached at mwhaley@fosters.com or 603-516-2949.