“I was in college and my roommates were both two-time state champions in high school,” he said. “They put all the mattresses in the room together and told me, ‘You’re going to be a wrestler.’”
From that indoctrination Heroux grew to love the sport, and he has been teaching it to youngsters in his hometown of Belfast virtually ever since, leading Belfast Area High School to more than 600 victories and eight state championships over a 45-year coaching career.
It’s a resume that has earned Heroux induction into the New England High School Wrestling Hall of Fame.
The 69-year-old Heroux, a 1961 Belfast graduate who has been the head wrestling coach at his alma mater since 1967, was one of four coaches inducted last Saturday before the finals of the New England high school wrestling championships in Providence, R.I.
Also inducted were longtime East Hartford, Conn., coach Steve Konopka, longtime Massachusetts coach and referee Ted Neill, and former four-time Rhode Island state wrestling champion and coach Steve Soares.
“When they told me about it I said, ‘Really?’ That usually doesn’t happen until after you kick the bucket,” said Heroux. “But afterward when I realized they’ve had this hall of fame for 30 years and have only inducted 40 people, I realized what an honor it is. I was pretty happy after that.”
Heroux has guided the Belfast wrestling program to a 602-168-3 record, a career that has included not only eight Class B state championships but also six state runner-up finishes, 11 Eastern Maine Class B titles and 13 Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference championships.
Previously inducted into the Maine Amateur Wrestling Alliance Hall of Fame, Heroux is a five-time KVAC coach of the year and a three-time Maine coach of the year honoree.
He has coached three New England champions — his grandson Kote Aldus, Dennis Sprague and Brent Waterman. Sprague won the 132-pound state title in 1972, Aldus the 160-pound crown in 2008 and Waterman the 132-pound championship this year.
Heroux also has coached 71 individual state champions from Belfast, including another grandson, Kornealius Wood, who won the 171-pound Class B title in both 2009 and 2011.
Heroux becomes the third Mainer named to the New England High School Wrestling Hall of Fame, joining longtime former University of Southern Maine coach Ted Reese and former Winslow coach Wally LaFountain, one of the founders of the Maine-Nebraska Friendship Series.
Heroux said he plans to coach at Belfast for one more season before retiring.
“I’ve got a good group of seniors coming next year that I kind of promised their parents I’d see them through because I’ve been coaching them for about the last seven years,” he said.
“I’ve also got a great group of assistant coaches probably chomping at the bit to get their chance, and whoever does take over is going to be successful because we’ve got a great wrestling program here in Belfast all the way up through.”
