Current UFC middleweight contender Tim Boetsch has been honored for the early stages of his competitive career, recently being inducted into the Maine Amateur Wrestling Alliance Hall of Fame.
The Lincolnville native, who now lives in Subway, Pa., was a four-time Class B individual state champion while attending Camden-Rockport High School in Rockport as well as a four-time Eastern Maine champion and a two-time Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference titlist.
He finished with a 146-6 career high school record, and placed fourth in his weight class at the National High School Coaches Association Senior National Championships. He also was named to the Amateur Wrestling News All-American team.
Boetsch went on to wrestle collegiately at Lock Haven (Pa.) University before turning his attention to mixed martial arts.
The 31-year-old Boetsch currently is one of the hottest middleweights (185-pound limit) in the UFC, having won four straight fights since dropping down from the light heavyweight (205-pound) ranks.
He most recently earned a decision over Hector Lombard at UFC 149 in Calgary, Alberta, last month to improve his overall record to 15-4 while ending Lombard’s 25-fight unbeaten streak.
Boetsch currently is recovering from a broken foot he suffered during that bout.
Joining Boetsch as members of the MAWA Hall of Fame Class of 2012 are longtime Noble of North Berwick wrestling coach Kip DeVoll and Fryeburg native and nationally recognized coach John Gordon.
DeVoll, a Noble graduate, has been the Knights’ head coach since 1986 and guided the program to 14 Class A state championships — including a run of nine straight from the late 1990s into the 2000s.
Gordon wrestled for Fryeburg Academy and Plymouth State before entering the coaching ranks, in which he was selected as Wrestling USA Magazine’s 2011 National High School Coach of the Year.
His coaching career includes stops at Fryeburg Academy, Dublin (N.H.) High School, New Hampton (N.H.) School and the Wyoming Seminary in Kingston, Pa., where his teams won four straight Pennsylvania prep state championships from 2007 to 2010 and finished as the runner-up at the national prep tournament in 2007, 2009 and 2010.
Gordon has coached at St. Christopher’s School in Richmond, Va., for the last two years.