Tribute to My Father

By John Gunther, Sports Editor, The World Newspaper -- Coos Bay/North Bend, Oregon
December 10, 2005

Mention the name Messner in the Bay Area and many people will think first of wrestling — for good reason. Brothers Eric and Clint Messner, who were national champions while at North Bend High School, have been inducted into the school’s athletic hall of fame for their wrestling prowess, and Mike Messner, their cousin, was a state champion for the Bulldogs in 1992 and later coached the team for a year.

The Messner name is back in the wrestling forefront in the Bay Area, at Marshfield, where the new head coach is Randy Messner, Mike’s dad and the uncle of Clint and Eric.Just because he’s the new head coach, though, doesn’t mean Randy Messner is new to the sport or to Marshfield. Messner and his older brother, Wendell, grew up wrestling at the YMCA in Nebraska before both followed their parents to the Bay Area.Wendell Messner started the North Bend Mat Club 27 years ago as his four children (Jesse and Ben followed Eric and Clint in wrestling) were growing up. Randy began helping him coach the team about 25 years ago, when his oldest son, Kendall, was a fifth-grade student. He has pretty much stuck with it ever since except for a short stint when the family lived in Bend, where Matt, Randy’s middle son, won a state cross country title.

For more than a decade, Randy Messner was the wrestling coach at Sunset Middle School, where he had a large, active program (the school has 50 seventh- and eighth-grade wrestlers this year). Messner also has helped as an assistant to Marshfield coach Wayne Van Burger for several years after the Sunset season ended.He’s excited to try his hand as head coach of the high school team.“This is fun,” he said. “I’m getting a chance to try some things that I always wanted to try.”Van Burger said Messner has an ideal personality for coaching wrestling.“One of the things about Randy for sure is that he’s a very positive influence on kids,” Van Burger said. “He’s always really upbeat and looks toward the positive. He always thinks the best of people.”A number of times as coach, Van Burger said, Messner has nurtured a student who was struggling in life.“He was always able to give them something positive to look forward to,” Van Burger said. “He’d bring those kids in at the junior high and get them going and hopefully we fostered some of that at the high school level.”

Matt Messner said kids always have looked up to his father as a coach because of how he treats them as athletes.“At a personal level, my dad’s greatest qualities that he brings as a coach has to do with his ability to motivate and encourage people to be their best,” Matt said. “He is a very genuine person and I know that he has a way of making people want to do their best for him.“He believes in people. I think kids feel that he is their advocate, which is unique for a teacher or coach.”Randy Messner also has a knack for getting his athletes to understand the mental aspects of wrestling, Van Burger said.“One of the things we did over the last 10 or 12 years here was to work on kids’ mental toughness and mental attitude ... and that’s what gets you to the next level.”

Matt Messner expects his dad to continue to be a successful coach at the high school level, much as he remembers his father coaching him in baseball, wrestling and running when he was growing up.“He is willing to work with kids to take them as far as they can go with their abilities,” Matt said. “He believes in them more than they believe in themselves. He sacrifices lots of time and energy because he wants them to be successful — not just in sports, but in life.”

Wendell Messner keeps tabs on his brother’s progress and was in the stands Thursday when the Pirates split a pair of league dual meets with North Eugene and Lebanon.“He’s got a job to do, but he’ll do fine,” Wendell said. “I’m proud of him.”Wendell thinks Randy’s continued association with the students at Sunset Middle School, where he is a teacher, will help.“Those kids don’t forget about him when they get to high school,” Wendell said. “His strength is the rapport that he has with those kids. He truly enjoys the company of the kids.”