CHAMPAIGN — Mike Poeta’s first lessons in wrestling weren’t easy.
His older brother and cousin made sure of it.
The new Illinois wrestling coach joked his parents waited until after he completed potty training to put him on the mat. Once he got there, though, it was hard to keep him off.
And he doesn’t hold any hard feelings for his rough-and-tumble upbringing.
“You see this very often in wrestling,” Poeta said, “where the youngest one is the best, because he got beat up by everyone growing up and he had the toughest skin because of it and excelled the most.”
Born into a wrestling family, Poeta was immersed in the sport for years before he arrived to begin his college career at Illinois in 2004. His father, Domenic, was a wrestling coach, and his uncle wrestled, too.
Now, Poeta is following in their footsteps.
His first meet in charge of the Illini happened on Saturday at the Michigan State Open, more than seven months after Illinois athletic director Josh Whitman hired the wrestler with Illini ties to replace Jim Heffernan, who retired in early April after 12 years as the Illinois coach.
Now, the 35-year-old and former All-American at Illinois is one of the youngest head coaches in Division I wrestling.
“This is a dream come true, absolutely,” Poeta said. “I definitely savored the flavor, really enjoyed the feeling of being given the job and becoming the head coach.”
It’s Poeta’s first college head coaching job, but one he’s prepared his whole life for.
He’s not downplaying expectations either, with the 18th-ranked Illini returning nearly their entire roster after finishing 18th at the NCAA championships in March.
“Now, it’s about how can I take care of these kids? And how can I make the Illinois wrestling program continue having the great reputation it has, and then also be a national championship team?” Poeta said. “Let’s now put our focus on that.”
A logical fit
After 29 years in the program, Heffernan knew his time coaching the Illini program was coming to an end.
But even with two years left in his contract, Heffernan had a replacement in mind: Poeta, who he brought back to his alma mater as an assistant coach in 2017.
“I did think that when I hired him,” Heffernan said. “And when I decided to retire, I was vocal about my thoughts and opinions that Mike should be the next coach at Illinois.”
Of course, Whitman examined other candidates for the job, but Heffernan’s endorsement solidified Poeta’s case.
Poeta’s former coach at Illinois and Heffernan’s predecessor, Mark Johnson, also emphatically recommended him for the job.
No one has had the success Johnson did at Illinois.
When he took the job in 1992, Illinois hadn’t won a Big Ten dual meet since 1988. By the time Johnson retired in 2009, he’d led the Illini to a Big Ten championship in 2005, 10 top-10 finishes at the NCAA Championships and — including Poeta — developed 45 All-Americans in 17 seasons.
“I remember talking to Josh about this situation and that he was younger,” Johnson said. “And I said, ‘Don’t forget, I think he’s older than me when I took over at Illinois.’”
Normally, there’s an adjustment period under a new coach while they learn the ins and outs of their new program. Not for Poeta, who has already spent a decade in the program as an athlete and coach.
“He’s had those awakenings already,” Johnson said. “When I came here, I was new. He’s here. He knows the university. He knows the trainers, the strength staff, the administration, the team. That’s a huge head start.”
Johnson believes Poeta has the support system, experience and knowledge of the program to get off to a smooth start.
“He just lives that life,” Johnson said. “It’s a lifestyle your whole family has to buy into, because it’s the only way you can spend time with your family. They have to be fans, they have to be part of it, which his whole family is, from his kids to the woman in his life and his folks. His folks were at every one of his meets.”
Knowing the territoryPoeta already knew everyone on the team before he received his promotion.
He has learned the strengths and weaknesses of the veterans and underclassmen.
The return of starters like Mike Carr, Dylan Duncan, Danny Braunagel and Zac Braunagel should aid in the transition.
“Nobody’s really graduating, so the season we had last year, it’s going to be an identical season,” Poeta said. “Nobody went to the NFL. Nobody went to the NBA. We’re wrestlers. Everybody stayed in school, and they’re wrestling another year of college wrestling.”
Poeta took on a major role in recruiting during the later Heffernan years. More than his experience with locating, evaluating, chasing and then developing talent, his former coaches think Poeta’s personality will help bring big-time wrestlers to east central Illinois in the years ahead.
“He genuinely cares,” Heffernan said. “He loves the program. This is the only college wrestling job he would ever consider taking.”
Showing a recruit you care about them as a person goes farther than simply proving that you can make them a better wrestler, according to Johnson, and Poeta does both.
“The tough-guy image that we all try to portray in our sport, (Mike) is very caring,” Johnson said. “He said some things about me in a newspaper one time. He said, ‘I consider Mark Johnson like a father to me.’ I remember going up to him, and it hit me hard. I go, ‘Wow, that was really nice to say.’ He said, ‘I mean every bit of it.’”
Johnson called him the best wrestler at Illinois never to win an NCAA title, with Poeta coming up short in the 157-pound national title match in 2008 and 2009.
“Sometimes, the breaks don’t fall your way,” Johnson said. “Sometimes, there’s a stud, whatever the case may be. But he’s as good, really, as anybody we’ve put on the mat.”
Poeta has lost plenty of sleep about those setbacks over the years. But now he’s the one calling the shots at his alma mater, and he thinks destiny might have had different plans in motion.
“Maybe it was just a little bit bigger than me for this program,” Poeta said. “I was meant to be here for this program to win a team title, not an individual one. Maybe me not winning one puts a little bit of a spark in me and gives me more motivation to get it done for everyone in the program, not just myself.”
Becoming a starPoeta won back-to-back state titles and three national championships while in high school at Highland Park.
By the time he graduated from Illinois in 2009, he was a two-time NCAA finalist, a two-time Big Ten champion and a three-time All-American.
Johnson remembers Poeta was one to watch after seeing him in the state tournament during his freshman year of high school.
Former Illini standout Griff Powell coached Highland Park and earned All-American honors under Johnson in 2002. Looking back, Poeta thinks his relationship with Powell set him up to eventually become a coach more than anything else.
“He was a God to me,” Poeta said. “He was everything. He was the coolest guy, the best wrestler, the biggest role model I had in the coaching world outside anyone in my family. You and I probably would not be talking if it weren’t for Griff.”
Powell would bring other former Illini wrestlers by practice, and they’d give tips and serve as proof to Poeta and others they could reach their level one day.
Through the years, Poeta was drawn to Illinois because of the strength of the program under Johnson, his connection with Powell and its close proximity to home. He committed to Johnson and the Illini, who recruited him vigorously over rival Northwestern.
“He was the best kid in the state that year,” Johnson said. “Highly recruited, and I didn’t just sit back and say, ‘Hey, he’s going to come, because he’s wrestling for one of my guys.’”
Johnson even had a running joke with Powell about Poeta’s recruitment.
“I would tell Griff, ‘If Poeta doesn’t come, I’m cutting your leg off. I’m kicking your butt, Griff,’” Johnson recalled. “I joked about that, and that’s just kind of how I rolled, but he probably didn’t know if I was serious or not.”
Recruiting pitches turned into countless lessons after Poeta made his way down to Champaign.
“(Johnson) is not a person, he’s a figure,” Poeta said. “He’s a presence. It was him calling me, he came to my house, came to my high school, he recruited me really hard. And with my coach being Griff, it was like a no-brainer. Johnson worked hard for me, but he didn’t have to work hard. I was going.”
Poeta went 9-1 in open tournaments as a freshman, and the Illini won the Big Ten championship on the way to a sixth-place finish at the NCAA Championships. Over the next few years, he’d total 105 victories, including 35 wins alone in 2008.
His .882 career winning percentage is the second-best mark in school history. But he doesn’t mean he’s satisfied with the way it all went down.
“The competitiveness I have inside me, I think almost everyone would think this way. I look back and I wish I did more,” Poeta said. “Looking back, I took third, second and second in the country. I can’t believe I didn’t win an NCAA title. Winning an NCAA title is extremely hard, and the coaching staff and the program, they put me in a position to win it every single year.”
Instead of lamenting his narrow shortcomings or lusting with nostalgia over his signature accomplishments, Poeta remembers his everyday interactions and memories with his teammates most fondly.
“It’s all those life experiences with the kids who are your age, living absolutely relatable life to you and have relatable goals,” Poeta said. “Everything I did with those guys means so much to me.”
Built from scratchIn 2010, Poeta ascended to the forefront of the sport when represented the United States during the World Cup in Russia. In 2012, he competed at the U.S. Olympic trials.
Soon though, Poeta realized he wanted to pursue a more ambitious goal than simply realizing his full potential as a wrestler. He planned to launch his own training center to help young wrestlers the way Powell helped him discover his back at Highland Park.
So, in 2012, he moved back to the Chicago suburbs and opened up the Poeta Training Center, which is still in operation in Lake Forest.
It was hard work, but by the end of the club’s first year of competition, Poeta had assembled dozens of wrestlers. The quality improved as word got around, and Poeta started adding talented and well-regarded athletes and coaches to his staff.
“The wrestling part’s easy, because he is very knowledgeable. He understands it. He loves it,” Heffernan said. “The hard part was starting this thing from the ground up, which was extremely impressive for a kid who graduated from college, was really a professional athlete for a couple years on the international circuit and then starting the business from the ground up.”
Poeta put on and attended clinics, formed relationships with prominent coaches and programs in the area, raised money to help fund wrestling efforts for young athletes and started churning out Division I prospects.
Over time, Heffernan found he needed to pay more attention to the northern part of the state, which has always had talent, but wasn’t a recruiting hotbed.
“You can kind of tell the success he was having, because all of a sudden the northern part of the state started getting really competitive,” Heffernan said. “A lot of individuals were placing at the state tournament and a lot of individuals were improving rapidly, and you could literally put your finger on the spot where those kids were going. That was Mike’s training center. It was that obvious.”
Mike also met his life partner, Callie, while up in the suburbs. She worked at a restaurant wedged about halfway between Poeta’s home and the training center.
Poeta’s life revolved around training, and working with kids in school meant the prime time hours were from around 4-9 p.m. When he’d get done for the day, there weren’t many options for dinner.
But one reliable spot emerged he would become thankful for because of other reasons.
“On my way back home, I’m starving,” Poeta said. “(Callie’s restaurant) was the only place that was open, and I stopped in there, finally had the courage to start talking to her and it turned into a beautiful thing.”
Mike and Callie now have four young children, and their wedding is on the horizon.
“I don’t know if this is the right order, but we started with four kids,” Poeta said. “And now we’re getting married in April.”
In 2017, Poeta made a decisive move that changed his career trajectory. Heffernan had an assistant coaching role open up, and he thought the former Illini standout was the perfect fit for the job.
“I felt like I’d accomplished what I wanted to accomplish as a gym owner and a wrestling club owner,” Poeta said. “I sent probably 50 kids to good Division I colleges, and had built such good relationships.”
Putting down firm rootsWhen Poeta was on campus in the mid-2000s, he thought Champaign-Urbana was cool and all. But it was far removed from the urban sprawl of Chicago, and Poeta thought perhaps he outgrew his college community.
But when he came back to work with Heffernan, he realized the community had been growing at a similar rate to his own. He saw new high-rise buildings going up, booming businesses on and around campus and a university continuing to thrive. It made him think of Champaign-Urbana in a new light, and realized it could be more than a place for development, but a long-term home.
“I was ready to get back into the highest level of college wrestling,” Poeta said. “Champaign was ready for someone that was from Chicagoland to feel like it was more urban. It came together, and I went down there.”
Still, adjusting to the unceasing day-to-day duties that accompany being a Big Ten head coach hasn’t been a breeze.
Poeta is a dad now, and that’s a massive priority in his life, even if he’s also a father figure for a few dozen or so athletes on campus, too.
“It’s extremely tough,” Poeta said. “Obviously, it’s very rewarding. Managing four of my personal kids, then managing 35 18 to 23-year-olds, it’s a lot.”
“And I want to make sure that any parents that send their kids to Champaign to wrestle to me know that their kid is being treated like a son and has a father in town for that,” he added. “It’s absolutely difficult time management-wise, trying to give everybody enough of your time, but it’s all worth it at the end.”
Poeta’s age makes him stand out in the Big Ten coaching ranks, but his on-mat credentials speak for him. Those around the program know he can hold his own.
“When (wrestlers) walk in the room every day and see his picture on the wall as a three-time all-American, a couple-time Big Ten champion, that commands respect,” Heffernan said.
Poeta also has a staff that should bring the right mix to his relative youth. He brought on three-time NCAA champion Ed Ruth as an assistant back in July.
Ruth, a former Penn State star who won four Big Ten titles and three NCAA titles, joins another standout Nittany Lion, longtime Illini assistant coach Jeremy Hunter, on Poeta’s staff.
Poeta called coaching the Illini his dream job. It’s a point of pride Heffernan thinks will be crucial to sustaining success in the long term.
“You’re not going to have a guy who’s going to be looking at the next job,” Heffernan said. “You’re not going to have a guy that thinks the grass is greener anywhere else. This is it for him. That’s really important, and you can see it in Mike Small, Justin Spring, Josh Whitman and the pride those guys take in being here and being at Illinois. This is their home, and there’s nothing better than being at your alma mater, a place that you love. I think Mike exudes that, and that’s about as important of a thing as you can have.”
Poeta knows he can call on his mentors, Heffernan and Johnson, any time. And he has, estimating he’s spoken with at least one of them each week since taking the job.
“They’re not going to ever have an ego or be know-it-alls and call me giving advice or telling me what to do,” Poeta said. “They will answer every phone call and every text I have of questions or advice within a second. Genuinely, from the bottom of their heart, how they think they can help me, and they’re there for me on a daily basis.”
Don’t expect those guys to light up Poeta’s phone at any point during the season though.
Johnson explained he and Heffernan have complete trust in their protégé.
“He’s not afraid to ask questions and pick my brain,” Johnson said. “I’m one of them guys. I sit afar. I’m an Illinois fan and I don’t try to be overbearing and be around when I shouldn’t be. He knows I’m in his corner, and I wish him all the success.”
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