Keep Your Arrow Pointing Up: USA Wrestling Coach’s Corner feature on Chance Van Gundy

Editor’s Note: This article appeared in WIN’s Volume 32 Issue 12, which printed on Sept. 15, 2026.

By Wes Littlefield

Dublin Coffman coach Chance Van Gundy has built one of Ohio’s top programs by embracing evolution, trusting the process and finding success in the details.

He started wrestling because his older brother wrestled; eventually, it became his career. Chance Van Gundy’s introduction to wrestling was ordinary enough. His accomplishments as a wrestler and coach have been anything but.

He became a three-time NCAA Division II national qualifier at Ashland University and earned All-American honors with a fifth-place finish as a senior. He proved he was more than just a wrestler when he also earned Academic All-American honors.

But Van Gundy didn’t start coaching simply because he was a successful wrestler. He had been preparing for it long before he realized it.

His aunt was an elementary school teacher, and Van Gundy remembers playing school as a kid at her house and claiming the role of teacher over his siblings. He also considered becoming a police officer, like his father, but a high school teacher told him he had a gift for teaching. That stuck with him.

From that point on, “I wanted to see my team be successful, not just me,” Van Gundy said.

Van Gundy’s college wrestling experience has proven valuable as a coach. College forced him to evolve because wrestlers (and coaches) who don’t evolve get left behind. More importantly, it taught him to enjoy the process and how much the details matter.

“I didn’t realize how important the details are until I wrestled in college,” he said. Those details now show up in how he runs his room at Dublin Coffman, a nationally ranked high school program.

Van Gundy took over the Shamrocks for the 2012-13 season. Rather than lowering expectations to build numbers, Van Gundy and his staff raised them. The results followed.

Van Gundy was named Ohio’s Division I Coach of the Year for the 2021-22 season after Dublin Coffman won its seventh consecutive sectional title, its fourth straight district title, and finished third at the state tournament.

But ask Van Gundy what he enjoys most about coaching, and the answer isn’t winning championships. It’s creating the memories.

He loves watching his wrestlers achieve their goals and then look back and realize the process mattered as much as the result. Van Gundy calls it getting them to understand the “why” and buy into what he is coaching, particularly when he wants them to develop in a specific position. He believes “sometimes a wrestler has to fail at something repeatedly before they understand why it matters. You know what’s right for this kid, but how do I get this kid to know it?”

The patience to walk alongside and develop his wrestlers has changed the way Van Gundy structures practice. Early in his coaching career, he admits his practices were overkill. He wanted difficult practices but eventually learned that making every practice difficult isn’t necessarily better. Too much intense volume can lead to more injuries and leave wrestlers flat and underperforming when the postseason arrives.

Now, he’s widened his view and thinks about the entire season. “There absolutely needs to be days that make wrestlers uncomfortable,” he said, “but coaches also have to understand when to allow their athletes to rest.”

“It’s not a sprint; it’s a marathon.”

That philosophy extends to young wrestlers, too. Van Gundy doesn’t think a six-year-old needs to win Tulsa Nationals. He’d rather see young wrestlers develop a love for the sport and continue moving forward. “Development and evolving are more important than winning,” he said. “I always tell my kids to keep your arrow pointing up.”

There’s a simplicity to Van Gundy’s approach, but there’s also a lot of detail. He treats wrestling as a martial art, not simply a sport. He’s a self-described “conditioning nut.” But conditioning and technique are only part of what Van Gundy is trying to build.

He has learned to surround himself with people who are better at certain things than he is. Instead of trying to carry every responsibility himself, he has gradually handed pieces of the program to his assistants.

“I went from doing everything with it all on my shoulders, and I’ve been handing the keys to the car off, and it’s worth it,” Van Gundy said.

That may be the biggest change in Van Gundy’s coaching career. He used to think more responsibility meant carrying more of it himself. Now he understands that building a winning program means trusting other people and giving them room to contribute.

The payoff isn’t just what happens during the season. It’s the former wrestlers who return after accomplishing goals he didn’t. And, increasingly, it’s the realization that the coach isn’t the only one doing the inspiring.

“The one thing that has really changed is inspiring kids,” Van Gundy said. “I’m in a position now where I’m getting inspired by my wrestlers. They inspire me. It’s one of the coolest things to verbalize because it’s true.”

For a coach who started wrestling at eight because his older brother did, that might be the best measure of how far the sport has taken him. He began wrestling because someone else was already in the room. Now, he’s building a wrestling room that gives the next generation a reason to stay.