WAYNESBURG— John Yates knows wrestling, but he never guessed he would be involved in it this long.

A 1984 Seneca Valley graduate, Yates recently became the assistant coach with the Waynesburg University wrestling program.

That follows a 10-year coaching career at Waynesburg High, which came after a four-year wrestling career at the University of Pittsburgh.

All this from a guy who had only 35 career high school wins entering his senior season at Seneca Valley.

"It's amazing how it all worked out,"Yates said. "Everything just fell into place."

It all began with his senior year in high school, when Yates went 30-4 and placed sixth in the state meet. He never qualified for the state tournament before that.

A spot starter at Pitt, Yates lettered during his senior season and posted a winning record. He graduated in 1989 with a teaching degree.

"Seneca Valley was such a successful wrestling program in those days that I was able to get a chance to wrestle in college,"Yates said. "When I graduated, I looked for a job as a science teacher.

"Waynesburg High School was looking for a science teacher and also had an opening for a junior high wrestling coach, so I filled both roles."

After only one year with the junior high, Yates moved up to the varsity ranks and was an assistant coach for eight years before assuming head coaching duties.

During his 10 years as the head wrestling coach at the Green County school, Yates compiled a 140-43 record that included 15 WPIAL individual champions, 20 state placers and six state champions.

But he had some help.

Ron Headlee had been the head coach at nearby Jefferson-Morgan High School from 1988-97. He was 111-25-1 in dual meets and coached 24 WPIALchampions and seven state champs.

Headlee wound up leaving the Jefferson-Morgan wrestling program to become the junior high coach at Waynesburg.

"My two sons were coming through the Waynesburg system at the time,"Headlee said. "My oldest was in seventh grade. I wanted the chance to help develop their careers."

Both of Headlee's sons, senior Drew and freshman Ethan, now wrestle at Pitt. Headlee eventually became Yates' varsity assistant.

"We developed some good chemistry together and had a lot of success,"Yates said.

That success was supposed to have ended after the 2005-06 season, when Yates and Headlee resigned from coaching together.

"Ron wanted more time to watch his boys compete in college and I had been coaching for nearly 20 years,"Yates said. "Ifigured that was enough."

Recently, Waynesburg University approached Headlee about taking the reins of the Yellow Jackets' program. Waynesburg was 0-11 in dual meets this season.

"While I considered the idea, I called John and asked him if he'd be my assistant,"Headlee said. "I'm not sure I would have taken the job without him.

"The Pitt matches were primarily on weekends and I found myself with more free time than I thought. And I missed coaching."

Yates knows he wouldn't have considered the job without Headlee.

"No way. I'd have said no thanks,"Yates said. "But we both viewed this as a challenge.

"Coaching wrestlers is coaching wrestlers. The recruiting end of it is what's new."

Waynesburg's program has 16 wrestlers on the roster. Yates and Headlee want to have 25 in the room by next preseason, qualify two or three to nationals and have a wrestler place there.

"Both of us know a lot of high school coaches and we're already getting recommendations for kids,"Headlee said. "That's going to help us get the numbers back up."

"We've got a good support system and we've got some ideas,"Yates said. "We're going to make this work.

"I guess I'm not done yet."