From competitor to compassion
This is part of a continuing series of articles spotlighting former Butler County area athletes and what they are doing now.
WEXFORD — Cole Baxter used savvy and technique to become the most dominant wrestler in Butler history.
Now the 2011 Golden Tornado graduate is using similar skills to help save lives.
Baxter, 27, is employed as a nurse at UPMC Passavant in McCandless. He works in the intensive care unit.
“It is very intense. Obviously, people are very sick there ... It's a life-and-death situation in some cases,” Baxter said. “It keeps you on your toes.
“This is what I want to do — help people.”
Baxter was 160-17 in his Butler High School wrestling career. No one has approached his school career wins record.
He was the Tornado's first WPIAL champion in 2010, going 45-2 that season and placing fifth at the PIAA Championships.
Baxter went on to win 75 matches at Kent State University, where he graduated with a biology degree in 2015 and nursing degree in 2018. He now lives in Wexford.
“Eventually, I want to go to anesthesia school and further my options,” Baxter said. “Just keep expanding.”
Still with his girlfriend from high school, Chloe Roskovski, Baxter recognizes what wrestling has done for him.
“A hard work ethic, time management skills, I got those from wrestling,” he said. “The big thing was the scholarship that helped pay for my schooling.
“I doubt I'm where I am right now without that scholarship. I have no regrets at all about all the time I spent in wrestling. It impacted my life.”
Once his mat career ended at Kent State, Baxter spent a year as an assistant coach for the Golden Flashes while in nursing school.
“I enjoyed that year. It gave me a different perspective in the sport, from a coaching standpoint,” he said.
To this day, Baxter keeps in touch with Butler wrestling coach Scott Stoner, former Tornado assistant coach (now athletic director) Bill Mylan, high school teammate Mike Crawford and numerous Kent State teammates.
“We see each other a couple of times a year,” he said of his college teammates. “Golf outing, going to a Penguin or Steeler game, some of the guys are getting married now and we're at those weddings.
“I made a lot of friends through that sport, high school and college.”
And he still has the memories to go with it.
“I just remember the competition and how hard I worked at it,” Baxter said. “I'll always hold on to those memories. It was a great time while it lasted.”
Now he's in the medical field, unsure of where his long-term future will take him.
“Hospitals are everywhere and I'm in a secure field,” Baxter said. “I'd like to stay around the Pittsburgh area because my family's all here, but you never know.”
