Gallo chose his path
This is part of a continuing series of articles spotlighting former Butler County area athletes and what they are doing now.
SUMMIT TWP — Things could have been a lot different for Trevor Gallo athletically if it wasn't for one thing.
Gallo was a standout football player and wrestler at Slippery Rock High School and was being recruited heavily by colleges for both sports after his stellar senior seasons on the gridiron and mat for the Rockets.
“I'd have to say I had more fun playing football,” said Gallo, who rushed for 1,055 yards and eight touchdowns as well as starring on defense as a linebacker. “It was just a different atmosphere.”
Gallo said the work that went into being a top wrestler was sometimes daunting.
There was weight to watch. There were hours on the mat drilling moves. There was no time to socialize between the heavy wrestling schedule and schoolwork.
Football had less of that and his favorite time of the year often fell during the fall.
But one thing kept Gallo from pursuing a football career at the next level instead of a wrestling one.
“There's no better feeling than getting your hand raised in the middle of the mat when you win,” Gallo said. “If it wasn't for that feeling, I would have played football in college.”
It worked out pretty well for him.
Gallo went 111-24 on the mat at Slippery Rock after picking up the sport relatively late in life. His coach with the Rockets at the time, Fred Powell, was a big reason for his rapid rise, Gallo said.
By Gallo's senior year, he was one of the top-ranked wrestlers in the state in his weight class (171 pounds) iand came home from the PIAA wrestling championships with a third-place finish — his second state medal in as many years (he was sixth as a junior).
He moved on to Mercyhurst University, and after a rocky start on the mat there, established himself as one of the best wrestlers in the program's history.
“Freshman year was an adjustment,” Gallo said. “Wrestling is a year-round sport up there and it was definitely a lot to handle.”
Making things more challenging during that first college season was getting moved up to the 197-pound weight class because of an injury to another wrestler.
Gallo had settled in at 184 before the sudden move.
“I got called into the coach's office and he told me I was wrestling at 197 now and would be starting there the rest of the year at that weight,” Gallo said. “Just the year before at Slippery Rock I was at 171 and my jaw dropped. I was like, 'All right. Let's try to do this.'”
The experience turned out to be invaluable for Gallo. The next year he had a breakout season.After college he took a teaching job at Louisa County High School, a rural district in Virginia.“I basically started the wrestling program there,” Gallo said. “It was rural, but the school was huge. Still, participation was hard to come by.”Gallo's teams excelled anyway.Louisa County posted a 70-23 dual meet record in his three years there and Gallo coached 13 state qualifiers and four state placers during his time.But the desire to come home to be closer to his friends and family was too great and he left Virginia for a job at Moniteau High School three years ago.He's still there, teaching business education.“It was tough to leave,” Gallo said. “We were going into our best year, but I just knew I wanted to come home.”Gallo, now 33, is still coaching wrestling as an assistant at Butler under two of his mentors in the sport: Golden Tornado head wrestling coach Scott Stoner and Powell.“Coach Stoner coached me in the elementary program,” Gallo said. “To coach with both of them has been really fun and amazing.”Gallo is also cutting his coaching chops in a new and very different sport at Moniteau.Golf.“It's kind of a big adjustment,” Gallo said laughing. “You have to simmer down on the intensity a little bit.”Gallo said he has heard rumbling about Moniteau possibly looking into starting a wrestling program. He said if that happens, he'd be happy to lend his expertise.For now, though, he is quite content with his life as a wrestling and golf coach and teacher.“Yeah, life is good,” Gallo said. “I'm enjoying everything.”
