Steve Powell
Easton Area High School
Impact Statement
“I still bleed red, white and black.” –Steve Powell
Biography
Hold an election to determine the nation’s best area for high school wrestling, and it’s certain that Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley will get plenty of votes. Need proof? Just give Easton High wrestling Coach Steve Powell a call. His answering machine tells the story: ” School’s started, wrestling season is just around the corner”. Many teams have carried the banner for the Valley over the years. The last two years, it’s been Easton’s turn.
The strength of Easton wrestling is nothing new. After all, the school has crowned at least one district champion every year since the District 11 tournament was initiated in 1948. But the national strength of Easton wrestling is outstanding individuals and one of the nation’s toughest schedules, which has taken the Rovers to back-to-back Class AAA state team championships and earning top 5 finishes in the national rankings for the past two years. ” You can’t back off” Powell said. ” You always have to be focused on looking for ways to improve. We have a tough schedule, but even if we didn’t travel, our schedule would be great”.
When you look at the number of outstanding teams within a half hour’s drive of each other, each week there are some of the nations best teams competing against each other. And he has to do it with the heaviest teaching load he’s ever had on his shoulders in his 22 years of teaching. A Health and physical Education teacher, Powell is in the classroom seven out of the day’s eight periods, with more than 30 students in each class.
“As a coach, I do the same thing in a rebuilding situation that I did last year” he said. ” You gear your practices to your best kid. Our kids know what they have to do to compete at the next level. You’re not going to be at the top three or four in the nation every year in a public school, but our kids have great learning attitudes”. Powell was born in the Valley, but his father, who was in the US Navy, was transferred to the Philadelphia Navy Yards. There Steve attended high school and college, graduating from Henderson High School and later from West Chester State College. He has been back in the Valley ever since. It isn’t hard to see why. How big is wrestling in the Valley? It’s more than the best media coverage in the nation, where most major dual meets take place in front of cable television cameras and radio microphones, as well as plenty of print media. It’s more than the overflow crowds, which often result in closed-circuit television feeds to auditoriums or cafeterias when the gymnasium is full. It’s the ultimate family sport.
“Wrestling is ingrained in families here” Powell said. “This is a blue-collar community and there’s a strong work ethic. People live their entire lives in this area, and they grow up loyal to their team. People here have a lot of pride in high school athletics. You take the average wrestler on my team and chances are his brother, father, uncles, and all his buddies wrestled. And after he gets out of school, his sons will wrestle years from now. It just gets passed from generation to generation.” The pride also extends to the community. When Easton had a parade last summer to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Easton Fire Department, the wrestling team rode the fire truck that led the parade. What else would you expect from the Valley?
Powell’s success continued to flourish until his retirement in 2016. Powell coached Easton wrestlers to 19 PIAA individual championships and 74 District 11 titles, including at least one for 31 consecutive seasons. He also coaches 90 PIAA State Place finishers. On the next level, he coached wrestlers who won 27 NCAA All-America awards, 18 in Division I.
Powell also did not miss a match in his 40 years as a coach; 32 as head and 8 years as the assistant.
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