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NHSCA Executive Director Named Man of the Year by USA Wrestling Magazine
Bob Ferraro, the founder and executive director of the National High School Coaches Association (NHSCA), has been
named Man of the Year for 2006 by Wrestling USA Magazine. Ferraro was honored by the magazine with a full-page
story in its May 30 issue. After a career that spanned more than a quarter of a decade as a standout wrestler and
college coach, Ferraro, 58, founded the NHSCA in 1989.
The NHSCA’s first championship event was the National High School Seniors Wrestling Championships and Coaches Convention.
That event grew from an initial entry list of 262 wrestlers to its current level of more than 800 wrestlers from
virtually every state nearly two decades later, and has become a can’t-miss event for the nation’s top wrestlers.
The NHSCA also conducts the National Wrestling Duals, National Beach Wrestling Championship, National Open Wrestling
Championships, National Pre-Season Wrestling Championship, Sunshine Wrestling Invitational, High School Wrestling
Festival, and the Final Four of High School Wrestling. Many of these events are the largest of their kind in the
country.
Founded as a 501c3 non-profit organization, the NHSCA has a mission to provide leadership and support for the nation’s
nearly 1,000,000 high school coaches and 10 million high school athletes.
The NHSCA today serves a membership in 20 sports, as well as in the performing arts. In 2004, Ferraro was appointed
to serve on the Board of Visitors at the United States Sports Academy.“ Athletics are an important cornerstone
of the educational process in our high schools today,” Ferraro said. “In every school, in every sport, the coach
is the person on the front lines. They are the focal point, the face of their programs. Our mission is today, as
it was when the NHSCA was founded, to provide coaches with the tools and the capabilities to perform their jobs
better – not just to develop their athletes, but to represent their programs, their schools and their communities.
Our membership has benefited greatly from the programs we have developed and we will continue to focus on meeting
their needs into the future. Being named Man of the Year is a tremendous honor and I am grateful to Wrestling USA
magazine.”
A 1966 graduate of Easton (Pa.) High School, Ferraro earned his B.S. and M.S. degrees from Indiana State University.
A 2-year captain of the Sycamores wrestling team, he was defeated only once in regular-season competition during
his career, compiling a 93-4 record with 62 falls and a school-record .959 winning percentage.
A two-time NCAA All-American, placing fourth and second in the NCAA Championships, and a winner in the East-West
All-Star Meet, Ferraro received the school’s Outstanding Male Athlete Award as well as the Outstanding Leadership
and Loyalty awards in 1970. He was inducted into the Indiana State University Sports Hall of Fame in 2004 and also
is a member of Pennsylvania’s District 4 and District 11 Halls of Fame.
From 1973 through 1997, Ferraro was the head wrestling coach and Director of Recreation at Bucknell University,
producing 44 ECC and ECWA champions and four NCAA Division I All-Americans. In 1986, 1987 and 1992, he was voted
the ECWA Coach of the Year. Ferraro and his wife, Jeanne, have three children – son Robert and daughters Robin
and Jaime – and three grandchildren.
The NHSCA selects Coaches and Senior Athletes of the Year in 20 boys and girls sports, and sponsors more than two
dozen national championship events in various sports. This year the National High School Seniors, Juniors and Sophomores
Wrestling Championships attracted more than 1,600 competitors to Pittsburgh, and the NHSCA conducted the largest
ever National Wrestling Duals in May that attracted 108 teams and more than 1700 wrestlers.
The NHSCA, in partnership with the NFL Coaches Association, conducted the National High School Football Coaches
Convention in conjunction with U.S. Army All-American Bowl All-Star Game and also launched a fabulously successful
High School Talent Search competition.
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