After reading this feel free to take a minute to check out his website, www.goldbucklewrestling.com Coach Mike has quite the resume in the wrestling world as some of you may already know, but here is a list of some of his accomplishments, a more complete list can be found on his website.

[Mike McArthur] Coaching Career
- 1996 U.S. Olympic Freestyle Wrestling Championships, Assistant Coach, Atlanta. GA.
- 1998, 1999, 2000 U.S. World Cup Freestyle Coach
- 2002 U.S. Pan American Games, Freestyle Coach, Santa Domingo, Dominican Republic- Head Coach of U.S.
- Athletes in Action Wrestling Team, 1985 – 1994.- Assistant Coach, Oklahoma State university, 1982 – 1985,
- Volunteer Assistant Coach, (USAFA) United States Air Force Academy, 1993 to 2008
Wrestling Career Highlights
- 1976 U.S. Olympic Freestyle Wrestling Team Alternate, Montreal, Canada.
- 1979 U.S. World Cup Freestyle Wrestling Team, Toledo, OH.
- 6 Time Minnesota State Greco Roman Champion, Junior & Senior Divisions, AAU & USWF
- 17 Time Minnesota State Freestyle Champion, Junior & Senior Dividions, AAU & USWF
- 2 Time Big Ten Champion, 118 lbs. 1976 – 77,
- 3 Time NCAA All-American, University of Minnesota, 1975 – 1977,
- 6th Place, Junior World Championships, 114 lbs. 1974, Haskova, Bulgaria
I recently contacted coach McArthur to ask if he would write a brief story about how wrestling has impacted his life. This is the response I received:

I’m happy to share some insights about how wrestling has impacted my life.

As a struggling young man trying to find where I fit in, I quickly took to the sport because of the confidence it gave me as I poured myself into being as good as I could be. As time went on and I began understanding how hard it was but how fulfilling it was also when I reached a goal or accomplished something of significance, it motivated me to continue working hard and try to reach even higher goals. Now after 42 years in the sport, I’m still learning and still trying to accomplish new things in the sport. Obviously as a coach, my goals have changed somewhat from when I was competing, but then again, some of the goals are the same, I’m simply trying to help others accomplish them rather than myself. Over the years I’ve learned some pretty important lessons that certainly transfer into other areas of life. One of those lessons is that wrestling is just simply a very hard sport, even when you’re good at it. It’s really, really hard when you’re not good at it. So let’s try to be as good as we can! The true value is in the journey more so than the end result. We set goals and try to attain those desired results but it’s the hurdles and barriers and hardships and opponents and a hundred other difficult things that shape us and mold us into people who learn how to rise above adversity and determine to try and get it done even when the cards are stacked against us. And then coming through it all and humbly reaching to shake your opponent’s hand whether you’ve won or lost, we begin to realize that wrestling asks more from us then most other things in life, and how positively we allow it to develop our character will determine the impact our lives have on others. Either positively or negatively! Wrestling is truly a great sport filled with great people and a unique opportunity to experience an intensity most of the world will never come close to understanding or experiencing. It really does make the rest of life somewhat easy.

I hope this encourages someone to really pour themselves into this great opportunity. Whether you win the Gold Medal or never wrestle in a varsity match, the opportunity to learn and positively affect other’s lives by how hard you work and how you learn to deal with adversity, will be worth every bit of effort you put into it!