For over 50 years, Jim Kurtz has been defined by his grit on the wrestling mat. What started as a way for a scrappy eleven year old to channel his aggressive energy into something productive eventually became the foundation for a career. Now, as a White Station High School’s (WSHS) wrestling coach, Kurtz is not just teaching takedowns and escapes, he is using his decades of experience to transform students into disciplined, successful adults.
“The reason for my success was wrestling, because before then, I was just a kid getting in a lot of trouble,” Kurtz said. “Wrestling gave me the discipline, the focus and everything I needed to be successful in life. So as I became successful, my give-back was to the sport … teaching boys how to become men of character who are able to make good choices under difficult circumstances.”
While many sports focus solely on the scoreboard, Kurtz’s philosophy is rooted in a relentless pursuit of excellence that begins the moment a student wakes up. He views every daily task as a competition against one’s own complacency.
“My main coaching philosophy is to use this sport to become a better person,” Kurtz said. “Every day, I teach our kids: attack every day. Get up and win the day. Be the first one at the breakfast table … win practice, win your match, win at the ACT, win at your college interviews, win in the boardroom, and in life. Win everything.”
This winning mentality is tested by the unique rigors of wrestling, a sport that Kurtz describes as a 24/7 commitment to discipline. Unlike sports with pomp and circumstance, wrestling demands a lifestyle of delayed gratification that often runs counter to modern culture.
“Wrestling is a sport of delayed gratification,” Kurtz said. “In our society of today, where everybody’s interested in instant gratification and dopamine hits on Instagram, it’s very difficult to teach those lessons for the very first time. But we’re successful, and we’re doing it. We’ve got a great group of kids.”
To bridge the gap between hard work and results, Kurtz places a heavy emphasis on personal accountability. He believes that the effort a student puts into their body and their schedule is the only true predictor of their eventual reward.
“Personal accountability and personal responsibility are the biggest things,” Kurtz said. “You are responsible for getting up in the morning. You are responsible for everything you put in your body. You’re responsible for the effort that you put into practice, because effort equals reward. Now [the White Station wrestlers] are starting to see the results of that discipline because we’re winning matches.”
Despite the fierce nature of the competition, the atmosphere in the wrestling room is a balance of physical intensity and camaraderie. Kurtz encourages a dynamic where hard work is met by a necessary sense of humor to keep the spirits high.
“Wrestling is a rogue sport. We go in there and we beat each other up all day, every day, so there’s a lot of respect, but we also have to bring a lot of humor into it,” Kurtz said. “We’ve got our classic clowns every year. Our practices are really interesting because we play music the entire time — it can get pretty loud, but that’s their release.”
As the team looks toward the end of the season, they aim for city championships, more state qualifiers and finally seeing a Spartan on the medal stand. But for Kurtz, the ultimate victory remains the personal growth of any student brave enough to step onto the mat.
“Just come out and try [wrestling],” Kurtz said. “You’re going to learn things about yourself that you never knew you were capable of. [Wrestling] is the sport of life. It teaches you how to overcome adversity, how to pick yourself up every single day and prepare for the next.”