COLUMBUS — Eaton wrestling coach Mark Silvers was quick to spread the credit for his recent induction into the Ohio Wrestling Coaches Hall of Fame.
The ceremony took place Saturday, March 11, at the Jerome Schottenstein Center prior to the Ohio state finals.
“It’s very flattering. Very humbling. It’s real honor to be included in that pool of coaches that they have listed up there. To even consider yourself in that group is like wow,” Silvers said.
Silvers, who has coached at four schools, Lima Bath, Ontario, Huber Heights Wayne and Eaton, over the past 39 years, said he is getting credit for the efforts of a lot of people.
“Honestly, to me it’s a total compilation of all those programs. It’s not me. It’s the kids. It’s the families. All those things go together into giving me that recognition. To me, I’m looking at it more as a recognition of all those other people and all the work that they did. Things that they made happen,” he said. “The biggest thing that I’ve always said in my coaching (career) is that I can never take credit for a state champ or a Coleman Manning, but I can take credit for the fact that I didn’t mess them up. That’s the way I look at it.”
Silvers’ coaching achievements are many.
He is a four-time GMVWCA Coach-of- the-Year (’95, ’96, ’99, ’12), state Division I Coach-of-the-Year (2000), Wayne Hall- of-Fame Inductee (2010), Alliance Top Gun Hall-of-Fame Inductee (2012), and now Ohio Wrestling Hall-of-Fame Inductee (2017)
Between Ontario, Wayne and Eaton, Silvers has coached 46 tournament championships, 10 league championships, 11 sectional championships, two district championships, 73 individual state qualifiers, 24 individual state placers, six individual state champions and a Division I state team runner-up in 2000.
“I’ve been just real blessed to have the kids that I’ve had the opportunity to work with and then to have the recognition from your fellow coaches to have something like this is pretty special,” he said.
Through all of this, Silvers has been married to his high school sweetheart, Nan, for 38 years. They have three children, Beth, Angie and Tim, two sons-in-law, Josh and Mike, a daughter-in-law, Heather and three grandsons, Asher, Wyatt and Luke.
“Nan and I have made this a team effort all the way through. To say that this is my recognition, it’s like Nan and I being recognized because all of the stuff that she’s done with me, for me, for the teams, for the programs,” he said.
Silvers wrestled four years at Eaton High School, where he graduated in 1974 and continued his wrestling career at Ohio Northern University, where he wrestled for an additional three years.
It was during his senior season at ONU that he began his coaching career at Lima Bath as an assistant coach.
He spent the next seven years at Ontario, two as an assistant coach and five as the head coach.
An opportunity to move closer to home resulted in Silvers taking the Wayne job, where he coached for 15 seasons and his teams had several top 10 finishes at the state tournament.
Silvers completed his journey home when he returned to Eaton in 2001 as the junior high coach. A year later, he took over the reigns over the Eagles program.
In addition to coaching wrestling, Silvers coached football at Wayne and currently serves as an assistant to Eaton’s cross county and track programs.
