Adam Coon was the lone Junior Triple Crown winner this year (Photo/John Sachs, Tech-Fall.com)According to Adam Coon's father Dan Coon, who serves as the head wrestling coach and track coach at Fowlerville, his 17-year-old son's decision to choose wrestling over football was not an easy one.
"It was a very difficult decision for him," said Dan Coon. "He has not completely given up on playing football again. Stephen Neal is one of our heroes, a great heavyweight wrestler who played football later on. So that's always in the back of his mind. So he's open to playing football later on if wrestling doesn't work out."
The 6-foot-5, 260-pound Coon was recruited by several Division I programs for football, including Big Ten programs Michigan State (where his mother earned her master's degree), Northwestern, and Wisconsin.
Ultimately, Coon chose to stay in his home state and wrestle at Michigan in Ann Arbor, which is just a 40-minute drive from his parents' home in Fowlerville. He plans to major in aerospace engineering.
"The biggest part is that Mom wants him close to home," said Dan Coon of his son's decision to commit to Michigan. "Mom has always been a great supporter of him. Adam does appreciate the family support. Being closer to home we feel like we can give him that support."
Coon's mother Dana has never missed one of her son's high school wrestling matches or high school football games.
Adam Coon defeated Donte Winfield in the Junior National freestyle finals (Photo/Dave Jedlicka, jedicheetah.com)"He had a lot of options," said Dan Coon. "That's the gift he has. A lot of kids don't have all the options that he had. So he had to sort things out. We did a lot of pros and cons.
"It's been a great recruiting process. The coaches have been great. I have learned an awful lot through this process. There are a lot of great coaches out there in wrestling. I think that's why I love the sport so much myself."
Coon is the third highly ranked recruit from the Class of 2013 that Michigan has landed. The other two are Ben Whitford (St. Johns, Mich.) and Brian Murphy (Glenbard North, Ill.), ranked fourth and 11th overall respectively in the Class of 2013.
Coon's father said there were discussions with the Michigan coaches during the recruiting process about whether Coon will wrestle or redshirt during his first year in Ann Arbor, but that it's still up in the air.
"They'll see what the early workouts look like, and see if he's going to be the man or just a big boy. Heavyweight is very competitive, especially in the Big Ten right now. Will he have that man-strength that he's going to need to be able to compete at heavyweight right away? It's going to come down to what he's ready for."
Coon has put together a strong spring and summer on the mat, winning FILA Junior Nationals in Greco-Roman, along with a Triple Crown on the Junior level. According to his father, Coon hopes to have an even stronger spring and summer next year.
"Five stop signs is what the goal is for next year," said Dan Coon. "We got four this year. We'll go for five next year."
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