Kevin Timothy Gilligan was born in Washington, D.C. on April 14, 1978. He grew up in Bryans Road, Md.,graduating among the top 5 in his class from Lackey High School in 1996, and received his Bachelor of Arts in Education from Salisbury State University graduating Suma Cum Laude in December of 1999.
Gilligan began his teaching career in Berlin, Md. at Stephen Decatur High School in 2000, spending the next dozen years as head coach of the wrestling team as well as serving as defensive coordinator for the football team, helping to build both programs into top-tier programs in Maryland.
During the summer of 2011, Gilligan became a teacher and the head wrestling Coach at Huntingtown High School in Calvert County, Maryland. Over the next 7 years, Kevin built the wrestling program into one of the winningest teams in the state and the most successful athletic program in the school.
Success can be measured in ways beyond won-loss records, as evidenced by the impact Kevin Gilligan had on his wrestlers and his students.
Trevor Rickett had no plans of wrestling when he entered Stephen Decatur High School in 2003 ... but at his father's insistence, Rickett went out for the sport, and built a lifelong bond with coach Kevin Gilligan.
"He made kids believe in themselves," Rickett said to delmarvanow.com. "He was good at taking kids who had no experience and making them believe they could take on the best (wrestlers) in the state. He would take kids who weren't doing good in school, put them in a room and change their lives completely."
"For me he was everything," Tristan Ramberg, a 2015 Huntingtown graduate who had never wrestled prior to high school but finished his Hurricanes career as a state finalist and now wrestles at Missouri Valley College.
"He got me into the sport that took me to college, where I'm going to graduate with a degree," Ramberg told the Calvert Recorder. He just affected everybody positively. The wrestling teams I was on at Huntingtown were more than teammates. We were brothers..."
"It's real hard for me. ... He took me to hundreds of wrestling tournaments over summers just to make me better because that's the kind of guy he was. He just cared about everyone."
Gino Sita told of how coach Gilligan helped transform Huntingtown's Dalonte Holland into a 2014 Maryland state champ at 285 pounds.
"He was able to turn a brand-new kid who had never been in the sport into a state champ in two years, and I've seen it with Dalonte Holland," said Sita. "Gill has a coaching style to where not only would you get better if you were experienced, but the people who don't know anything will learn. It's never a bad thing to go over the basics again and make sure you perfect it. That's what he was always trying to make sure people understood. The basics win the matches. That's what we went over every day in practice, the basic moves to get the wins. By doing that all the new wrestlers were able to learn and get caught up within weeks."
Rich Pauole, La Plata athletic director, described Gilligan as one of his best friends growing up. The two even roomed together at college.
"Kevin devoted his adult life to students and athletes providing a family atmosphere that started at home and continued on through our high school and college days," Pauole told the Calvert Recorder. "His mentorship provided his student-athletes with the will to be the best and outwork the competition. He was a selfless man, father, son, coach, teacher and friend. I will miss him dearly and his legacy will be carried on by his family as well as his former students and athletes."
Kevin Gilligan is survived by his parents Stephen and Patricia, his siblings Mary Gilligan, Travis Gilligan, Stephen Gilligan, and Molly Wilson, his children Kaela Gilligan and Michael Gilligan, his sister in-law Debi Gilligan (Travis), his brother in-law Zach Wilson (Molly), his three nieces Adrienne Gilligan, Brooklyn Wilson, and Moira Wilson, his nephew in-law Jason Smith (Adrienne), and dear friend Tracey Dolina.
Visitation will be held for family and friends on Thursday, July 5 from 5-8 p.m. at Arehart-Echols Funeral Home in La Plata, Md. A funeral mass will follow on Friday, July 6 at 10 a.m. at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in La Plata. In lieu of flowers, the family is asking for contributions to be made to an educational fund that will be set up to help pay for his children's college education.
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