HOWLAND, Maine — Gerald Hutchinson Jr. was busy Saturday doing what’s been routine for him for decades — organizing a wrestling meet.
What the former coach and current athletic administrator at Penobscot Valley High School didn’t know was what awaited him during a break at the Hichborn Youth Wrestling Tournament.
“Hutch” was about to be welcomed into the New England Secondary School Principals’ Associations Wrestling Hall of Fame.
A gym full of young wrestlers and their parents, Hutchinson’s family and friends and many of his former wrestlers were on hand to honor the longtime coach, who was still unaware his official induction had come three weeks earlier during the 52nd annual New England Interscholastic Wrestling Championships at East Providence, Rhode Island.
The surprise of it all and the hometown feel of the ceremony made it all the more memorable for Hutchinson, who led the Howlers to a 514-140-7 record during a quarter-century tenure as head coach that ended in 2010 and featured a dynastic run of five consecutive Class C state championships and more than 90 straight dual-meet victories from 1991 through 1995.
“It was a total shock, no one told me I made it,” said Hutchinson. “I told my wife, [Patricia], afterward that this meant a lot more to me with it being at home, and some of those guys who were here for it I hadn’t seen in years.
“It was very nice, and the first time anybody had pulled anything like that over me. My wife knew, my family knew, everybody knew. I just came that day, and we were running a junior high tournament. We had 200 kids here, and the place was packed. I didn’t have a clue.”
Hutchinson, who was inducted into the Maine Amataur Wrestling Alliance Hall of Fame in 2015, knew he had been nominated for the New England hall and had made preparations to attend that event if necessary.
“We had rooms and everything if I had got in, but somebody dropped the ball and no one informed me so we didn’t go,” said Hutchinson.
Fellow Penobscot Valley Conference coach Luis Ayala of Foxcroft Academy in Dover-Foxcroft, who had three wrestlers competing in the New England championships, attended the banquet where the hall of fame inductees were announced, and after Hutchinson’s name was announced and no one was there to accept the award, he offered to bring it back to Maine.
Ayala then contacted Penobscot Valley wrestling coach Chris Sirois — a three-time individual state champion under Hutchinson’s guidance from 1994 through 1996 — and soon the plot was hatched for the surprise ceremony.
“I didn’t let anyone know until the week before because if I had started letting people know, he’d have found out,” Sirois said. “He knows a lot of people, and somebody would have said something or congratulated him without even thinking about it.”
Sirois did let Hutchinson’s wife in on the secret and invited many former PVHS wrestlers — a roster that included 25 different individual state champions.
A healthy number of those wrestlers turned out to honor their mentor.
“A lot of them had kids in the tournament, so they were here anyway,” said Hutchinson. “But I was running the tournament, so I was busy and I didn’t see any of them walking around other than the guys I knew were coaching.
“Then when they all came walking out, I couldn’t believe it. It was really awesome,” he said.
When Sirois arrived at the gym earlier in the day, he wasn’t sure his former coach didn’t already know about the plan.
“Hutch always dresses nice, but he was dressed up,” said Sirois. “He wasn’t dressed to work all day like he usually is, he had khaki pants and a nice sweater on, so I thought, ‘He knows something.’”
But he didn’t, having no idea what was to come when Sirois came up to Hutchinson and requested a brief intermission in the daylong tournament.
“He said, ‘What do we need a break for?,’” said Sirois. “And I said to just not put any more matches on out there because I had an announcement to make.”
Soon Hutchinson was surrounded by former wrestlers and family members, all sharing in a moment marking a storied coaching career.
Hutchinson became the fourth Mainer named to the New England Secondary School Principals’ Associations Wrestling Hall of Fame, joining former University of Southern Maine coach Ted Reese, legendary Belfast Area High School coach Ted Heroux, and former Winslow coach Wally LaFountain, one of the founders of the Maine-Nebraska Friendship Series.
“I think it meant more to Hutch having it here than going to Rhode Island and getting it in front of fans and people he didn’t know, even though those people would have respected him for what he did and how much work he put in to make it into the hall of fame,” said Sirois.
“I know he was legitimately surprised.”
