Head Wrestling Coach

Stephen Decatur and MacArthur High School

Inducted 1/28/2022

McLaughlin was a coach in the district for 18 years, with both the Stephen Decatur and MacArthur wrestling programs experiencing success under his tutelage. He was a four-time H&R Macon County Coach of the Year — twice at Stephen Decatur and twice at MacArthur.
A history teacher in the district, McLaughlin began as an assistant for the Stephen Decatur wrestling team in 1972 under Terry Simmons. He became head coach in 1977 and, using a formula of facing tough competition in the regular season to prepare for the postseason, won three district titles in three years despite a 9-32 dual record.
“We start the season inexperienced … we try to wrestle strong teams to gain experience. Then we seem to peak at district time, and that’s probably because we’re used to the tough competitions,” McLaughlin told the H&R in 1980 when he won his first coach of the year award.
That season, Stephen Decatur’s Eric Smith made state despite entering the postseason with a record barely over .500.
Led by Rod Perry and Scott Mitchell — Perry reached the quarterfinals and Mitchell took fourth — the Runnin’ Reds had another outstanding season in 1984, giving McLaughlin his second coach of the year award.
But McLaughlin’s teaching job was transferred to a new school that year — MacArthur — and because recruiting the hallways was such a big part of his success, he resigned from Stephen Decatur and became the Generals’ coach in 1985.
It took McLauglin two seasons to turn the program around. In the 1987-88 season, MacArthur had nine sectional qualifiers and earned McLaughlin another coach of the year award, and he repeated the next season behind a talented group led by state qualifiers Nathan Fonville, Dion Simmons and Dan Forgey.
In 1990, Simmons finished third at state — the best individual finisher for a wrestler coached by McLaughlin — but that would be McLaughlin’s final season. An assistant coach at MacArthur in football previously, McLaughlin stepped into the college coaching world as an assistant football coach at Millikin in the 1990 season.
McLaughlin, who remained a history teacher in the district until his retirement, died in December of 2020.