(courtesy Appalachian Sports Information)JohnMark Bentley, an assistant coach the past three seasons, will become Appalachian State University’s head wrestling coach for the 2009-10 season. Bentley replaces Paul Mance, who spent the past 33 years as ASU’s head coach.
“We’re grateful for Coach Mance’s years of service to Appalachian as a student-athlete and coach and wish him nothing but the best in hisfuture endeavors,” ASU director of athletics Charlie Cobb said. “We are very excited about Coach Bentley taking the reins of the program and look forward to him leading us to more championships in the future.”
Bentley arrived at Appalachian in 2006 after spending three years as the head coach at nearby Watauga High School. In his final season with thePioneers, he led the squad to a third-place finish in the North Carolina state championship and coached three individual state champions.
He began his coaching career as an assistant at Davidson in 2002-03.Bentley was a three-time Atlantic Coast Conference champion wrestler at North Carolina from 1997-2001. He was the ACC Wrestler of the Year as a senior and a University Nationals freestyle all-American as a junior. He graduated from UNC with a bachelor’s degree in communications in 2001.
JohnMark, the son of Paul and Rita Bentley of Newland, was one of the most decorated prep athletes in the 40-year history of Avery County High School. A 1997 graduate, he was rated the #2 recruit in the nation at 135 lbs. by Amateur Wrestling News in 1997, and was the 1997 national high school champion at 130 lbs.
He posted a career record of 144-0 at Avery and was only the second wrestler in N.C. prep history to both finish his career undefeated and win four state titles. He was a two-time ASICS Tiger All-America, a member of the USA Dream Team at 145 lbs., was N.C. State Wrestling Tournament Most Outstanding Wrestler, and was a two-time Academic All-America as well as Pepsi Cola Scholar Athlete.
