Emporia High is putting its storied wrestling program in the hands of a coach with a proven track record of winning.
EHS announced the hiring this morning of Dennis Charbonneau, who will become Emporia’s head coach after 13 years running the Clay Center program. Charbonneau’s Clay Center teams have won Class 4A State titles in four of the past eight years, including back-to-back titles in 2007 and 2008. The Tigers finished as the 4A runner-up to Colby this past season.
“He’s done a wonderful job,” Emporia athletic director Britton Hart said. “Obviously, he builds great relationships with kids. With those relationships, obviously, he has high expectations and gets as much as he can out of his kids on the mat and in the classroom.”
Before joining Clay Center in 1997, Charbonneau coached at Anderson County for seven years. In his 20 years of coaching, his teams have always finished in the top eight at State. Charbonneau won three State titles as a wrestler at Clay Center and graduated from Fort Hays State in 1989.
Hart said there were 10 to 12 applicants for the head coaching position, and the school interviewed four.
“He provides the support and the consistency that I think our kids deserve here at Emporia High School,” Hart said. “With the tradition that we have, I think it’s important that he was a good fit for what we were looking for, to not just maintain, but to move us forward in the program that we already have.”
Charbonneau will teach chemistry and physics at EHS. In inheriting the defending Class 5A State champions, Charbonneau will replace Greg Buckbee, who resigned last week to take the head coaching job at Arkansas City.
Hart also announced that EHS assistant coach Ryan Karjala will be leaving the wrestling staff after taking a job in the district’s central office. Hart said Karjala was part of the process of hiring the new coach.