Whitnall Hall of Fame Wrestling Coach Earns 500th Career Victory

Longtime Whitnall High School wrestling coach John Quinlan earned his 500th career coaching victory when his Falcons defeated visiting Woodland Conference rival Wauwatosa, 35-31, Thursday.

“The entire Whitnall community is happy for Coach Quinlan and proud of his milestone victory,” said Scott Bruening, Whitnall’s athletic director. “While I’m sure he’d pass on all the credit to his wrestlers, 500 wins says a lot about the kind of passion and determination Coach Quinlan has for his athletes and program.

“Whitnall is fortunate to have had him lead the way for 30 years.”

Quinlan joined the Whitnall program in 1984 as a varsity assistant coach, but the head coach resigned four practices into the season and the then-20-year-old Quinlan was in charge. Since then, Quinlan’s teams have won 18 conference titles, more than three dozen tournament titles and seven WIAA regional championships.

Under Quinlan, who is the program’s co-head coach along with Craig Austin, the Falcons have had 97 individual conference champions, 66 state qualifiers and 10 state place-winners.

Quinlan was inducted into the Wisconsin Wrestling Coaches Association Hall of Fame in November 2012.