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M-S Schools Foundation 2025 Hall of Fame Class
Kyle Kimme 1997
Doug Parrett 1969
Joe Sapp 2003
Wendy Wagner Pierce 2001
Induction date: Friday, Sept.19, 2025
By FRED KRONER
Many ultimate success stories didn’t start out with burgeoning promise.
Mahomet-Seymour graduate Joe Sapp can vouch for that statement.
One of four selections for the M-S Schools Foundation Hall of Fame Class of 2025, Sapp was a multi-sport high school athlete who wrestled in college.
After friends followed his progress during his sixth- and seventh-grade years, they had a question for Sapp.
“They asked me a lot if this was the sport I wanted to do,” recalls Sapp, who graduated from M-S in 2003. “It didn’t look fun from their perspective.”
The question wasn’t unwarranted.
“I was not very good,” Sapp says. “I got pinned almost every match. I don’t remember whether I thought about hanging it up and walking away, but I stuck with it.”
The decision was a wise one.
In three of his final five years wrestling in M-S, Sapp advanced into a state championship match. He placed second as an eighth-grader, as a sophomore and as a senior. His junior year, he took fifth.
In addition to earning four varsity letters in wrestling – all while competing in the 215-pound weight class – Sapp was a two-way starter in football for three years. He was a two-time Corn Belt all-conference first-teamer and landed All-Area honors as a junior (at center) as well as a senior (as a defensive lineman).
Coaches who followed Sapp throughout his teen-age years were not surprised by his success.
“He was a bottomless pit of energy,” recalls Keith Pogue, who coached Sapp in track as well as football. “He had an unbelievable motor and kept going and going.
“That’s hard to do (playing) one way, but as a two-way starter, he was incredible.”
Former Bulldog wrestling coach Rob Porter worked with Sapp during his freshman and sophomore seasons.
“He was a great athlete, and in any sport would have been successful,” Porter says. “With Joe, it was his dedication and leadership.
“He did everything we asked, and more.”
Sapp earned a berth in the Bulldogs’ varsity lineup as a freshman and won 25 matches. In his four-year varsity career, his cumulative record was 140-20.
He was conditioned to last the entire six minutes of a match without letup.
Sapp’s scores at state as a sophomore serve as an illustration. In reaching the title bout, he beat consecutive opponents by scores of 3-2, 5-3 in overtime, and 3-1.
The low-scoring nature of his matches were not by accident.
“Part of that was coaching,” recalls Porter. “When you’re young and big and go to a knee (on a takedown attempt), you lose mobility.
“I taught him not to take a lot of shots, but to make it more of a chess match.”
The strategy was embraced by Sapp.
“For me, I knew if I kept it close, I could stay in matches and beat anyone,” he says. “If you score one more point than the other guy, you can win.”
Sapp credits Porter for much of his development in the sport.
“Rob Porter made it a lot of fun,” Sapp acknowledges. “He helped me get every possible (off-season) match I could. After my freshman year, he took me to tournaments in Tulsa and North Dakota.
“Rob showed you the way. It meant a lot that the coach put in the time and effort. His support meant everything. I knew if you put in the work, you’d get better. That was the key.”
Porter’s attitude was to encourage off-season participation, but not to require it.
“My philosophy was to give kids the opportunity (in national-caliber summer events),” he says, “and if they chose to do it, great, but if not, that was OK also.
“They have a choice to participate. Joe always said, ‘yes.’ He was dedicated to doing what it took to be successful.”
The summer tournaments were imperative in Sapp’s wrestling development.
“When you spend all summer wrestling, you get so many matches in,” he says, “and the more success you have, the harder you want to work.”
Halfway through Sapp’s prep career, Porter resigned to accept a coaching and teaching position in Oregon.
It was devastating news for Sapp.
“When Rob left, that was a tough time for me,” Sapp says. “I remember thinking whether I wanted to move to Oregon or a different school district in Illinois (specifically New Lenox Providence).”
He had conversations with his parents, Chuck and Jane, about his feelings and thoughts.
“They were supportive to my face, but probably realized it was far-fetched,” Joe Sapp says.
His parents felt fortunate that no decision was needed concerning a possible move.
“The odds were better to stay and wrestle here where he was well-known and could get where he wanted rather than what Oregon would have done for him,” Chuck Sapp says. “It’s a major shift, not just for wrestling, but to leave all of his friends.”
The Sapps, however, were willing to leave the door open to the possibilities.
“We had a lot of respect for Rob,” Chuck Sapp says. “If there was someone we would have let Joe move and live with, that would have been the person.
“The individual involved would have given us comfort. Still, it would have been tough, a very difficult decision.”
When M-S confirmed its new wrestling head coach, there was an immediate sense of relief for the Sapps.
The position stayed in the family, with former University of Illinoi coach Tom Porter coming out of retirement to replace his son.
“That sealed the deal (to stay),” Joe Sapp recalls. “I knew it would be a great opportunity to have him as a coach.”
Sapp’s parents had similar sentiments.
“It was an easy transition to have Tom as the choice,” Jane Sapp says.
Rob Porter didn’t learn about the conversations at the Sapp house until decades later. However, for Porter, leaving the school where he had also wrestled was not made lightly.
“If it was not my hardest decision, it was a very tough one,” Rob Porter acknowledges.” One of the biggest reasons was Joe.
“I had a good relationship with him. Leaving kids you’ve become attached to is very, very difficult. I knew he would be OK no matter who was coaching him. It was easy to coach Joe.”
In retrospect, Sapp’s perspective has changed.
“Games are meant to be fun and probably shouldn’t be taken so seriously,” Sapp says. “I hope my son (who will turn 3 in July) takes school seriously and enjoys opportunities with school.
“Building relationships with friends is important.”
After high school, Sapp wrestled collegiately for three years at Northern Illinois University and compiled a 53-46 record at heavyweight for the Huskies, who produced nationally-ranked teams when Sapp was a sophomore and junior in 2005 and 2006.
One of his career highlights was winning three out of three matchups with Northwestern’s Dustin Fox, who went on to become an NCAA heavyweight champion in 2008.
While wrestling was Sapp’s best sport, he made a tremendous impact in football.
“I loved football,” he says. “It was a lot of fun to be out there with the team.”
After sub-.500 seasons when Sapp was a sophomore and junior, the Bulldogs reached the football playoffs his senior year in the fall of 2002.
“Offensively, he was aggressive and a brutal blocker, who played above his weight,” Pogue says. “Defensively, he was impossible to block and demanded a double-team.”
Tom Shallenberger, the M-S football head coach throughout Sapp’s tenure, felt his standout benefited from his participation in other sports.
“He was a powerful young man,” Shallenberger recalls. “He had good feet for a big man and could move. A lot of that had to do with wrestling.
“It helped him a lot. He had good balance.”
Sapp visited multiple colleges and had options for both football and wrestling.
“I considered whether to try football and walkon at Illinois,” Sapp says, “but I didn’t feel the passion for football and felt in wrestling, I could contribute faster.”
Though he considered himself a hard worker in high school – often going to the fieldhouse at night to do extra running – he found the regime at college to be much tougher.
“In high school, you get your conditioning via practice,” Sapp says, “and there’s not a specific lifting schedule.
“In college, you run every morning, then (later in the day), have a lifting session and then practice.”
As Sapp went through college, he was confident in knowing the direction his life would take after his schooling was finished.
“I was a History major and minored in Southeast Asian studies,” Sapp says. “I thought I would teach and coach.”
He had the chance to help coach wrestling at Rochelle High School for one season.
“I enjoyed it, but thought, ‘This isn’t what I want to do,’” Sapp says.
He never pursued the student teaching requirement that he would need to become a certified teacher. That created a dilemma.
“After that, I did not have an idea (about a career path),” he says.
His parents had relocated from Mahomet to New Jersey, so Sapp opted to move east also.
He wasn’t given any preferential treatment when he joined his father’s company, Talley Management Group.
“He started as an intern,” Chuck Sapp says, “and was paid the least amount that anyone was paid.”
Like he did in wrestling while working his way up from a sub-.500 record in junior high to the person who would reach state championship matches three times, Joe Sapp climbed the ladder.
“In 17 years (with the company), he grew to be the President,” Chuck Sapp says.
Under Joe Sapp’s direction, Talley grew and flourished.
“We went from 40 employees to 75 employees the last couple years,” says Sapp, who stepped down as President of Talley at the end of April.
More than two decades after he graduated from high school, Sapp will receive one final recognition when the Hall of Fame ceremonies take place on Sept. 19 prior to the 7 p.m. kickoff of the homecoming football game against Taylorville.
It will be another memorable moment.
“I always looked fondly on my time at Mahomet-Seymour,” Sapp says. “It was so much fun.”
