Mahomet-Seymour Hall of Fame 2023: James Heinold

EDITOR’S NOTE: The Mahomet Daily has been featuring each of the four new selections for the Mahomet Education Foundation Hall of Fame. Today’s final installment,1989 graduate James Heinold.

By FRED KRONER

fred@mahometnews.com

James Heinold worked his way up from the bottom to the top as an athlete at Mahomet-Seymour, winning a wrestling state championship as a senior.

As a multi-sport coach at his alma mater, he was in charge of programs both at the junior high and the high school that repeatedly made an impact at the state level.

As a fifth-grade teacher at Lincoln Trail Elementary School for 28 years, he has worked with and helped mold hundreds of students.

For his overall contributions, Heinold is one of four persons who will be enshrined in the Mahomet Education  Foundation Hall of Fame on Friday, Sept. 22.

The ceremony, scheduled to take place prior to a 7 o’clock high school football game that night between the Bulldogs and Taylorville, will also include 1985 graduate Karl Welke as well as 1992 graduate Dirk Handlin and the late Judy Swiger, a long-time English teacher and drama director in the district.

***

As a wrestler, Heinold started at the ground level, with zero knowledge or background in the sport.

He fancied himself as a basketball player when he entered Mahomet-Seymour Junior High in the fall of 1983.

“My parents (Cheryl and Jim Heinold) grew up in Northern Indiana, so being a transplanted Hoosier at the ripe age of 3, I thought I was going to be a basketball star,” James Heinold said. “I can thank Coach Engstrom for cutting me from the seventh-grade basketball team because I was ‘too small.’”

Wrestling practice was already under way at the junior high, but his friend, Roy VanDeVeer, encouraged him to give it a shot anyway.

“I went home and talked with my parents, and they said, ‘What is that?’” Heinold recalled. “I tried to explain, but I couldn’t because I didn’t really know. At that time, I had never really experienced wrestling other than a unit that they did in PE.

“My parents agreed, so my twin brother, Jason, and I joined the wrestling team together.”

For the majority of the past 40 years, wrestling has been a part of Heinold’s life, either as a competitor or as a coach.

He found joy in the sport from the outset.

“I loved wrestling the moment I stepped on the mat,” Heinold said. “Having permission to grab and throw other kids to the ground was very enticing to me.”

It wasn’t like he was an instant star, but that didn’t matter.

“I think I ended up being third string that year (as a seventh-grader) and the only matches I won were against the other wrestler behind me in my weight class,” Heinold said. “I didn’t care, I knew that I was going to love wrestling.”

Even when he did something wrong and had to be corrected, Heinold wasn’t discouraged. He still vividly recalls his first challenge match and being paired with an eighth-grader. Coach Chuck Rippy was serving as the referee.

“I remember starting the match and I immediately went for my opponent’s head for what I thought was a very legal move,” Heinold said. “Coach Rippy stops the match and awards my opponent one point and I was very confused.

“I ended up losing that challenge match on points. However, Coach Rippy came up to me and said, ‘Son, I really like your aggressiveness, but when you grab the head for a headlock, you need to have an arm, too.’

“That moment is what really sold me on wrestling. His encouragement and the physicality of the sport was too enticing for me to not keep trying.”

Heinold said that Rippy and the other wrestling coaches he had in junior high provided a nurturing and encouraging environment.

“Coach Rippy, Coach (Brad) Stipp and Coach (Tom) Shallenberger were key in developing the interest I had in the sport of wrestling,” Heinold said. “Without their guidance and support as a newbie in seventh- and eighth-grade, I may never have stuck with it.

“They were great advocates and motivators for me early on in wrestling.”

The 1984 M-S Junior High wrestling team finished third in the IESA State Tournament at the end of Heinold’s seventh-grade season.

While growing up, Heinold said, “I played as many different sports as I could.”

That list included baseball, basketball, football, track and field and, ultimately, wrestling.

“Wrestling just seemed the natural sport for me,” Heinold said. “The physicality of the sport was a great outlet for me. In wrestling, I felt like I didn’t have to hold back.

“In basketball, baseball and even football, there was always an end to each play. In wrestling, it was and is continuous movement for four minutes (in junior high) and six minutes (in high school). In other sports, you stop to change players or sides or possession with frequent breaks, rest periods or even sitting the bench.

“In wrestling, it was four or six minutes of constant moving, changing positions, putting moves together, trying to do what you can to get the upper hand against your opponent without any help from a teammate. All the while, your opponent is trying to do that same thing.

“The more physical and conditioned the wrestler, the better chance you had of being the winner. I liked the idea of not needing someone else to be successful.”

Heinold had to pay his dues. With two years of experience by the time he reached high school, he was no longer a novice. Nor was he a mainstay in the varsity lineup immediately.

He was entering a program that was the most successful at the state level during his four years.

“In high school, I felt right at home the moment I entered the room as a freshman,” Heinold said. “All the wrestlers were encouraging and welcomed us freshman and made us feel like we belonged.

“Doug McClellan and Cory Ronk were great role models for me in the wrestling room. Having my twin brother, Jason, there with me every day made the intensity of the sport more bearable.

“There were times that both him and I were miserable, but we were miserable together.”

The Bulldogs, coached by Marty Williams and Jim Risley, won three Class 1A dual-meet state titles (1986, 1988 and 1989) and had one third-place finish (1987) in James Heinold’s four years at M-S High School.

“Coach Risley and Coach Williams were highly encouraging and motivating,” Heinold said. “What I remember most was that I never wanted to disappoint them with a bad performance.

“I never wanted to let my teammates down nor my coaches.”

Williams remembers well the talent level in the wrestling room at the time.

“James only wrestled at the varsity level for two years as he was behind all-staters (such as 119-pound Doug McClellan in 1985 and 126-pound runner-up Corey Ronk in 1987),” Williams said. “So he was ready when his opportunity came around largely because of the competition in the room year in and year out.”

Heinold won 36 of 46 matches as a junior, qualifying for state as a 126-pounder, and went 44-5 as a senior, capturing the Class 1A state crown at 135 pounds. 

His state title wasn’t the first for the family that day. Just before he took the mat, twin brother Jason won the 130-pound Class 1A championship.

The odds were against James Heinold at state, after finishing second the previous week at the sectional tournament.

“Not very many wrestlers have gone on to win the state championship after not winning the sectional,” Williams said. “James was good on his feet and was in great physical shape.

“He and Jason became one of two sets of twins to win the state championship the same year. (It was first done in 1974).”

Three-time state champion Brett Camden – a charter member of the M-S Schools Foundation Hall of Fame – was lighter than Heinold, but he frequently worked out with heavier wrestlers.

“I learned a lot about wrestling from them,” Heinold said. “Mostly how to take a whooping.

“Our program when I was in high school was crazy. We didn’t ever have to rebuild. We just reloaded the lineup with more tough wrestlers. This is what allowed us to be so tough.

“We had just as tough of competition in the room as we did wrestling against other teams. Having this level of talent in our own room allowed us to practice with the best wrestlers day in and day out.

“My teammates that surrounded me both my junior year and senior year were some of the best wrestlers in the state. We pushed each other and we established high expectations for ourselves.”

The benefits were clear once the postseason arrived.

“When you are seeing a high level of competition in the room on a daily basis, you can only improve and get better,” Heinold said. “Without that level of competition in the room, I never would have had the success that I did.

“My success and others’ success was a product of the blood, sweat and tears that we put in on a daily basis in the wrestling room. The culture that Coach Risley and Coach Williams established in our wrestling room was exciting, exhilarating and amazing to be a part of.”

Camden, in particular, was an exemplary role model for Heinold when he was in junior high school.

“Brett Camden was the one that really encouraged me to put more time into the sport,” Heinold said. “He was extremely driven in wrestling, and he put in lots of time into wrestling outside of the regular season.”

Heinold’s senior year ended with two state titles within a week as the Bulldogs prevailed in the Class 1A dual-meet series, upending Tolono Unity in the finals seven days after the conclusion of the individual tournament at the UI Assembly Hall.

The dual-meet series didn’t have a permanent home in the late 1980s, and the 1989 tournament was held in the M-S gymnasium.

“Winning state as a team my senior year was just as exciting as it was my junior year,” Heinold said. “The neat thing about my senior year was that we got to wrestle the state dual team finals at Mahomet in our own gym.

“It was exciting to have five (individual) state champs my senior year, but even more exciting was defending our state championship in our own gym.”

There was a bonus for the Heinold family. A freshman at M-S was a future all-stater, Brian Heinold.

“This (year) was the only time that all three of us were on the same wrestling team together,” James Heinold said. “It was an exciting year all around.”

Heinold didn’t wrestle beyond high school, though he considered it as a college freshman at Purdue.

“I did attend a couple of team meetings at Purdue, but ultimately decided to focus on my academics, and my future wife, Shantille (maiden name Truax, also an M-S graduate) was there as well,” Heinold said. “As a freshman, I was entering their five-year pharmacy program and thought it would be a lot to try and do both (wrestling and class work).”

***

There have been stories about the best-laid plans and how they often go astray.

As his freshman year at Purdue progressed and the high school wrestling season back home was ramping up, Heinold made several trips to Mahomet to watch his younger brother, Brian, compete.

Jim Moxley, who was a Bulldog assistant when James Heinold was a Bulldog senior, sought out his former student.

“Jim Moxley had helped coach me my senior year and he got to walk with me in the Grand March at the state finals,” Heinold recalled. “Moxley asked me if I would be interested in helping him coach junior high wrestling as his assistant.”

Though the offer was intriguing, Heinold turned him down.

“At the time, I wasn’t interested because of pharmacy at Purdue,” he said. “As the second semester was closing out, I wasn’t enjoying the pharmacy program and I was thinking of coming home and enrolling in Parkland.

“Moxley and I played slow-pitch softball together and I decided over the summer that I would help him coach junior high wrestling.”

Heinold’s career path was swiftly moving to a different track.

“That fall (of 1990), I started working at the Children’s Unit at the Carle Pavilion,” Heinold said. “I really enjoyed my experience of working with kids at the Pavilion, and wrestling.

“I wanted to try a profession with children.”

He entertained thoughts of becoming a psychologist because “I loved my experiences at the Pavilion and the psychology classes at Parkland,” he said.

Moxley helped re-direct Heinold.

“One day, Moxley said that I should take some education classes at Parkland and think about teaching,” Heinold said. “I observed him and another teacher and loved it.”

He completed his associate’s degree at Parkland, enrolled at Eastern Illinois and married Shantille.

While working to earn his teaching degree, he was doing plenty of other work.

“During this time, I was working nights at the Pavilion, going to school full-time at Eastern, commuting from Mahomet, and coaching wrestling at the junior high in Mahomet with Jim Moxley,” Heinold said. “I was all in with teaching and coaching at this point.”

He completed his bachelor’s degree at EIU in December, 1994, and soon had more responsibilities.

“The spring before my first teaching job, my first daughter, Vanessa, was born,” Heinold said.

To help make ends meet, he was substitute teaching and working part-time as a custodian at Lincoln Trail during the winter of 1995 until former principal Lee Jessup offered him a full-time position for the fall of 1995.

Twenty eight years later, he is still in the building as a fifth-grade teacher.

He was close, however, to not being part of the M-S faculty.

“Having a newborn, I needed a job,” Heinold said. “I was planning on teaching at the Pavilion unless I found a teaching job in Mahomet.

“I remember Lee Jessup telling me to not take the job right away. He thought there might be an opening coming in August of 1995. I put the Pavilion job on hold and I was hired as the eighth section of fifth grade at Lincoln Trail for the 1995-96 school year.”

Moxley’s influence helped Heinold pick the grade level he would teach throughout his professional career.

“Watching him as an elementary teacher and how he interacted with kids in his class really inspired me to stick with elementary,” Heinold said. “I also had a grandmother (Marilyn Heinold) and an aunt (Becky Heinold) that were elementary teachers. “

There were other educators in his family as well. An uncle (Mike Heinold) taught for a time and his grandfather (Virgil Collins) was a principal.

“My aunt and grandma were both elementary teachers and they were influential and helpful early on in my career,” James Heinold added. “Both of them were extremely patient and kind.

“I remember them both being patient, but I knew when I pushed the limits because their teacher voice came out and I knew when enough was enough.”

James Heinold expressed a preference for teaching at Lincoln Trail even before he was offered his first full-time classroom  position.

“When I did subbing, I did a lot of sub jobs at Lincoln Trail,” he said. “All of my interactions at Lincoln Trail were awesome.

“This also helped push me to elementary. I won’t admit it, but it is nice being taller than ‘most’ of your students.”

He learned early-on the formula for success.

“I think the big trick to working with fifth-graders is to make connections with them,” Heinold said. “Talk with them, ask them what they are doing outside of school. They like knowing that you are interested in what they are doing outside of school.”

As a coach, the connections also included talking about the sports his students could consider in their future years.

“Having taught fifth grade has really helped me to encourage kids to try wrestling, softball and other sports,” Heinold said. “I also let them know that I did band and chorus all the way through high school, and they think I am lying.

“Letting them know that you care about them as individuals really goes a long way.”

Williams said many of the traits that led to success for Heinold as an athlete are equally responsible for his success in the classroom.

“James was a pretty level-headed kid, very competitive and tough,” Williams said. “He also played football (as a 145-pound running back), ran track and was in the Marching Band.

“Great role model, smart, great work ethic and a good sense of humor.  All things you would want your coach and teacher to have. I am happy he has dedicated himself to that vocation.

“We are lucky to have such a great role model leading our kids. His rapport with the student-athletes gives them the confidence to work hard and not be afraid to fail along the way because they know he has their backs.”

It was all because of wrestling that Heinold eventually found himself in the classroom.

“Teaching really wasn’t on my radar until I started coaching, but there are some teachers that really influenced me early on in my career,” he said. “Pat Porter, Kari Calcagno, Joan Jordan, Carole Chapman, Linda Meachum, Nancy McCartney and Renae Leffler really helped me out early in my career.

“I was surrounded by some of the most amazing teachers when I started.”

Though the names of his colleagues have changed over the years, the atmosphere has not.

“Today, I am still surrounded by the most amazing teachers,” Heinold continued. “Every single one of my colleagues are amazing and I love coming to work every day because of them.

“Being a teacher has been so rewarding. I love those ‘AHA’ moments that students get when something they didn’t understand suddenly makes sense.

“For 28 years I have woken up and been excited to go to work and try to have a positive impact on those around me. I can’t remember a time when I didn’t want to go to work. The kids at Lincoln Trail have been amazing and are still amazing.”

One of his colleagues is Ben Herriott, a fellow fifth-grade teacher.

“James is a teacher and a coach who leads by example,” Herriott said. “He has a calm and cool demeanor to the ways he approaches his classroom and the teams he coaches.

“The kids love and respect him and appreciate his sense of humor. As a colleague, James is often my go-to when I am in need of anything – information, advice, or a good laugh.”

Besides the time Heinold has devoted to teaching and coaching, he has served as the MSEA President and Co-President for several years.

“His leadership, character and wisdom that he brings to that role has also been so appreciated and respected by his colleagues and also by the school board,” Herriott added.

“School is a big part of James’s life, but it is clear he is a family man. When his wife, Shantille, used to work here at Lincoln Trail, I always enjoyed seeing their relationship and how much joy they brought to each other and how they joked with one another.”

From Herriott’s perspective, Heinold doesn’t neglect family responsibilities.

“I remember James taking care of his grandma when she needed some assistance,” Herriott said. “He’d help run errands or just check in sometimes during his lunch break.

“James is also an amazing husband, dad, and grandpa. You can see the pride in his eyes when he shares stories about his kids and grandkids.”

Herriott calls Heinold the epitome of the kind of person that is deserving of Hall of Fame recognition.

“James has made a positive impact on the Mahomet-Seymour community for as long as I can remember,” Herriott said. “I really feel blessed that his life journey and my life journey have interlaced in different ways.

“I know I’m better for it.”

***

Heinold’s qualifications as an athlete and as a classroom instructor have been well-documented.

The third part of the impressive equation is the ‘Coach Heinold’ element.

His tenure and success in that area alone are sufficient credentials for his honor.

Heinold was the assistant wrestling coach at Mahomet-Seymour Junior High from 1991-99.

During that span, the junior high won four state championships and three state runner-up trophies as well as one fourth-place trophy.

During those years, M-S had 102 state qualifiers and 45 state place-winners, including 15 who were individual champions.

He has served two stints as the junior high head wrestling coach: from 1999-2009 and from 2012-now.

He has guided M-S Junior High to one team state championship, two state runner-up finishes, two third-place finishes and two fourth-place team trophies.

During that two-decade-plus span, he has coached 143 state qualifiers and 59 state place-winners, including 19 individual state champions.

Heinold also took over the high school girls’ softball program in 2022 and directed his first team to a school-record win total (27-7) and the schools’s first-ever state trophy in softball (fourth place in Class 3A).

He has also coached both softball and track and field at the junior team, with his softball teams also advancing to state.

The complete rundown

 – 30 years coaching junior high wrestling, as either an assistant or head coach;

 – high school JV softball coach for five years;

 – high school varsity softball for two years;

 – junior high softball for 15 years;

 – junior high track and field for eight years.

Though the numbers are there, Heinold doesn’t dwell on the won-lost record or the number of championships.

They are secondary to his main goal.

“I think you need to be able to relate to your students/athletes,” he said. “They need to know that you care about them as individuals.

“If there is one thing that I want to stress to my students/athletes more than anything is that it is okay to fail.

“It is the dedication to learning and improving that is most important. Taking risks and failing is a must to be successful.

“Being there to help students/athletes get back up after they fail and support them as much as you can to be successful is very important for teachers and coaches.”

Heinold calls coaching a true learning experience.

“I have learned so much more about all the sports I have coached than I ever knew when I participated,” he said. “The biggest difference is that I need to be able to break things down for the athletes so that we can make improvements on skill level in order to be successful.

“As an athlete, it is easy to just do it if you pick things up quickly. The athlete is focused on themselves. As a coach, we have to make sure that everyone is picking up the details.

“Athletes are living in the moment. Coaches are planning for the future. As a coach, I have to plan for the postseason and the next season, and see what I need to do to develop, encourage and support all of my players.

“As an athlete, my focus is on what I can do to be better and more successful. I think that the biggest shift in perspective is having to focus on everyone’s performance, evaluate what needs to be done next and then find a way to implement a strategy for improvement.”

His coaching style, he said, is not patterned after any one individual, but includes parts from the coaches he had.

“Every single one of my coaches have impacted me one way or another,” Heinold said. “My coaching style is a combination of all the coaches that I have had.

“I had some great coaches in Jim Risley, Marty Williams, Tom Shallenberger, Jim Moxley, Frank Dutton, Brad Stipp, and Chuck Rippy.

“They all influenced me and have helped me become the coach that I am today.”

The impact of Moxley and Risley, especially, can be seen even today.

“Moxley taught me how to coach and work with athletes on a day-to-day basis,” Heinold said. “Working with him during wrestling was instrumental in my development as a teacher and a coach.

“Risley was and is one of the most patient people I have ever been around. He taught me how to motivate others and that all members of a team are important.

“I think in order to be a successful teacher and coach you need to know how to motivate in order to get the most out of your students/athletes.”

Coincidentally, Risley had the assignment of informing Heinold about his Hall-of-Fame selection.

“I was speechless,” Heinold said. “My whole life, I have been surrounded by amazing teachers, coaches, and teammates.

“My first reaction was to think that there are people that are more deserving than me for this recognition.

“I am extremely honored to get this recognition and I think about all the people that have helped me along the way. I couldn’t or wouldn’t have accomplished half of what I have accomplished without surrounding myself with great coaches, teammates and the most supportive family that a person could ask for.”

The hours that are asked of a coach, from after-school practices, to evening events and summer duties can be overwhelming for many families. Heinold is thankful for his family’s support.

“My family has sacrificed a lot over the years that I have been coaching,” he said. “This makes all of the practices, full-out wrestling matches in my parents’ living room, cutting weight, riding buses for over half my life, early bus times well worth it.

“Besides my awesome parents (Jim and Cheryl Heinold), there is one person that has been by my side through all of this. My amazing wife, Shantille. She has been there for the best times and she has been there during the worst times.

“She has supported me as an athlete (and is a former M-S wrestling Pin Pal) and has continued to do that through my coaching career. She has been my rock. Without her, none of this would be possible.”

Williams remembers that Heinold’s parents were instrumental supporters when their children wrestled.

“Always willing to help with all that we needed in terms of assistance with the tournaments and exchanges that we hosted,” Williams recalled. “Not to mention the out of state camps that the boys attended and wrestling meets in the Chicagoland area the kids attended.”

James and Shantille Heinold have four children: Vanessa, Sabrina, Braeden and Camden.

“I have gotten the luxury of coaching all of them at the junior high level at some point (both daughters in softball and track; both sons in wrestling).”

Their experience was enjoyable enough that they returned after graduation.

“One interesting tidbit is that I have had the pleasure of coaching with my daughter Vanessa in softball and my son Braeden in wrestling,” James Heinold said. “My family means the world to me and their support has been nothing short of amazing.”

Heinold’s Hall of Fame induction will take place in approximately four months, but it won’t be his last hurrah. There are still more children to teach and more young athletes to coach.