Winning continues for Spencerport coach
By Betty Gordon, Democrat and Chronicle

(December 1981) -Sometimes, it must seen to Spencerport wrestling coach Bill Jacoutot like he never left home.

For Jacoutot, one of five wrestling brothers, home use to be Oldbridge, N.J. He was as outstanding wrestler at Madison Central, a hotbed of the sport. Jacoutot says he's found a similar situation at Spencerport.

"It was the No. 1 sport in my town," said Jacoutot. A Madison squad won the team title at the Spencerport tournament in 1976 when Jacoutot's brother was on the wrestling team.

Jacoutot said the Madison team had hoped to compete in this year's tournament, but the boosters couldn't raise the money to finance the trip.

"The people of Spencerport just love wrestling," said Jacoutot, whose team won the invitational tournament last Tuesday with 163 points over St. Edwards of Cleveland, Ohio, which was ranked second in the country.

Jacoutot said, "The superintendent said to me, 'Bill, I know you're a physical education man but the people of our town like to win.' That was music to my ears."

Sections 3's Liverpool, the defending champion, had been one of the pre-tourney favorites and finished third.

"I'm so impressed with the people of Spencerport." Jacoutot said. "The parents cooked steak and eggs at 7:30 the morning of the semifinals (Tuesday). It's a real pleasure to coach at a place like this.

"The first couple of weeks we did a lot of talking," said Jacoutot. (The Rangers defeated Churchville-Chili and Batavia, but lost a close match to Cardinal Mooney.)

"We had some problems with discipline, people coming late to practice," he added. At that time, Jacoutot instituted two-a-day practices.

It must have worked. The Rangers won three overtime matches and six bouts in the last 15 seconds in the tournament.

"It's a credit to our conditioning," Jacoutot said. "You win tournaments that way."

Jacoutot is no stranger to winning. Before coming to Spencerport this year, he coached the Pembroke team to a 34-6-1 record in three years. And he's a former junior college All-American selection from Middlesex Community College in New Jersey.

From there he transferred to the University of Buffalo, where he was the team captain in 1975 when the squad was ranked 14th in the nation.

After graduation, Jacoutot was an assistant for a year at Buffalo.

At Spencerport, he has top-notch assistant coach in Woody Vandenburg, who won the NCAA Division III national title at 167 pounds last year.

"Hopefully we know what we're doing," joked Jacoutot.