Kiski Area working toward constructing new wrestling room named in honor of legendary coach Tursky

By: Michael Love
Tuesday, January 14, 2025 | 1:39 AM

Purchase Photo Options

Previous Next

Chris Heater, while guiding his Kiski Area boys wrestling team through the 2024-25 season, also is counting down the days to the start of construction of the Chuck Tursky Wrestling Training Center at Kiski Area High School.

Heater said the project, which will revamp a vast auxiliary athletic space near the current wrestling room with a new 70-by-42 square-foot wrestling room and a 16-by-16 coaches room, will benefit many young wrestlers in the Kiski Area program now and in the future while also honoring a Cavaliers coaching legend.

“We can’t wait to get this started,” he said. “We hope construction will begin in April with completion by the middle of the summer. There is a lot of work still to be done.”

Heater said several people went to school board meetings and asked the board to consider naming the gym or some other place after Tursky, the all-time winningest WPIAL wrestling coach with a 505-143-2 record and two WPIAL titles. His 2003 Cavaliers team finished as PIAA runner-up.

“Working with Chad Roland, who, at the time, was our building principal and is now the assistant to the superintendent, we were in agreement that it would be a nicer concept if we could create a new wrestling room, which we desperately need for the size of our program and the continued success that we have,” Heater said.

“What better facility or space would there be to name after coach Tursky and honor all that he has done for Kiski wrestling?

“That auxiliary space doesn’t get used as much as it used to. It’s kind of died down, and that was part of the reason for the board being OK with us taking over that space. We use it more than anybody.”

During the winter, the space is covered with mats for junior high practices. The girls practice on the other side of a divider.

Heater said the 22-foot ceilings will remain while utilizing the existing framework of the space below. A new HVAC system with a dehumidifier to keep the air pure also will be installed.

With what the wrestling program will use out of the 100-by-50 auxiliary space, it will leave 30-by-50 square feet of open space that Heater said still will be utilized for different things such as practices and workouts for other sports.

A hallway that will pass the wrestling room will lead to that extra space.

The project comes with an estimated price tag of $250,000, and Heater said the school district will not have to pay for anything.

Fundraising by the various Kiski wrestling programs along with private donations will cover the expenses.

“Once we got approved to take over that space, we started to navigate the scale of what we were trying to do,” Heater said.

“We’ve been reaching out to alumni, people who we consider friends of the program who have always been supporters and also local businesses. In the process of doing all that, we received word from someone who is close to Chuck and who is a successful businessman who is a match donor. He offered to cut our fundraising efforts in half by matching what we raise. Our goal now is $125,000, and he’ll match that. We are so grateful for that.”

Heater said approximately $80,000 has been pledged out of the $125,000 total.

“The sooner we can hit our target, the better,” he said.

Kiski wrestling, from the elementary level on up to varsity, has raised almost $30,000 which has gone directly to the training center fund.

“We’re closing in,” Heater said. “It’s been a little crazy at times, but it is awesome to see how everyone is on board and dedicated to us reaching our goals.”

Heater said those wishing to donate can make checks payable to “Kiski Area Wrestling” and send them to the Kiski Area Wrestling Boosters, c/o Mandy Pollick, 1082 State Route 356, Leechburg, PA, 15656, or Chris Heater at 1119 Highland Ave., Vandergrift, PA, 15690.

Heater stressed that 100% of the donation goes to the project fund.

“This has been a fun process, too, because it’s given me the opportunity to connect and reconnect with so many alumni,” Heater said. “The alumni support has been great. We have received a big variety of donations. We’re thankful for anything anyone can contribute.”

Heater said once the construction gets going, people also will donate materials and services at times, which also will help in cutting the cost.

“Some of that is coming from alumni who have careers or are in positions with their jobs that they can help us in that way that is outside of them just sending us a check,” he said.

The current 41-by-41 wrestling room, Heater said, will remain a wrestling space.

“Whether it’s the junior high or the girls team, one of them can use that as another practice space,” he said. “All of the banners, photos, and everything on the walls will get moved out of there and into the new room. That existing room will get repainted and cleaned up.

“We’re really excited about this and with how the numbers in our program right now are as good as they’ve been. We have 116 kids in our elementary program. We had 54 sign up for our junior high program, and they currently have something like 47 or 48. The girls program has grown from last year to this year and their skill level across the board has skyrocketed. My numbers (varsity and JV) are in the upper 20s. That is really good. We have a lot of kids who are going to benefit.”

Coach Tursky remains involved with the programs as he helps out one day a week.

“Obviously, next year, we should be in that space, and he will get to come in there and see his name on the padded back wall of the room,” Heater said. “That is going to be there forever, just like Chuck’s lasting impact on this program.”

Heater said that when the work on the training center is completed, he hopes everyone can come together for a grand-opening type celebration.

“We would like everyone who helped contribute to the project have the opportunity to come together and enjoy the new space,” he said.

Heater said a plan also is in the works to recognize those donors with their names displayed in some manner on a wall somewhere in the facility.

Former athletic director John Peterman, Heater said, lent his guidance and experience in the genesis of this project, and he said new AD Jake Nulph has provided similar energy toward a successful outcome.

“From an individual who has wrestled in the elementary program at Kiski Area and who knows Coach Tursky personally, I grew up with Kiski wrestling and its culture,” Nulph said.

“When I was hired here and found out coach Heater and the wrestling program was doing the project, I got so excited. It is a well-deserved facility which will be named for a first-class human being and, obviously, a tremendous coach. It speaks to the volume of success coach Tursky had and the impact he had on the lives of all of his student-athletes.”

Michael Love is a TribLive reporter covering sports in the Alle-Kiski Valley and the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh. A Clearfield native and a graduate of Westminster (Pa.), he joined the Trib in 2002 after spending five years at the Clearfield Progress. He can be reached at mlove@triblive.com.

Tags: Kiski Area