{"id":324,"date":"2019-07-18T20:09:36","date_gmt":"2019-07-19T01:09:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mendelchs.org\/hof\/?p=324"},"modified":"2023-11-10T08:05:35","modified_gmt":"2023-11-10T14:05:35","slug":"donald-ledin-educator-and-coach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mendelchs.org\/hof\/donald-ledin-educator-and-coach\/","title":{"rendered":"Donald Ledin Educator and Coach"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"331\" height=\"524\" src=\"https:\/\/mendelchs.org\/hof\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/07\/ledin.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-694\" style=\"width:235px;height:372px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mendelchs.org\/hof\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/07\/ledin.jpg 331w, https:\/\/mendelchs.org\/hof\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/07\/ledin-190x300.jpg 190w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 331px) 100vw, 331px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Don\nLedin began his coaching career as assistant wrestling coach at Mendel in 1966\nand was a head wrestling coach for 30 years.&nbsp; Don learned much from his\nmentor, the legendary Mendel wrestling coach Lou Guida who led Mendel to 5\nconsecutive Chicago Catholic League Varsity Wrestling Titles and a 99 win streak\nrecord, which still stands. While serving as an assistant, Don spear-headed\nMendel to 4 consecutive Frosh-Soph Catholic League Titles. Don led Mendel in\n1971 to its 6<sup>th<\/sup> Varsity Wrestling Championship and the All-Chicago\nHigh School Wrestling Championship, Mendel\u2019s 1<sup>st<\/sup> and only All-Chicago\nWrestling Title. In 1977, he made history by leading Mendel to its 7<sup>th<\/sup>\nVarsity Wrestling Championship. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He is\nthe 1<sup>st<\/sup> wrestling coach at Mendel to place his wrestlers in state\nchampionship matches. Under his leadership Mendel brought home its 2<sup>nd<\/sup>\nIHSA State Wrestling Tournament victory when James Sheppard became Mendel\u2019s 1<sup>st<\/sup>\nregional wrestling champion in 1976 and was then followed by a 3<sup>rd<\/sup>\nplace finish in the heavyweight division at the 1977 IHSA State Wrestling\nTournament by All-American Greg Smith. Don Ledin was responsible for some 100\nMendel wrestlers becoming repeat weight division champions and he produced 30\nregional and sectional champion wrestlers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In\naddition to coaching at Mendel, he coached at Corliss, Kennedy, Simeon, and St.\nLaurence High Schools. He was named 2002 Coach of the Year while at Simeon.&nbsp;\nDon kept his IHSA certification as an official for seventeen years.&nbsp;He\nofficiated at three IHSA regional tournaments and three IHSA sectional\ntournaments. Don retired from wrestling and teaching in 2009.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Don had\nmany accomplishments in his own wrestling career:&nbsp; Central AAU Champion at\n155 pounds in 1959 and 1960, Regional Junior College Championship in 1962, five\nChicago Open Championships and three runner-up finishes between 1960 and 1969,\nand in 1969, the 163 pound United States Wrestling Federation Greco-Roman Championship.&nbsp;\nDon attended Kelly High School where he wrestled, and participated in football\nand baseball.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Don\nLedin is loved and respected by his many peers but more importantly by the many\nMendel men whom he taught to wrestle at championship levels with an even-handed\napproach to discipline and teaching. His time in education produced many\nspecial moments.&nbsp; From his first year of wrestling at Kelly High School to\nhis final season, Don displayed a passion for wrestling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Don Ledin began his coaching career as assistant wrestling coach at Mendel in 1966 and was a head wrestling coach for 30 years.&nbsp; Don learned much from his mentor, the legendary Mendel wrestling coach Lou Guida who led Mendel to 5 consecutive Chicago Catholic League Varsity Wrestling Titles and a 99 win streak record, which still stands. While serving as &#8230; <\/p>\n<div><a href=\"https:\/\/mendelchs.org\/hof\/donald-ledin-educator-and-coach\/\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hall-of-fame","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mendelchs.org\/hof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mendelchs.org\/hof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mendelchs.org\/hof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mendelchs.org\/hof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mendelchs.org\/hof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=324"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/mendelchs.org\/hof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2220,"href":"https:\/\/mendelchs.org\/hof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324\/revisions\/2220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mendelchs.org\/hof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mendelchs.org\/hof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mendelchs.org\/hof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mendelchs.org\/hof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}