At A Glance
Rick Stack
School: Marvin Ridge
Head Wrestling Coach
Between the Lines: Stack is a member of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame. … Stack was a member of the wrestling team at Appalachian State and he began his teaching and coaching career after graduation. … His wife, Michele, is also a coach and teacher at Marvin Ridge. … Stack was the wrestling coach at Myers Park High School for 10 years before taking the job as the Mavericks wrestling coach.
When Rick and Michele Stack moved to Marvin a few years back, Rick Stack suggested that his wife take a coaching job at nearby Marvin Ridge High School.
“I said, ‘Honey, you live in Marvin so you should coach in Marvin,” Rick Stack said.
Michele Stack, who was teaching and coaching at Ardrey Kell at the time, took the advice and became a track and cross country coach for the Mavericks.
Now, the shoe is on the other foot.
When Marvin Ridge was looking for a new wrestling coach, Michele had the same suggestion for Rick, who was coaching the wrestling team at Myers Park High School in Charlotte.
‘When this opportunity came along, she said the same thing,” Rick Stack said. ‘What do you do? I kind of laid the ground work for this thing.”
Rick Stack took that advice and Marvin Ridge hired the veteran wrestling coach last month. Stack said he is impressed with what he has seen so far from the Mavericks wrestling program.
“My intention is to come here and win a state championship,” Rick Stack said. “That is what my goal is, and I think Marvin Ridge has the capability to do that. They have a good feeder program. This is a great community and we love living out here. It has to happen now for these kids.”
And Rick Stack is known for fielding state championship-caliber teams.
Or to put it simply, Rick Stack is a coaching legend in the sport he fell in love with back in his high school wrestling days at Olympic High.
A native of North Carolina, Stack wrestled for coach Bruce Hardin at Olympic High School where he was a two-time state qualifier and member of a team that finished as the state runner-up in 1973.
Rick Stack wrestled at Appalachian State University from 1974-1977. Stack caught the coaching bug when he was in high school and he began his coaching career at Charlotte Catholic from 1977-1980 before moving to Charlotte Country Day where he coached until 1999. Stack then coached at Providence before making the jump to Myers Park in 2007.
Along the way, Stack won seven state championships at Country Day, has coached several high school All-Americans and won several Coach of the Year honors. The wrestling room at Myers Park is named for Stack.
Stack said it was hard to leave Myers Park.
“We had a room over there at Myers Park and myself and six or seven other dads went over there every Sunday and we turned a weight room into a wrestling room,” Stack said. “After we got done, the school named it after me. We won a tournament championship this past February and I had eight All-Conference wrestlers coming back.
“It was tough.”
But one honor stands above the rest as in 2015 Stack was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.
“It was a very, very high honor,” Rick Stack said. “I have a lot of years in the sport. I’m hoping the kids here buy into it. I think we can be successful.”
