The Front Row with JASON ELLIOTT Feb. 13, 2013
When I recently asked Wallace High wrestling coach Bob Schreiber what it felt like to be nominated for induction to the National Wrestling Hall of Fame by the Idaho Chapter in March, his answer baffled me.
"To me, I don't think I deserve it at all," Schreiber said. "I really don't think I've done enough to deserve it, but it's nice, I guess."
If he only knew.
SCHREIBER - known as "Sir" to his players and who coached the Miner wrestling program for 31 years, as well as the school's baseball team - passed away Tuesday morning after a two-year battle with cancer. He was 66.
"As a wrestling coach, Mr. Schreiber strived to encourage his athletes to master the basics, using the same motions and techniques in many different moves," Wallace graduate Jake Will said. "He encouraged everyone to be courteous and respectful to their opponents, while striving to do their best."
Schreiber's son Robert "Boob" Schreiber won a state championship at 135 pounds in 1992.
Will finished as runner-up at 135 pounds in the 2005 tournament.
"He always told us the term student-athlete meant that we were students first, athletes second," Will said. "He encouraged us to practice to the best of our abilities and to help others have the best practice possible - stating that 'practice doesn't make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect.'"
Jake Waters finished second in 2010 at 140 pounds, when Wallace won the second of back-to-back 2A District 1-2 championships.
"He's been around since the beginning of the wrestling program, through its ups and downs," Waters said. "His biggest contribution to the sport was that Wallace is always there. There was times when the team had no more than 3 to 6 guys.
Any regular coach would just quit due to lack or participation, but ‘Sir’ stuck it out and helped save the sport.”
Before that title match, Schreiber said he was proud of Waters — no matter the outcome.
“He told me he was proud of how far I’ve come as a wrestler and a person,” Waters said. “He told me no matter what the outcome, he would still be proud — and told me to just do my best.”
EVEN AFTER both Waters and Will left the program, they always came back to help if needed.
“He was my teacher for seven years,” Will said. “My baseball coach for two years and wrestling coach for seven and I had the honor of coaching with him for a short while. The most important things I learned from him didn’t have to do with physical education, health, wrestling or baseball. Those classrooms, ball fields and wrestling mats were just the mediums in which he sent his lessons. He taught lessons of love, passion, respect, service, dedication, honor, kindness, leadership and pride and was the greatest man I’ve ever known.”
“He was more of a mentor throughout my life on and off the mat,” Waters said. “He was a caring individual that I would go as far to even call him family. ‘Sir’ taught me a great deal of things, the most important being that ‘no matter if you’re doing a push-up, stand-up, or dealing with life you have to keep your head up and keep pushing.’”
IN ADDITION to his duties as coach of the wrestling and baseball programs, Schreiber was the manager of the Wallace Pool during the summer, often times taking the tarp off the pool, cleaning it, then going to Morehouse Field in Osburn to get the field ready on game day as coach of the Silver Valley American Legion baseball team.
As a coach, he was the easiest person to find during those summer months because he’d be in either of those places, or heading to McDonald’s in Kellogg with his wife, Sally, for a late dinner.
Now, at long last — he can rest peacefully.
“Sir” did enough.
Jason Elliott is a sports writer for the Coeur d’Alene Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via email at [email protected].