( 812) 949-5245 | www. kahlsbodyshop. com
Dench had one philosophy that he took with him: never cut anyone.
“ I always gave the student and opportunity and we always had a large group,” he said.
In his first year the Tigers finished as the state runner-up. They did it again his second year.
One of the crown jewels of Dench’ s tenure was an 88-1 record in dual matches over a 6-year period.
“ It was interesting because it wasn’ t about the 88 wins, but how you handle that one loss,” Dench said.“ We were divested and there were people who hadn’ t seen us lose before. We felt like we let our school and community down. It was terrible, but we had to go to school the next day and face reality.”
The streak ended in 1982. For the next two years Dench molded his team in a quest for a state championship. In 1984, along with wrestling, Dench started coaching two more sports – cheerleading and volleyball.
“ One day when I was in college in an education class talking to Dr. Ed Brown, he made a statement,” Dench recalled. He said:‘ Good teachers can teach any subject.’ I raised my hand and said:‘ I disagree. I’ m terrible at math and you wouldn’ t want to hire me as a math teacher.’ He said‘ No. Great teachers can teach any subject.’”
The Fern Creek cheerleading team won the state championship in 1984 and qualified for the national tournament. At the same time, the wrestling team rolled to a district title. Dench said he didn’ t think his team was special that season.
“ I remember walking into the wrestling room after the districts
and putting up poster boards for the regional and state championships,” Dench said.“ I told the team:‘ That’ s where we’ re going to put the next two championships.’ They all looked at me. We were that confident, not cocky. We only had two weeks left in the season and if we stayed the course, then we were going to win.”
But it wasn’ t easy. The Tigers dug themselves an early hole, but battled back to tie Simon Kenton through the semifinals. For Dench’ s team it came down to three wrestlers: Todd Adams, Robert Hall and Jeff Grime.
“ I told them:‘ I want you to look at each other. All we need is one of you to win. Look at each other. Not one of you have been beaten this year,” Dench remembered.“ I asked them who could beat them and they said‘ nobody.’
“ I told them:‘ Don’ t worry about the team title, you go out there and wrestle for yourself.’ And we did and it was a great feeling.”
The Tigers edged Simon Kenton for the title, capping off an undefeated season.
“ I was fortunate to coach 13 individual All-Americans – a KHSAA state-record at the time – and that was spread over seven years,” Dench said.“ To go undefeated, it was special. We were the first team to accomplish it in 20 years.”
Adams went on to wrestle at Indiana University while Hall later won an NCAA title too. Grimes would become a nuclear submarine commander in the United States Naval Academy.
Dench’ s final year of coaching was at Louisville Waggener in 1989. After that, he hung up his coaching whistle and moved onto a different adventure: giving back.
( 812) 949-5245 | www. kahlsbodyshop. com
NOV / DEC 2025 NEWS AND TRIBUNE SPORTS MAGAZINE PAGE NO. 17