Ron Silverstein
Contributor ⋅ Class of 1991
Niles Township
DECEASED
Ron is from Roosevelt High School in Chicago which did not have wrestling. He first attended Wright Junior College, where he began to be involved in wrestling later going onto Northern Illinois University.
He began his teaching and coaching career at Gemini Junior High School in Niles. He started wrestling here, later moving onto Apollo Junior High School where he again started the program. It was from here that the present IKWF Kids State Tournament Series was launched, started by Ron in 1970. Ron was probably the most influential person involved in starting this series which continues to this day. Starting from this point in time, Ron was elected President of IKWF a post he held for 6 years. At that time it was called the 14 and under program. When this program was begun, Ken Kraft a Hall of Famer was developing the Open for Out of High School and Hall of Famer Ted DeRouse was developing the High School Program.
It was during this time that Ron developed and ran a boys camp in Minocqua, Wisconsin which he ran for 20 years.
He moved from Apollo Junior High School to Oakton Junior College for 4 years where he had qualifier to the Junior Nationals.
He moved from Oakton Junior College to Maine North as their head coach a post he held until the school was closed 4 years. He had a state qualifier at this school. When Maine North closed, he moved back to Gemini as their coach until three years ago when he moved back into the High School Ranks as an Assistant at Niles West for 1 year and for the past 2 years as an assistant at New Trier. He has been involved with wrestling for a continuous 28 years.
In 1988 he was the Head coach for the Chicago area team to the Maccabi games, which they won and in 1990 he was again the Head Coach of the Chicago Area Team, which again won gold. He is the head coach of the upcoming games, which will be held in Russia in 1992.
For the past 4 years, Ron has been the Assistant Greco Roman Coach to the Illinois Wrestling Federation Junior National Team.