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Vrotsos receives Mr. Mat award

Photo by Kim North John Vrotsos, third from left, was presented with the prestigious Mr. Mat Award prior to the start of the 71st annual OVAC Ron Mauck Wrestling Championships final session Saturday inside WesBanco Arena. He is pictured with, from left, Dr. Dan Doyle; Dr. Vince Monseau and John Stephenson.

The 2025 recipient of the prestigious Mr. Mat award is John Vrotsos, a former wrestling coach at St. Clairsville High School.

Vrotsos wrestled scholastically for Bob Bruney and Steve Kish at Martins Ferry High School. As a “purple rider” mat man, Vrotsos was a four-year letterman and team captain as a senior. An OVAC finalist at 119 pounds as a senior, Vrotsos went on to be a Sectional And District Champion, qualifying for the Ohio State Championships with a senior record of 26-4.

He attended West Liberty State College where he wrestled for one year before suffering a career-ending knee injury. After graduating from WLSC, Vrotsos coached wrestling at St. Clairsville High school for 25 years, producing 99 OVAC place winners, 11 OVAC Champions and two Bierkortte Outstanding Wrestler Award recipients — Justin Ewing (1995) and Zac Schuller (2006). Coach Vrotsos also produced 42 Ohio State “Red Devil” qualifiers and 15 state place winners.

Vrotsos also served as an assistant football coach for 22 years under the legendary gridiron coach of George Strager, Mike Young, and Brett McClean. He was head track coach for eight years (1998 — 2006-) and assistant track mentor from 2009 until 2013. He teaches Social Studies at St Clairsville Middle School.

After Coach Rick Welker stepped down as a Public Address Announcer at the Ron Mauck OVAC Wrestling tournament to reinstate wrestling at Wheeling Central Catholic High School in 2022, John Vrotsos immediately accepted and assumed the position for the last two years.

Most rewarding to the Vrotsos family is that Vrotsos joins his father, the late John “Corky” Vrotsos, as a Mr.Mat award recipient.

His father was known as one of co-founders of the OVAC Wrestling Tournament in 1954, along with the late George Kovalick and the late Bill Van Horne. John and his dad are the first father-son team to receive the highest accolade in the OVAC Wrestling.

Vrotsos has been married to his devoted wife, Anne for 35 years. They have three wonderful children. John Thomas lives in Columbus where he is a C.T. and X-Ray technologist and recently got married to his wife, Allie this past July. Allie also happens to be an elementary teacher; Audra from Cleveland, where she is a marketing and graphics designer, and Eliza, who is an Intervention Specialist at Mentor Memorial Middle School.

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