Jerry Seckler is President and founder of the Friends of Long Island Wrestling. As a wrestler Jerry lost one dual bout in his last four years of high school wrestling. Seckler led a very strong Valley Stream Central team to a Long Island Championship, and was part of the team that defeated Sprig Gardner’s Mepham varsity a week after Mepham had completed their second 100 consecutive victory streak.
Seckler racked up Long Island Championship titles his sophomore and junior year. He then chose to spend his senior year at St. Paul’s School in Garden City. While there, he won the National Prep school title at Lehigh and was selected “Outstanding Wrestler” in that tournament.
Selecting Penn State as his college, he wrestled for Charlie Spiedel and enjoyed two undefeated seasons, placing second in the EIWA Tournament. He was selected Co-Captain of the varsity team his senior year.
Jerry began his coaching career at Freeport high school. He then moved to Columbia College; first as an assistant coach and then head coach. Seckler finished his coaching career at Columbia as President of the EIWA Coaches Association.
Seckler left Columbia to pursue an administrative career in Nassau County. Never losing his interest in wrestling, he created and administered the first summer wrestling tournament in the country at the Newbridge Road Park. During this period, he was also instrumental in creating the first double-dual college tournament in the nation and presented it at the Nassau Coliseum.
In 1990, with concern mounting regarding the loss of college programs, Seckler approached Pascal Perri with the idea of developing an organization to support wrestling and The Friends of Long Island Wrestling was born. In 1994, the Friends became an official chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum.
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