Four Grand Marshals will lead the annual Grand March of Finalists Saturday night before the championship bouts of the 86th IHSA Individual Wrestling State Final Tournament.
First held in 1975, the annual March of Finalists is conducted at the State Tournament by the IHSA in conjunction with the Illinois Wrestling Coaches and Officials Association (IWCOA) and the State Farm Center. Each year the Grand Marshals are honored for their contributions to the sport and to the young men and women who participate in it.
The Marshals play an important role in the color and pageantry of the event. They lead the 84 individual finalists and their coaches in a breathtaking Grand March around the arena floor just prior to the championship bouts. The annual crowd in excess of 10,000 is witness to a spectacle of high school athletics seen nowhere else in America.
Here is a closer look at the Grand Marshals in 2024:
MARK HAHN GLENBARD NORTH
When people talk about Glenbard North wrestling, the conversation always begins and ends with Mark Hahn and the Gold Dot. Taking over for the legendary Bob Fulk in 1988, Hahn knew he had a great deal to live up to in order to make sure Glenbard North wrestling always remained relevant. To Hahn, growing up in Carol Stream and wrestling for Fulk, the Glenbard North wrestling program was not only larger than life, but is something very special.
For Hahn, who would become only the second head coach in the program, his greatest fear was not living up to the expectations, but Hahn’s career would not disappoint.
In his first season at the helm, Glenbard North would place fourth at the IHSA Dual Team State Championships, and even though it would be ten more years before his team would return, Hahn would establish Glenbard North as one of the premier programs in Illinois.
Throughout his 33-year tenure as one of the greatest head coaches in Illinois wrestling history, Hahn compiled an astonishing dual meet record of 716-153-2, and a conference dual meet record of 220-13-1. Along the way, his team’s won 24 conference championships and, between 2001 and 2018, established a streak of 18-consecutive conference team titles between the DuPage Valley and the DuKane Conference.
Hahn’s teams collected 26 Regional championships, won 16 Dual Team Sectional titles, and brought home 12 IHSA Dual Team State trophies, with the program’s first IHSA Dual Team State Championship coming in 2011.
In addition to his team success, Hahn coached 151 individual conference champions, 173 Regional champions, 59 Sectional champions, and saw 161 Glenbard North wrestlers qualify for the IHSA Individual State Championships. Of those qualifiers, 78 would stand on the podium, 12 would earn a runner-up finish, and 23 would be crowned state champions.
As a head coach, Hahn has been named an Illinois Coach of the Year in 2001 and 2011. He was inducted into the IWCOA Hall of Fame in 2006; inducted into “The Clash” National Duals Hall of Fame in 2017; inducted into the Glenbard North Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2015; and he was enshrined into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2020.
Married to wife Karen, with daughters Laura (Gudella) and Emily, Hahn remains active in the Glenbard North wrestling program, and still lives within the Carol Stream community.
ROB PORTER
Rob Porter wrestled at Mahomet-Seymour High School. After winning an individual and team state championship in 1984, he went on to wrestle at Edinboro University, becoming a two-time NCAA Division I national qualifier. Porter continued to compete post-college, wrestling at the Master’s level and winning multiple national wrestling championships and becoming a World Champion at 62kg in 2010 at the Veteran’s World Championships.
Porter coached wrestling at his alma mater, Mahomet-Seymour, for 12 years and Naperville Central for the past 18 years as a head coach and assistant coach. At Mahomet-Seymour, he coached 32 state place winners and eight state champions, while his teams placed third at the dual state tournament four times. At Naperville Central, he coached his teams to a record of 114-84, while advancing 16 wrestlers to the state tournament, including a pair of state place winners and two appearances at dual team state.
For the past eight years, Porter has been a member of the executive board of the IWCOA. In 2021, he led an IWCOA subcommittee that successfully ran 25 regional tournaments, eight sectional tournaments and a six-day state wrestling tournament. Due to the tremendous work of the IWCOA, 456 high school boy and girl wrestlers were able to realize their dreams of becoming an Illinois state place winners and 84 wrestlers were crowned 2021 Illinois State Champions.
HARRY MCGINNIS
A four-year letterman and NAIA national qualifier at Concordia University-Chicago, Harry McGinnis’ coaching career began during the 1977-78 school year when he was named head coach at St. John Lutheran School. He then became the Head Coach at Luther North High School (1978-80) and Holy Cross High School (1980–87). During that period, he also coached culture exchange teams versus New Zealand, Germany, and Japan.
In 1989, McGinnis became the Head Coach at Triton College, a position he held for 29 years. During his tenure, he produced 143 national qualifiers, 31 All-Americans, 139 Academic All-Americans and had four of his All-Americans participate on the NJCAA team that competed in Austria. He has also had former Triton wrestlers go on to earn All-American status at the NCAA Division I, II, III and NAIA levels.
McGinnis is a member of the IWCOA Hall of Fame, the NJCAA Wrestling Hall of Fame, the NJCAA Region IV Hall of Fame and the Concordia University–Chicago Hall of Fame.
JEFF HILL
Jeff Hill is a 1985 graduate of Plano High School, where he was a four-year letter winner while wrestling for Hall of Fame Coaches Mick Ruettiger and Joe Cliffe. It is at Plano where his love for wrestling was developed. He continued to compete collegiately at NCAA Division III powerhouse Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa, where he earned four varsity letters.
Hill started his 35 years of coaching at Waverly-Shell Rock Community School District and moved into his first head coaching position at Parkersburg High School in Iowa. He arrived at PORTA in 1991 and has been the head coach there for 33 years. His teams have compiled 32 winning seasons and garnished 804 dual meet victories, which is currently the IHSA record for dual meet victories.
In his time at PORTA, his teams have won 19 Regionals, qualified 10 times for the state dual meet, and captured five state final trophies. That success was culminated by a State Championship in 2010 and a runner-up finish in 2014.
Hill has served on the IHSA Wrestling Advisory Committee and the Illinois Wrestling Coaches and Officials Association Board of Directors. He is currently the National Wrestling Chairman for the High School Athletic Coaches Association and co-founded ABE’s Rumble, a 60-team Class A wrestling dual meet tournament.
Hill was the Illinois nominee for National High School Athletic Coaches Association Coach of the Year in both 2013 and 2022. Additionally, he was recognized as the Illinois Coach of the year in 2007 and inducted in the IWCOA Hall of Fame in 2011.
106 of Hill’s wrestlers have qualified for state, with 26 earning state medals. That group includes four state champions and five second-place finishers.