Stephen Bechtold grew up on a dairy farm near Jacobs Prairie, Minnesota. As the fifth of eleven children on the farm, Steve learned his most important lessons from his father. One such lesson is that each person is duty bound to do his or her share of the work. This lesson has animated his career, first as a wrestler, then as a coach. Steve's first real wrestling experience came at St. John's Preparatory School in 1969, he graduated in 1973. Coached by Father Otto Webber, OSB (1955-1987), Steve's farm muscles served him well there. By his senior year, Steve placed for the second time in the Minnesota Independent School Tournament, this time as runner-up. Steve loved wrestling, but took a hiatus when the Army recruited him to play football at West Point. When his time playing football was cut short by an injury, Steve returned to Minnesota. That spring found him limping to classes at Saint John's University. Sadly, injuries ended both of Steve's seasons wrestling for St. John's University. But with Steve back in town, an old coach saw an opportunity and Steve found a vocation. Steve's high school football coach suggested that Steve would make a great tutor for gifted math students at St. John's Prep. Before long, Steve's tutoring turned into coaching, as an assistant to wrestling coach Maury Meyer by 1974. And by the 1975-76 school year, he was the head coach at St. John's Prep"”while he was still in college. After graduating from St John's University, Steve found a career that would let him hunt, fish, coach, and teach. In 1977, Steve moved to the country near Blackduck, Minnesota. There, he taught math while he coached football, wrestling, and track. Initially, Steve was the head coach for both wrestling and track. Steve fit in well with the coaches already at Blackduck, where he eventually was the head wrestling coach for 32 years. Steve also coached softball, baseball, math league, and Mathcounts during his years at Blackduck. In addition, Steve coached summer softball and baseball for many years. Coach B, as he was often called, coached over 100 teams in his 35 years at Blackduck. Early in his career at Blackduck, Steve married Helen Lauer. Together they raised four children: Teresa, Thomas, Paul, and Joseph. All of his sons wrestled for Steve at the Minnesota State High School League Tournament. Two of them even reached the podium. Steve coached 66 other wrestlers who individually qualified for the state wrestling tournament. Eight of his wrestlers reached the finals and 20 more placed. With a coaching record of 327-263-5 Steve advanced 13 teams to the section semifinals and four of those teams advanced to the state tournament with the 1998 team taking third. Two teams claimed Class AA Academic Team Awards (1997 & 2004). That effort led to a state Class AA Coach of The Year Award, along with fellow Co-Coach Jerry Cleveland. He also was inducted into the Bartelma Minnesota Wrestling Hall of Fame. Steve's innovations had a long-lasting impact on wrestling in northern Minnesota. When he discovered that district qualification was uneven, Steve worked for a Sub-Region realignment. His work led to Region 8A's decision in 1982 to replace four districts with two sub regions with regional pairing predetermined by sub region placement. When District 23 was pushed north in the mid-80s, Steve used his mathematical background to set up a rotational system for section placement. When a neighboring coach suggested an individual tournament to match top talent for northern Minnesota the same way the Christmas Tournament did for the southern part of the state, Steve characteristically took action. This idea germinated after several meetings with Mike Hanson and Ron Milbrandt and in 2002 the Big Bear Tournament was born. This annual tradition draws almost 40 teams from rural Minnesota. In addition to these successes, Steve started the North Star Wrestling Conference, initiated and administered the Section 8AA academic award program, and began and ran the Section 8AA scholarship program for ten years. Steve wrote articles for local papers and also provided The Guillotine with a report from northern Minnesota for several years. His involvement in wrestling led to several years serving as the Section Representative for MWCA, including a stint as the president. Steve also served as a member of the MSHSL wrestling Advisory Committee. Steve's coaching, administrating, and mentoring was not limited to wrestling. Steve also coached participants in several state track meets and state Mathcounts competitions over the years. His 2000 Mathcounts team placed second and one team member claimed the state title. Steve was recognized for his excellent math coaching with a plaque from the National Council of Engineers. He taught religious education and served on the church council along with several other roles at St. Anns Church. Steve was active in the Blackduck community earning several plaques for his work as a Jaycee and serving as a volunteer EMT for the Blackduck Ambulance for over 17 years. Finally, Steve has been a tireless advocate for education. Steve was involved with gifted education throughout his career. He organized a group of parents who pushed the school to start a gifted program, introduced Advanced Placement into Blackduck, and served as a regional representative on Minnesota's Gifted & Talented Educators Board. He also served as an outstate representative at the Minnesota Department of Education for several years for both mathematics and gifted education. Steve and his wife Helen live in Hines, MN. They have four children in Teresa, Thomas, Paul and Joseph who have all been involved in BCLB wrestling.