Vince Ames - Coach 1975-1997

Coach Vince Ames served as a co-head wrestling coach for twenty-nine years at Grand Forks Central High School. A native of Greenbush, Minnesota, he graduated from high school in 1963 where he lettered in football, wrestling, and track. He earned a Bachelor of Science Degree from the University of North Dakota in 1968 and a Master's Degree in 1969. While attending UND, he lettered in wrestling from 1963-67. He twice qualified for the Division II National Wrestling Tournament.

Vince started and ended his teaching career at Grand Forks Central High School. He came to Central in the fall of 1969 and retired from teaching in 2003. During his time at Central, Vince served as the assistant wrestling coach from 1969-1974. He became the co-head coach in 1975 and served in that position with Duane Hennessy until 1997. Their teams won six region championships and had five top five place finishes at the state tournament. During these years, they coached twenty-three region champions, fifty-two EDC champions, and eight state champions. Since 1997, he has continued to serve as an assistant coach with the wrestling program.

Previously received honors include: ND Science Teacher of the Year, ND Biology Teacher of the Year, GF County Conservation Teacher of the Year and this year inducted into the Grand Forks Public Schools Teacher Hall of Fame.

Vince has many great memories from working with the GFC wrestling program. Some of those memories include: "working with Duane Hennessey all of those years and having no disagreements, coaching his son Vic to a state championship, building the GFC wrestling program with great cooperation from the people in junior high schools, and working with the International Wrestling Exchange Program which promoted cultural understanding and peace. We took trips to Holland, Germany, Austria, Hungary and Japan/New Zealand/Australia."