For Jack Mahoney, his life in wrestling began as a Lindenhurst schoolboy where he learned the sport under the tutelage of Jack Stanbro.

Jack continued wrestling at SUNY Brockport, graduating in 1970.

He received several teaching and coaching offers, but he chose the first one, a position at Sachem High School. Apparently it was love at first sight as Jack stayed there for the duration of his career.

A resident of the town of Babylon, Jack still carries on the well-established Long Island coaching tradition by serving his community as a lifeguard.

Documenting the wrestling success of Sachem High School since Jack took over the program in 1972 could fill multiple pages. Remarkably, this occurred during the same period when Section XI rose to ascendancy, not only on Long Island, but in New York State. Fearsome competition provided by Suffolk County’s big high schools such as Huntington, Islip Hauppauge, Rocky Point, Deer Park, Brentwood, William Floyd, Smithtown, Patchogue-Medford, Lindenhurst, and Longwood make rising in the standings difficult.

A short list of stellar Mahoney’s wrestlers includes Dan Mayo, John Carvalheira, Isaac Ramaswamy, Wade Genova, and Jason Kraft. These and many other standouts have led to incredible team successes, including 341 dual meet wins, a total that is second only to Huntington's 405 dual meet wins. His teams had 19 championship seasons in 32 years, including five Section XI titles. Individual achievements include 154 all-county wrestlers, 33 Section XI winners, 27 All-State wrestlers, and seven New York State champions.

Former wrestlers at the next level garnered multiple honors, including nine NCAA Division III All-Americans, four NCAA Division I All-Americans, two National Junior College Athletic Association All-Americans and three members of Team USA.

From 1977-2004, New York State sportswriters ranked Sachem in the top 22 teams every year but 1999. Sachem garnered Amateur Wrestling News team awards in 1992, 1993, and 1995 while USA Today ranked the team 12th in the country in 1992.

Jack is a member of the Suffolk County Hall of Fame as well as being selected as its Man of the Year.

Coach Mahoney believes that wrestling success is caught up in character development, saying that “Athletics build character; wrestling reveals character. If you have never crossed over that line in a mat, gone one-on-one with someone who wants to beat you and only you, you can’t imagine what it is like. We demand hard work, discipline, and punctuality. We want to outwork our opponents. If a wrestler is cutting corners, he will soon find out that that’s how one fails.”

Jack says that "these are lessons the wrestlers will take with them forever." He says that the adage that once you have wrestled, everything is easy may be a bit of a stretch, but adds that "it certainly gets you ready for what is about to come."

Mahoney finds the value in the accumulated wrestling relationships over the years, including tracking his wrestlers careers. He frequently receives letters from his former wrestlers who attribute success in their lives from wrestling.

Jack welcomes former wrestlers on his staff and does not see the Sachem split as a cause for heart-wrenching, even though his staff will be split along with the school.

Always seeking the positive, he declares that the split "cannot erase our strong tradition of Sachem wrestling. It will only start new traditions."

The Downstate New York Chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame is honored to present Jack Mahoney with the Lifetime Service to Wrestling award.