Pete Alber began his wrestling career in 1979 at Dakota High School under the direction of Richard Tschudi. He placed 1st in 1981 at 98 lbs, and 2nd in 1982 at 105 lbs. He says that loss probably taught him more than all the wins he had….”I didn’t work hard enough”.

 In 1991, Coach Tom Unruh asked if he would be interested in taking on the Wrestling Assistant Coach position and from there quite a bit of history was made for the small town of Dakota High School.

 Most wrestling coaches aspire to achieve a “winning” record and maybe, just maybe, have a state champion or two. He never would’ve thought that he would now have 37 individual state champions, 6 team state championships, and two 3rd place teams. But he will also be the first to tell you that not all that glory goes to him; first & foremost the glory goes to God! All of these successes can be attributed to the assistant coaches (mostly alumni that return), the parents that entrust their children to the coaching staff, the teachers and administrators that have encouraged us and shown everyone grace and our super supportive community that rallies behind us and supports us all the time.

In 2005, 2013 & 2020, Pete was named the IWCOA Head Coach of the Year, the IHSA Wrestling Head Coach of the Year in 2006 & 2015, the NFHS State Coach of the Year for Wrestling in 2015, and also inducted into the IWCOA Hall of Fame in 2015.

 The 3:00 AM alarm clocks and not getting home until after 10pm on meet nights set the tone for his “official” retirement in the fall of 2021 where he turned the reigns over to his first state champion, Matt Jacobs. Trying to run 3 businesses is a grind for a normal person, but also add meetings, phone calls, practices, meets & tournaments into the mix….there is just not enough time to give everything the importance a quality program demands. One can never fully retire from this sport, he still tries to make a few high school practices, meets and tournaments. His focus now is shifting to the next generation, his grandkids, great-nephews and the next generation of wrestlers.

 His family has always been involved with wrestling, from him and his brothers, to in-laws and to his own children. Holly & Shelly were statisticians in high school and have now worked the State Tournament for 15 years. Vince started wrestling when he was 4, it was not always easy or fun, hard work never is but it paid off when he won his own state championship in 2007. He has been an assistant coach and is a kid’s club coach. His wife Linda, has made hundreds of hotel reservations and travel itineraries, headed several fundraisers, done the bookwork for the club and basically kept him going when he didn’t know for sure which direction he was headed some days.

 He admits he has made many mistakes along the way, but his hope is that he has given each wrestler a strong work ethic, the desire to be successful and shown them the love of the Lord.