Jan 27, 2026 7 min read

by John Sacco

Contributing writer

Phil Mary was not going to sneak up on anyone.

His wrestling prowess and abilities were known as a young wrestler.

“I remember telling (the late) Tom Teagarden at a junior high tournament about Phil,” said Tim Mousetis, who coached Mary in junior high school and then senior high school at Chartiers-Houston. “I said, ‘that kid is going to be a state champ.’ When Phil moved up to be a sophomore, I moved up and took over the head coaching job.

“We grew together. I used to ask things of him that I didn’t do to anybody else. I used to make him come back in the (wrestling) room after practice. He was 112 pounds. I was about 160 pounds at the time. I would tell him ‘you can leave as soon as you get a takedown.’ And we would. When he took a good enough shot on me – I’m not saying sometimes I didn’t let him take me down – but it had to be a good shot.

“I just knew he would be (special) because he was talented and was going to be one of the best. I didn’t want to leave any stone unturned to help him become as good as he could be.”

Mousetis wasn’t the only one with high expectations for Mary. Others were anticipating his arrival on Chartiers-Houston’s varsity team because of his youth career, which included three Junior Olympic state championships and a will to be great.

Mary won a pair of PIAA championships – as a sophomore and junior in 1981 and 1982. He was the victim of one of the most shocking upsets in state tournament history, losing in the PIAA semifinals his senior year when he was pinned by Don Peters of Bald Eagle Area. Mary was leading 7-0 when the fall occurred. He rebounded to finish third.

He also went on to an outstanding coaching career at Chartiers-Houston and Peters Township. He served as his brother Chris’ assistant at Canon-McMillan during the Big Macs’ era of dominance in the WPIAL and state.

Expectations never bothered Mary. The Bucs were a talented team with top-notch wrestlers.

“The good thing was I wasn’t the superstar of the team,” Mary said. “We had enough good guys around us that everyone felt that they were pretty important.”

Mary, 61, added that tough competition during the regular season also aided him in developing and being able to peak at the right time.

“Back then, we wrestled all the big dogs,” he continued. “We were in the same section with Canon-McMillan, Trinity, Mount Lebanon and Moon. That was a good thing. I wrestled a lot of (contenders). I wrestled them getting into the section finals. I wrestled them in the WPIAL tournament. We had a familiarity with our opponents.”

Talent and tenacity

One opponent who was not familiar to Mary was Fredo Pagan of Lebanon High School, who he met in the finals of the Manheim Tournament early in his sophomore season.

“They had a real close match and I remember it very distinctly,” Mousetis recalled. “They were on their knees facing each other. The match was tied late in the third period and Phil tried a sloppy headlock (that failed).

“After the match, we had words about that (headlock) and I essentially told him don’t ever do that again. I knew that he just, you know, felt like he didn’t want to go into overtime. It was early in the year. It was a bad, low-percentage move to try at the end of a match that was tied. We really felt that Phil was a better wrestler than that kid.”

The two would meet again a few months later in the PIAA championship bout at 98 pounds at Hersheypark Arena. Mary prevailed, 11-6, to win the state title and finish 41-3-1.

“I don’t know if (the first meeting) meant all that much,” Mousetis said. “I didn’t think it mattered.”

Said Mary: “Him beating me at Manheim was probably the best thing that ever happened.”

Mary’s career couldn’t have started better.

He won a second straight crown, defeating Souderton’s Mike Price, 8-4, at 105 pounds to repeat as PIAA champion with a 29-2 record.

Earlier this month, Mary and Tricia Alderson (softball) became the first two Bucs athletes to be chosen for the WPIAL Hall of Fame. The 1981-82 Chartiers-Houston boys’ wrestling team, which won a PIAA Class 3A championship, was inducted in 2011.

Mary and his wife Beth have three adult children: Phillip, Luke and Lindsey. He is also an inductee of the Washington-Greene County Sports Hall of Fame.

“He relied on and trusted Coach Mousetis,” said Kurt Kesneck, a teammate and longtime friend. We knew how good Phil was going to be. He was a hell of a wrestler, a hell of an athlete and a good guy.

“There were expectations on him but he never felt any pressure because there were so many other good guys on our team.”

Said teammate Jim Vulcano: “Phil was a great wrestler, a great hard-working wrestler and a hard-working guy. He was my workout partner. We worked every day of every year. We made each other better.

“Phillip was tough – mentally tough. He was hard-nosed.”

Phil Mary also has a soft spot and an appreciation for the family, friends and community support he and the Bucs received throughout his career.

“The great thing was the following we had,” Phil Mary said. “We had so many people at the state tournament. When Brian (Bell) and I both won state, that was just huge for the community. Here we are a little school with 18 kids on a team that was all about the team.

“To be honest, my junior year was probably easier. But my senior year was harder when I got to state. I felt a lot of pressure. I was lucky to win two titles and the team won a title in 1982 and it was runner-up in one year.”

Brother to brother

Phil Mary’s story is incomplete without talk of his brother, Chris. They coached for one another – Chris joining Phil at Peters Township and Phil joining Chris at Canon-McMillan.

Chris Mary is on that list of greatest local wrestlers who didn’t win a state title, along with Mousetis and Curtis Ellis of Washington. He more than made it up as coach of the Big Macs, who won multiple WPIAL and PIAA championships under his tutelage.

The Marys were a formidable combination.

As head coach at Chartiers-Houston and Peters Township, Phil Mary had a 113-49 record. In 1993, he – with his brother at his side – helped two PT wrestlers reach the state finals with Drew Spencer winning a title and Mike Kail a silver medalist.

“I was blessed to have an older brother who set the bar high,” Chris Mary said. “It wasn’t just in the wrestling room, but outside of a wrestling room as well.”

What they did at Peters Township was historic and remarkable.

“Phil and I were young,” Chris Mary said. “Philip set the bar high for those kids at Peters Township to make them believers and not worry about what colors they wore or what their singlet said. We did have a good group of kids coming through Peters who were young and hungry. Phillip was an excellent leader.

“Those kids were believers. They drank the Kool-Aid and excelled at a higher level than in the past. Phil and I went in there and right out the gate changed the culture the best we could.”

Concluded Phil Mary: “Having my brother by my side and being the only school with two wrestlers in the finals was pretty special. And then we finished fifth overall after qualifying for the WPIAL team quarterfinals. It was great.”

John Sacco writes a local sports history column for the Observer-Reporter.