Ashland Source will select one student athlete to be recognized as the Park National Bank Athlete of the Month during the 2023-24 school year. Nominations for Athlete of the Month are accepted from Athletic Directors and Coaches, but are ultimately chosen by Ashland Source and are based on the student’s exceptional athletic performance, effective teamwork and achievement in their communities. Park National Bank is proud to support this initiative and is giving the athletic department of each school $1,000 in honor of each athlete chosen.
OLIVESBURG – It must have felt to Wade Bolin as if he had to keep hitting the pause button on his repeated attempts at greatness.
Now, the Crestview High School senior is firing through his final, record-setting track and field season as if he’s competing in fast-forward.
After twice coming within a foot of the Crestview Middle School discus record in seventh grade, Bolin lost his eighth-grade season to the COVID-19 pandemic.
High school followed, and after qualifying to state in both the shot put and discus as a sophomore, Bolin suffered complete tears of his left ACL and meniscus during football and watched his junior throwing season get washed away a year ago.
It was all enough to wonder if it seemed like fate was urging him to stop trying.
Instead, Bolin muscled up for a monster spring for the Cougars and vaulted himself into the spotlight as the Park National Bank Athlete of the Month for April for the Ashland Source.
“The shot is definitely starting to (reach his expectations) and disc, I’ve definitely surpassed my expectations of what I was going to do,” Bolin said. “It’s definitely started clicking a lot faster than I thought.
“I just want to keep building on these numbers.”
After unloading the best discus throw in all of Division III this spring at a Norwalk tri-meet April 16 (180 feet, 1¾ inches), Bolin shattered a Crestview shot put record at Mapleton’s Josh Olin Night Invitational that had stood for nearly six decades (his 55-10 surpassed John Casler’s 55-2½ from 1967).
He won both the shot put and discus during invites at Perkins, Mapleton and Crestview, with his discus measurements at the latter two events (172-7 and 173-1) breaking meet records.
Bolin also captured the discus crown by more than four feet at the prestigious Mansfield Mehock Relays (172-0).
He has been making up for lost time all spring and he’s only got so many more chances to build on his legacy.
Seemingly on the fast-track to big opportunities at the Division III State Track and Field Championships, Bolin plans to enter the construction workforce after his CHS graduation despite garnering interest this spring from NCAA Division I and II programs.
He said he’s trying to knock down as many goals and records as he can with what little time he has left in the ring.
“I definitely feel like I kind of need to make my mark here because this is my last stand,” the muscle-bound 5-10, 225-pound senior said. “I don’t think my knee could take the college pressure like all those guys do. … Not being able to compete at the level in my mind that I know I should be (competing at in college), just not being able to do some of that stuff (would be frustrating).”
Even though he said he despised the shot put until his sophomore year, the throws are without question in Bolin’s blood.
His mom, Dara Bolin, was a thrower who also competed on Crestview’s 1985 state runner-up volleyball team.
She eventually became a throws coach at Ashland High School, helping guide one of the best throwers in Ohio history, four-time state champ and 2002 AHS graduate Beth Mallory Lesch.
Wade picked it up while watching his older brother, former Cougar standout Will Bolin, compete.
“I think my mom just realized it when I would go throw with Will,” said Wade, whose dad, Bill Bolin, was an Ashland graduate. “I had a talent for it and was decent for having no coaching.”
Tim Kuhn, who has been Crestview’s track and field head coach for roughly 15 years now, said he thought Wade’s work ethic and family history could lead him to success like this in the ring.
He said Bolin was groomed from a young age to be a thrower.
“When you look at a stereotypical thrower, they’re a little taller in stature and a little longer-armed than what you see in Wade, but Wade’s lived in the weight room – as you can see when you look at him,” said Kuhn of his senior, who has maxed out at 365 pounds on the bench press and was told not to try to squat any more than 500 pounds because of his knee.
“I think his raw power helped him out a lot earlier, and he’s grown with his technique as well.
“When you put those two things together, it’s just been a real recipe for success.”
Kuhn said Bolin has been a solid student at CHS and has helped with some of the youth programs the athletic department has put together through the years.
His perseverance through the knee injury is something the longtime Cougar coach and athletic director believes will have a lasting impression on those who follow Bolin.
The senior lost the majority of his junior football season to the injury, and when he tried to come back last fall, Bolin was only able to play sparingly in the first half of the season.
When Crestview put together one of the most impressive track and field seasons in area history last spring – placing fifth as a team at the Division III state meet – Bolin could only watch.
The Cougars finished just 13 points outside of first place, but Kuhn didn’t want Bolin to rush back without a fully healthy left knee.
“I told his dad, ‘If he comes back too early and does something that re-injures that leg, I’ll never live with myself,’” Kuhn recalled. “I think taking his time and going through rehab and doing all the things right has led him to where he is now, with a fully recovered leg, one that he trusts.”
Now, even though he has less than a month remaining in his throwing career, Bolin still seemingly has everything in front of him.
The Firelands Conference Championships are this week at Crestview, where the Cougars will be aiming for their fourth consecutive league title. That would tie for the second-longest streak in FC boys history and Bolin has a chance to break the FC meet record held by his friend and former CHS throwing partner, Noah Stuart (171-6 in 2022).
After that comes the postseason. Impressively, Crestview also is chasing its fourth straight district crown and third in a row at regionals.
Kuhn believes the Cougars could even make things interesting again at state if everyone stays healthy.
Bolin knows about that risk all too well.
His list of gratitude included family, Kuhn, throwing partners Stuart and Gavin Cains, and throwing coaches Nate Manges and Trent Hovis.
Bolin said Manges practically had to force him to throw the shot put his freshman year because he hated it so much. Now he says – depending on the day – he might prefer it over the discus.
He calls himself a visual learner and said he has picked up plenty of different techniques and styles while watching different Olympians compete.
A few years ago, Bolin attended the final throwing camp at Ashland University hosted by the late Jud Logan – a four-time Olympic hammer thrower and legendary AU track and field coach.
Events like that helped him grow his love for the sport.
They also helped put him in position to set goals most throwers can only dream of.
“The ultimate goal would be a state title, (and the) school record in disc would be another one,” said Bolin, who still trails Casler’s 1967 CHS standard of 188-1½ in that event.
“But that’s just such an absurd record; I’m definitely gunning for it, but if I got state champ and didn’t get the school record, I don’t think I’d be too upset.”
