Hey. I’m Donovan Panone and I’ve been coaching youth and high-school wrestling for over 28 years. I spent 21 of those years volunteering with both youth and high school wrestlers. But since college I knew that I wanted to coach wrestling full time and I was completely obsessed with improving myself as a coach and making my wrestlers great. Any free time I had, I was researching teaching methods and digging into the best ways to demonstrate technique.
In 2015, I decided to pursue my passion as a full-time career and open Level Up Wrestling Center in Marietta, Georgia. Since opening, my wrestlers have had both success on a local and national level. And if you are are like, “Wait, Georgia has national success?” Yes. We have been on a major rise over the last 10 years and Georgia is now typically in the top 5 of all major national events (Fargo, NHSCA, Super 32, etc.).
Since opening in 2015, Level Up has produced:
- Numerous youth and high school state champions
- Folkstyle National Champions and All-Americans including Super 32, Tulsa Nationals, NHSCA Nationals and USAW Nationals
- Freestyle and Greco National Champions and All-Americans including Kids, Cadet & Junior Freestyle & Greco-Roman nationals (in 2019 Level Up had 7 Fargo All-Americans with 3 champions and an Outstanding Wrestler)
- Wrestlers competing at the D1 level in college
I have a passion for helping others and want to keep giving back to this amazing sport. I had always wanted to share my knowledge and experience with other coaches so that I could affect more than just the wrestlers in my room and hence this website was born. The methods and knowledge I’m sharing are what I currently using for teaching my wrestlers. And I’m not done learning myself. As I figure new things out that work, I’ll share them with you here.
Have any questions about the website? Feel free to reach out via the contact form.