- Kaleb Boyer | The Daily Collegian
- Sep 1, 2023
As a true freshman, Levi Haines was exceptional for the Nittany Lions, rising to stardom throughout the season, but his biggest impact for the State College community might not be coming with the blue and white.
Haines has become a dominant force on the wrestling mat, but his championship-caliber personality and mentality that he has produced off-the-mat has often been overlooked by fans and media alike.
Haines has given back to the State College and wrestling communities by volunteering his time, energy and effort to David Taylor’s M-2 Training Center over the course of several years.
Haines has assisted in training and teaching young wrestlers in the art of the sport since he was in middle school. His father and high school coach Ken Haines told the Collegian that Levi has had that passion for helping others since he was a young kid.
“I think by nature he just likes helping other people,” Ken Haines said.
When his wife Mrs. Haines taught at the same grade school that Levi attended, he could often be found lending a hand in her classroom, where she taught children with special needs.
Levi has been building relationships with David Taylor and the other coaches, wrestlers and staff at the M-2 Training Center virtually since its doors opened in 2017, coach Aaron Pavlechko told the Collegian.
Coach “Pav,” as many of enrollees at the M-2 Training Center call the longtime wrestling coach, has worked with Levi for many years and has been with M-2 since its inception.
In his time with the Nittany Lion star, Pavlechko has observed what drives Haines to be successful on the mat as well as his willingness to spend his free time giving back to a community that has done a lot for him over the years.
“When you meet a kid like Levi, he’s always positive,” Pavlechko said. “They [Levi and other Penn State wrestlers] want to share their knowledge with them. You know, the kids look up to them. The really good ones, they go one of two ways. They get really pompous and cocky… or they go this route that Levi does.”
If Haines happened to be walking by, he’s known to drop in unannounced to help anyone inside the M-2 facility.
“He’ll stop in when his schedule permits it. It’s nice. He lives close… If he sees cars in the parking lot and he has time, he swings in,” Pavlechko said.
One day Haines is competing for the National Championship, and less than 24 hours later ,he’s right back in training others in the same craft he has honed all his life.
“It was kind of a weird feeling. Everybody turning their heads, watching me come in,” Haines said in an interview with the Collegian. “It was just different. But when I took my shoes off, [a] kid was struggling to finish a single leg, so I just tried to help him.”
He doesn’t see what he does as training the next generation; rather, he doesn’t look into it too much. He said he just likes to be involved, noting he learns as much from the kids as they can from him.
The blue and white’s rising star also brought up an experience that stuck out to him from the years he has been assisting coaches at M-2.
“At camp, they all asked us who the best wrestler of all time was. And of course, all of us said Coach Cael,” Haines said. “I just thought it was a fun memory because it’s like, ‘Wow, I’m learning from that guy.’ And these kids are learning from us, and they’re obviously interested in what we think. Who knows, maybe one day, those kids will be wrestling for him as well.”
The knowledge Levi passes down not only comes from his father, Pavlechko and David Taylor, but also the greatest collegiate wrestler — Cael Sanderson.
With how Haines views his impact, he might be changing the lives of kids in the wrestling room, but he is also learning himself with every hour he spends at M-2 or various other clinics across the state.
“You can say it defines him. That we’re gonna wrestle matches and some we’re gonna win and some we’re gonna lose,” Pavlechko said. “But, that’s not why we do it. One wrestling match doesn’t define a kid like Levi. That’s the way I would say it… He gives all of his effort in everything he does.”
“So it’s just that. The pursuit of greatness is the pursuit of greatness.”
