Mulberry Wrestling Coach Moves to Kathleen

Thu. August 02, 2012 at 1:03 a.m. | By Solange Reyner

By SOLANGE REYNER

THE LEDGER

LAKELAND | Bing Osborn will coach the Kathleen wrestling team this season, leaving Mulberry on rocky terms after nearly 10 years of holding the same position there.

Osborn was picked by Kathleen administrators to replace Brent Dail, who resigned in early June to change careers. Osborn has ties to the school. He wrestled and played football there in the late 1980s and graduated from Kathleen in 1990.

Gary Lineberger, Kathleen's athletic director, was his football coach.

Osborn coached at Bartow as an assistant in 2000 before taking the head coaching job two years later at Mulberry, where he was investigated by the School District after allegations arose of a hazing incident in November. Osborn and his staff were verbally reprimanded, but not for hazing, and they were not allowed to coach the athletes in the postseason as long as the investigation was ongoing. The query by the district lasted four months.

Osborn inherits a program that has had success in the postseason. Last year, two wrestlers qualified for the state tournament and, in Dail's five years, four made it that far.

"Nothing was going to change at Mulberry, so I figured it was time to move on to bigger and better things," Osborn said. "I'm sad for the kids because I'm leaving my best potential team, but I'm inheriting some pretty quality kids at Kathleen. I'm excited. It's a new start. I have a new sense of energy, and I'm ready to go."