By Mike Finn, W.I.N. Editor
Ohio State’s new head coach Tom Ryan did not travel to Columbus, Ohio, last spring assuming he would automatically accept a potential offer from the Buckeye administration.
“There had been other options for me in the past to leave Hofstra and I never really ever looked,” said Ryan, the 37-year-old native of Wantagh, N.Y. “Leaving Hofstra was not a priority to me. It was five minutes from my home and my family was nestled in raising kids. I was happy at Hofstra.
“But I think the draw of the potential greatness of Ohio State and moving my family closer to my wife’s family was overwhelming; particularly when I came on my interview. I knew this was not a stepping-stone position. This is a career-ending position. You come and you stay as long as they will have you. I got the sense of that when I got here.
“Once I got here and spoke to them, it wasn’t a decision of how am I going to leave, but what an incredible life-changing opportunity.”
With Ohio State located in the heart of some of the best high school wrestling programs in the country, Ryan knew that the Buckeyes could be a “sleeping giant” in NCAA wrestling … something that rarely happened under his predecessor Russ Hellickson, including last year when the Buckeyes finished last in the Big Ten tournament and 45th in the NCAAs.
“It’s proven to be one of the best wrestling states in the country and the passion in the state is one that matches the passion that I have for wrestling,” Ryan said. “I think it showed in our (October) coaches’ clinic, where we had 550 coaches from around the state for the clinic. They love the Buckeyes and the sport of wrestling.”
For all the potential Ryan has to rebuild a Buckeye program, there is no doubt that the former Iowa Hawkeye All-American (1991-92) made the right decision to return to the Big Ten wars.
He knew had accomplished quite a bit for the university located on Long Island in New York.
“The people aspect is always the most difficult thing,” he said. “There were people there who trusted in me to come to that school in terms of recruits who were still there. Of the several long-term goals that I had, one was to get the program fully-funded. I started with five scholarships. The year I left it was fully-funded.”
In making Hofstra the top program in the Colonial Athletic Association, Ryan’s Pride team made their presence known on the national level as his program averaged at least one All-American honor for the 11 years he spent in Hempstead, N.Y.
But Ryan also was leaving something that was more than a wrestling program. It was family … and at a time when he needed it most.
On Feb. 16, 2004, Ryan’s five-year-old son, Teague, tragically died from Long Q-T syndrome, a disorder of the heart’s electrical system.
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