By Mike Finn, W.I.N. Editor

Richard Fergola knew he faced the same thing other junior college coaches do in working with athletes just out of high school.

“There are a few more issues that we have to deal with: academics, time management, organization and things like that,” said Fergola, who just completed his first season at North Iowa Area Community College in Mason City, Iowa, after spending three years at Dana College, an NAIA school in Blair, Neb.

But Fergola also knew he and the entire NIACC program was in the midst of something few other junior college programs were doing: starting from scratch to rebuild a program that had been discontinued in 1976.

“We were a first-year program so we had to kick-start everything from the ground up. That added to the everyday work-load. We just had to make sure we made these guys understand what they needed to do to be successful,” said Fergola, who was named the NIACC coach, March 13, 2007.

Less than one year later, the Trojans finished fourth in the 2008 NJCAA national team race, but more importantly produced three national champions: 149-pound Albert White, Davaughn Perkins at 157, and 174-pound Glenn Rhees. The trio of champs were among six All-Americans to place among the top eight junior college wrestlers at the National Junior College Athletic Association nationals, Feb. 23-24, in Rochester, Minn.

The only other teams to earn more All-American honors was Iowa Central, Meramec (St. Louis) and Labette, which finished first, second and third, respectively, in the team race ahead of the Trojans.

Iowa Central, which captured its third straight team championship, crowned just one individual titlist in 125-pound Terrence Young. Meramec joined NIACC in capturing the most individual championships as Aaron Senzee (133), Deron Winn (184) and Jamelle Jones (197) took home gold to the Arch City, while Labette secured one championship from Mikey Morgan (157).

For NIACC, White defeated T.J. Hepburn of Colby (Kansas) CC, 3-2. Perkins edged Marshall Giovanni of Highline CC, 9-8, and Rhees defeated Jason Green of Neosho, 7-3. This trio were joined on the All-American stand by 125-pound Cody Hogan (7th), 141-pound T.J. Moen (3rd) and heavyweight Beau Tudor (8th).

“The kids followed our training program,” Fergola said. “The way we train is that we can peak at the right time, which is at nationals. We had those expectations and felt that we were good enough to do that. The guys proved that and wrestled hard and did some amazing things that weekend.”

While White and Perkins were seeded first in the tournament, Rhees was ranked behind three other wrestlers, but defeated top-ranked Darius Williams of William Harper JC, 3-1, in the semis, before claiming the top spot.

“I’m really proud of Glenn Rhees,” Fergola said of his sophomore from Atascadero, Calif., who broke his leg at the Harold Nichols Open at Iowa State in November, but was still able to overcome that and other challenges in his life.

“He’s had a long story that not too many people know about,” Fergola said. “In my first year at Dana College, he was a freshman for us. He had a good freshman year, but struggled with some outside influences and ended up going home. He had been out of wrestling for a couple years. Last year at the end of my season, he started emailing me in hopes of coming back to Dana. I had known that I was coming here, but couldn’t say anything. I just kept telling him, ‘just wait and I’ll call you in a week.’

“After I made my announcement to Dana, I called Glenn up and said, ‘OK, you’re coming out to Iowa to wrestle for me.’ He didn’t even ask me why it was Iowa. He just said OK and now he’s a national champ and he has a 3.67 GPA. I’m just really proud of him to see him finally come back and use the talent that he has to make himself a national champ and he’s doing great in school.”

NIACC’s return to wrestling also brought a natural rivalry with Iowa Central Community College, located 100 miles southwest in Ft. Dodge, Iowa, which saw Young, the second seed from Minneapolis, defeat top-seed Jeremy Ensley of Northwest Wyoming, 6-2.

Also claiming All-American honors for the Tritons were runner-ups David Greenwald, the top-seed at 141, who who lost 7-6 to Meramec’s Senzee, and 165-pounder Brad Lower, who also lost 7-6 to Labette’s Morgan. Lower reached the finals when he pinned Gloucester’s top-seed Randy Moore in the semis. Other ICCC All-Americans were 149-pounder Matt Burns (3rd), 157-pounder Carrington Banks (4th), 184-pounder Joe Johnson (4th) and 197-pounder Kevin Kelly (8th).

Burns, the second seed, lost 3-1 to Niagra’s Dale DeBacco in the quarterfinals, but came back to avenge that loss with a 1:58 fall in the third-place match. Banks was also seeded second but lost 3-2 to Highline’s Giovanni in the quarters.

Among Meramec’s other champions, Winn dominated Rochester’s Nathan Clements, 22-7 in the 184-pound final and his teammate Jones needed overtime to beat Muskegon’s Chad Friend, 6-4.

Winn, named the tournament’s O.W., had no trouble capturing his crown as he scored a 23-8 technical fall over Mercyhurst’s Nathan Kucnick in the first round, pinned Nassau’s Chris Gandolfi in 3:16 of the quarterfinal and crushed Colby’s Chris Kearn, 23-8 in the semifinals.

Nassau, out of Garden City, N.Y., was the highest finisher among the non-scholarship JUCO programs. They finished fifth in the team race. Earning two of the six All-American honors for Nassau were champions Chris Notte, who defeated Western Wyoming’s Nick Mamalis, 6-2, in the 133-pound final and heavyweight Brandon Williamson, who defeated Clackamas’ John Bates, 7-4. n