Coach LeRoy Gardner leads first two NCAA Div. III national qualifiers for University of the Ozarks program
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by Jon Gremmels, Special to TheMat.com
LeRoy Gardner, coach at the University of the Ozarks, has led his school’s first NCAA Div. III Championships qualifiers. Photo courtesy of Jon Gremmels.
LeRoy Gardner is no stranger to the elation postseason wrestling can bring.
Fifteen years ago, his title at heavyweight capped the highest-scoring performance by a team in NCAA Division III history. As terrific as that feeling was, he found something even better last week.
Now the head coach of the fledgling University of the Ozarks team, Gardner guided the first wrestler in the school's four-year history to a berth in this week’s Division III Championships.
A few minutes later, that total doubled. Senior Devon Jackson and freshman Nathaneal Rankin both had qualified for this weekend's tournament in Cleveland, Ohio.
“As an athlete, obviously that was a huge, wonderful event,” Gardner said of his 2003 championship for Wartburg College, which placed all 10 wrestlers in the top six that year and piled up 166.5 points, “but this is a thousand times better seeing those guys get that.”
The school’s first qualifier was especially special.
Jackson, who won his third-place match at 125 pounds to qualify for nationals, had a history with Gardner.
“I was one of Coach Gardner’s first wrestlers,” Jackson said. “He wanted me to come up and be a leader.”
Jackson’s journey to meet up with Gardner started after he first attended Briar Cliff, an NAIA college in Iowa, before returning home. He came back to Houston, Texas, where he placed fifth in 2011 and third in 2012 at the Texas state tournaments for Bellaire High School, and began attending the University of Houston-Downtown, where he joined the school’s club program.
“He was my first NWCA All-American at Houston-Downtown,” Gardner said. “He came with me to Ozarks.”
Gardner took over at Ozarks in 2016, in the school’s third year with a wrestling program.
“We started from the ground up,” Jackson, who placed third in the 2016 NCWA tournament, said. “We wanted to put our faces on the map.”
The first step was having a wrestler win a match in the regional tournament. That happened last year. The next was getting someone through the always-tough, now-named Lower Midwest Regional tournament that Gardner’s alma mater has dominated. Part of that battle was instilling confidence in the competitors.
“There was no magic,” Gardner, a three-time All-American for Wartburg, said. “The guys were willing to work. We (the coaches) tell them let us believe in you when you don’t believe in yourself.”
He repeated words he heard from his college coach, the legendary Jim Miller, at Wartburg to inspire his wrestlers.
“Selling it (is key),” Gardner said. “Here’s the message: ‘There’s no reason it can’t be you.’ That’s right out of Milboy’s playbook.”
If the wrestlers in the program needed an example, they got one when Jackson advanced. He did it by building a lead against Coe College freshman Brock Henderson and then holding off the two-time Iowa state champion for a 9-8 win.
“I knew it was going to be a battle,” Jackson said. “He scared me a little off his first sweep single, but once I got to my shots -- I’m a hammer on top -- I felt a little bit of comfort.”
If his teammates needed more inspiration, they got it minutes later when Rankin qualified for nationals with a third-place finish at 133 pounds.
“Nathan, as a true freshman, all he does is go hard,” Gardner said.
That’s just the kind of kid Gardner is looking for as he tries to build the program in Clarksville, Arkansas, a state a long way from being considered a wrestling hotbed -- wrestling wasn't even a sanctioned high school sport 10 years ago.
But Jackson has no doubt that’s going to change.
“We’re going to keep climbing that ladder,” he said.
LeRoy Gardner is no stranger to the elation postseason wrestling can bring.
Fifteen years ago, his title at heavyweight capped the highest-scoring performance by a team in NCAA Division III history. As terrific as that feeling was, he found something even better last week.
Now the head coach of the fledgling University of the Ozarks team, Gardner guided the first wrestler in the school's four-year history to a berth in this week’s Division III Championships.
A few minutes later, that total doubled. Senior Devon Jackson and freshman Nathaneal Rankin both had qualified for this weekend's tournament in Cleveland, Ohio.
“As an athlete, obviously that was a huge, wonderful event,” Gardner said of his 2003 championship for Wartburg College, which placed all 10 wrestlers in the top six that year and piled up 166.5 points, “but this is a thousand times better seeing those guys get that.”
The school’s first qualifier was especially special.
Jackson, who won his third-place match at 125 pounds to qualify for nationals, had a history with Gardner.
“I was one of Coach Gardner’s first wrestlers,” Jackson said. “He wanted me to come up and be a leader.”
Jackson’s journey to meet up with Gardner started after he first attended Briar Cliff, an NAIA college in Iowa, before returning home. He came back to Houston, Texas, where he placed fifth in 2011 and third in 2012 at the Texas state tournaments for Bellaire High School, and began attending the University of Houston-Downtown, where he joined the school’s club program.
“He was my first NWCA All-American at Houston-Downtown,” Gardner said. “He came with me to Ozarks.”
Gardner took over at Ozarks in 2016, in the school’s third year with a wrestling program.
“We started from the ground up,” Jackson, who placed third in the 2016 NCWA tournament, said. “We wanted to put our faces on the map.”
The first step was having a wrestler win a match in the regional tournament. That happened last year. The next was getting someone through the always-tough, now-named Lower Midwest Regional tournament that Gardner’s alma mater has dominated. Part of that battle was instilling confidence in the competitors.
“There was no magic,” Gardner, a three-time All-American for Wartburg, said. “The guys were willing to work. We (the coaches) tell them let us believe in you when you don’t believe in yourself.”
He repeated words he heard from his college coach, the legendary Jim Miller, at Wartburg to inspire his wrestlers.
“Selling it (is key),” Gardner said. “Here’s the message: ‘There’s no reason it can’t be you.’ That’s right out of Milboy’s playbook.”
If the wrestlers in the program needed an example, they got one when Jackson advanced. He did it by building a lead against Coe College freshman Brock Henderson and then holding off the two-time Iowa state champion for a 9-8 win.
“I knew it was going to be a battle,” Jackson said. “He scared me a little off his first sweep single, but once I got to my shots -- I’m a hammer on top -- I felt a little bit of comfort.”
If his teammates needed more inspiration, they got it minutes later when Rankin qualified for nationals with a third-place finish at 133 pounds.
“Nathan, as a true freshman, all he does is go hard,” Gardner said.
That’s just the kind of kid Gardner is looking for as he tries to build the program in Clarksville, Arkansas, a state a long way from being considered a wrestling hotbed -- wrestling wasn't even a sanctioned high school sport 10 years ago.
But Jackson has no doubt that’s going to change.
“We’re going to keep climbing that ladder,” he said.
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