Dec 10, 2023 By Jonathan Guth 4 min read

By Jonathan Guth

Staff Writer

jguth@observer-reporter.com

JEFFERSON – Cary Kolat can still pack the gymnasium at Jefferson-Morgan High School.

Kolat, who won four state championships for the Rockets from 1989-92, is now the head coach at the United States Naval Academy, had a homecoming of sorts Sunday afternoon as the Midshipmen defeated Ohio University, 27-12.

Prior to the dual meet, Kolat was honored as the inaugural inductee in the Jefferson-Morgan Hall of Fame.

“I didn’t know about this (the Hall of Fame induction) until last week,” Kolat said. “It was a pretty cool experience and very flattering to be the first inductee. I haven’t been in the gym here since 2003.

“You always want to get home more and more. This just gave us an opportunity for our guys to wrestle and for me to come back home.

“I knew it would be a large crowd and the guys like wrestling in front of a large crowd. The turnout was awesome, the fans were awesome, a great experience for our guys and hopefully we’ll do more of it in the future.”

Jefferson-Morgan athletic director Scot Moore and the administration had been working for several years to recognize Kolat.

“We’ve been planning this for years and trying to get the ball rolling,” Moore said. “This just seemed like the perfect venue to get it done. Cary contacted me about the possibility of having this match here, and it just fit like a hand in a glove. It was perfect.”

Kolat was not only a four-time state champion, he finished his high school career at 137-0 and was named Outstanding Wrestling each year at the state tournament. He began his collegiate career at Penn State, where he was national runner-up as a freshman and All-American as a sophomore before he transferred to Lock Haven, where he won two national championships and finished his collegiate career at 111-7 with 53 falls.

Kolat is a three-time World Cup champion and a two-time Pan American champion, and was a member of the 2000 Olympic team in Sydney, Australia.

“We were going to travel to Annapolis two weeks in a row, but when they told us about the match being here, we were definitely on board,” Ohio coach Joel Greenlee said. “Cary (Kolat) has meant so much to wrestling over the years. A lot of guys wrestle at bigger schools, but this isn’t one of the bigger schools, but the guy went here and wrestled in the Olympics, so that is a great motivational tool for everybody.”

Kolat began his coaching career as an assistant at North Carolina in 2010 before taking the head coaching job at Campbell University prior to the 2014-15 season. Kolat is in his fourth year at Navy.

Stories of the gymnasium being packed when Kolat wrestled for the Rockets are legendary, and with his high school coach, Ron Headlee, in attendance, and a standing-room only crowd, it felt a little bit like the late 1980s and early 1990s.

“It was definitely a unique opportunity,” Kolat said. “I competed here but it is a little bit different coaching.”

Despite being back home and receiving a hero’s welcome, Kolat and the Midshipman (5-0) had a dual meet to win, which seemed in doubt after the Bobcats (2-1) won four out of the first five bouts to jump out to a 12-3 lead, but with the first bout being at 149 pounds, Ohio had a slight edge in the middleweights.

“We knew what matchups were going to be tough,” Kolat said. “We dropped a lot in the last few seconds of the matches we lost. We knew down low was our best opportunity for bonus points, so it played out that way.

“I would have rather had those last few takedowns in the upper weights, but we will go make adjustments, and that’s why you compete, is to find those mistakes and get better.”

Navy’s Jacob Lucas broke a 1-1 tie in the third with a takedown for a 4-1 lead against Austin Starr at 197. Starr scored a reversal but Lucas hung on for a 4-3 decision in the first of five straight wins for the Midshipmen.

Grady Griess of Navy defended his No. 13 national ranking with an 11-2 major decision over Jordan Greer at 285. Griess’ win cut Navy’s deficit to 12-10, and it was the first of four straight bonus-point victories for the Midshipmen.

Evan Tallmadge pinned Ryan Meek in 4:10 at 125 for a 16-12 advantage before No. 22 Brendan Ferretti won by technical fall, 18-2, in 6:34 at 133 and No. 18 Josh Koderhandt recorded a pin in 4:39 at 141.