NEW LEXINGTON — Enright Trained is a former garage on Main Street in New Lexington that owner Shawn Enright transformed into a wrestling facility. A former state champion and national runner-up while at Ohio University, Enright created it with hopes of helping the sport improve locally. With the prestigious Disney Duals less than one week away for the New Lexington High School wrestling team, Enright has played host to some of the best wrestling minds in Ohio this week for the annual summer training camp. Thursday was Ohio State coach Tom Ryan’s turn. He showed the sort of energy and teaching methods that has propelled the Buckeyes into a national contender since his arrival. Ryan spent 90 minutes teaching a group of aspiring youth wrestlers various techniques and other training tools necessary to become elite. “I knew on the way down here it was going to be fun,” Ryan said. “The facility here speaks volumes of the type of people you have here. I just knew I was going to run into some people who care about their sports. It’s a beautiful summer day and we’re in an old warehouse going after each other. There’s no better place for young men to be.” Ryan took a hands-on approach to teaching, which covered several techniques from the bottom position. They took just one water break in a fast-paced session. “You understand why Ohio State is top five in the nation year in and year out,” Enright said. “He brings an intensity that he took to Hofstra and now he’s brought it to Ohio State. It’s going to be in good hands for a while up there.” Ryan was part of a “who’s who” list of teachers Enright and Panthers’ coach David Ratliff brought to their camp. Ashland coach Tim Dernlan taught Monday and Athens coach Paul Kaiser, a former Kentucky state champion and New Lex assistant, was there Tuesday. Wednesday featured former OSU national champion Mike Pucillo, while Friday will feature four-time Division I state champion Collin Palmer, of Lakewood St. Edward. A pair of three-time state champions — St. Edward grad Eddie Jane and Columbus Ready grad Dominic DiSabato — and former Division III state champion and national junior college runner-up Matt Yinger, of Nelsonville-York, are on tap for next week. Jane wrestled at Penn State, while DiSabato was a national qualifier at Ohio State and currently is the head coach at Hilliard Davidson. Ratliff contacted Ryan through former two-time OSU national champion Tommy Rowlands, the director of operations at the Ohio National Training Center. “The wrestling world in Ohio, it’s like a small family,” Ratliff said. “They’re always trying to help each other.” Ryan’s crowd clearly was intrigued by his seemingly endless energy. “I thought he was an awesome guy,” Sheridan’s Devin King said. “I can tell he is a great coach. I was so motivated the whole time, just to hear everything he was saying. He was just such an inspiring guy.” King’s father, Chris, is the Generals’ head coach. The former has been around the sport since birth, but learned a few new tricks Thursday. “There’s always like small stuff with just technique and everything that you can learn,” Devin King said. “My dad is more of an upper-body guy and we’re always using (underhooks) and things like that, but anytime someone like Tom comes and works legs there’s always other stuff that I can work on.” Ratliff knows the importance of offseason work and feels fortunate his team was able to get high-quality input. He thanked Enright for being able to use the facility; the high school and middle schools were unavailable. “It’s hard in the summer to get kids to train hard unless they have their internal drive that coach Ryan talked about today,” Ratliff said. “He brought a lot of enthusiasm. He really kept the kids focused.” Ratliff, whose team leaves for Disney June 27, hopes the training camp pays off. “I’ve always wanted to take a team to Disney,” said Ratliff, whose team raised more than $10,000 to offset the cost of the trip. “My goal as a coach is to be able to do this every year.” sblackburn@zanesvilletimesrecorder
Posted on: Fri, 21 Jun 2013 16:38:26 +0000
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