- See Less -Tom Ryan grew up in New York and became involved in wrestling in grade school. To short for first love basketball he went out for wrestling and instantly loved the sport. In High School he was on course to win the state title before he tore the ligaments in his foot his senior year. Falling off the radar of the bigger schools he followed his brother to Syracuse where he won a EIWA conference title his sophomore year, but Tom wanted more.
Tom had always wanted to wrestle for Iowa and Dan Gable so he got in his car and drove down to Iowa City enrolled at the University of Iowa and walked on to the wrestling team. Success was fast coming for Tom and he soon made his mark at Iowa. In his junior year Tom was the national runner up and in his senior year he took 3rd.
After college Tom was offered the head coaching position at Hofstra at 24 years of age. He turned their program around in two years and before taking the head coaching position at Ohio State he had one Hofstra?s conference Tournament for the past 6 straight years.
Next, as a mature adult and a successful business man today, i would like to wish Dennis and his family well.
However, do feel a bit blind sided by is comments listed below as when i see him in person (which i have since this interview) he has always been very respectful to me.
I was at Hofstra for 4 full years and granted a release my 5th year for reasons none other than it was the right move for me at the time. It was not about failing a drug test nor did I ever admit such a thing to our coach (how would i have competed at Rider if this was true the next year?)
I had come off of my toughet season yet, at a weight class above Denis (174-bumped up as we were both true 57/65 lbers), which was too big for me, and I had absolutely struggled.
Facts: Denis is correct I did beat him in only wrestle off we ever had. Not sure about in the room he discusses, as we never (or rarely) wrestled as we both new could be going after eachothers spot at any time, mostly avaoided eachother. Next, I was never a back up in my 3 yrs competing for Tom, but Denis was wrestling well which brought him into line up (and ultimately we both remained in line up, at 165 and 174 respectively). Denis broke into line up after beating an army wrestler that I had injury defaulted (tore my knee against) in semi finals of west point tournament (which last I cheked is placing in this sport in a 6 place medal structure- not that this would ever be a goal of mine for those who know me).
Denis made great gains in his career and he earned them. At times i did not make the right decisions leading to injuries and/or poor performance and never make an excuse for them as it fuels my success today- accountability is an ingredient for success.
Finally, I am a pretty tough guy too and I am not sure who poster below is talking about "not being at the same level" but Denis and I were pretty competitive in my last (and worst) year at Hofstra (P.S this was deep into college for both of us, me 1 yr older than him).
Again- to set the record straight we both never accomplished our goal of becoming all americans (he did have a nice national tournament once i believ as a junior round of 12), i have respect for gains he made, but think we both know that until that year Denis had never had a more successful year in wrestling in his life (but did have many more matches and wins that year, same year i beat him in wrestle off as injury plagued me that year ultimately opening door for Denis in which he performed very well and moving me up a weight as I was naturally bigger after townshend got hurt).
In our careers we both missed the podium. I respect gains Denis made in college and his work ethic. I am happy for he and his family that he is coaching at Binghamton. D1 College wrestling toughest tribulations are often not on themat (its being 20 yr old kid) as this was definitely te case for me. Finally I had a pretty decent career also as not everyone gets to a level as a 4 year starter with the opportunity to wrestle the best in the world in a prominent D1 program.
That being said, again after feeling a bit blind sided by this post, will agree with Denis on the following: I did not perform to my capability at times (specifically toward the end)of my Hofstra campaign, and that is on me...but last i checked not many guys from around NY/hofstra area that Denis and i grew up who are alking around 1 on up on me.
Yes, I'm still watching, you better finish those push-ups :)
Yes, I'm still watching, you better finish those push-ups :)
Thanks Flo!
the guy in the interview and the guy posting as Dennis can't be the same guy is he frikkin bi-polar or what?
grow up man...call me in the office?
get over what happened 10 years ago and stand by what you do now....ridiculous....talk about an inferiority complex...back on your meds
“Anonymous Coward wrote:
He didnt get a fair shake at LHU?? He would have been 5th string if he was lucky. Hey good for him in finding a place like Hofstra to get better....but bad timing on coming to LHU during those years...we placed 5th in the country in 1997, and LHU had there best team during those years. Every guy who started for us deserved to be there...he just could'nt cut it......and socially he was out of place.”
freshman that came in with me had as a good career as I did, not saying I was a superstar but better than many, i was ranked anywhere from 18th -10th in the nation from my sophmore through senior year, I don't EVER remember seeing the Lock Haven kid ranked ahead of me, EVER! believe me I would have noticed because I took pride beating the Lock Haven kid. The only freshman I am not sure of because I remember he did well too is Scotty Bear, and Robbie Wiekel who I saw recently did pretty good as well. But they were 141 and 149 and I was 157, 165, then 157 again. So couldn't hang at Lock Haven is a stupid stupid post, and simply not true, but I was socially out of place, a long island boy in the sticks was kinda rough, but not why I left, I just knew it wasn't the place for me for wrestling, and I made the right choice for leaving. If you want I probably have 4-5 of those Lock Haven victories on tape and DVD at my house I will post them for ya! So mr. coward you can call me at my office if you want to discuss my number is on the bu website. Thanks so much for watching our interviews we are trying to do big things here at Binghamton and we have made some good steps in that direction.