With college wrestling’s regular season in the books, Ohio State is preparing for the Big Ten Championships. The brief respite provides coach Tom Ryan with professional and mental reflection on the season. 

Characteristically, Ryan’s reflections are all-encompassing. He’s open-book, candid about his team’s season thus far — the gift of example given to the Buckeye program by Sammy Sasso’s comeback attempt and Ryan’s own mental and physical health since his near-fatal car accident last April.

What has to happen for Ryan and company to be satisfied at the conclusion of the conference tournament?

“I don’t think there’s a certain place-finish that we’re looking at,” he said. “I’m so past that being the standard.”

It wasn’t a statement of apathy.

“Of course we want to place high,” he said. “Of course we want to win. Every team wants to win. But I really feel like if we embrace our ‘zoe’ and wrestle that way, we actually will wrestle our best.”  

A Greek word for ‘fullness of life,’ Ryan explained he discovered the term in a book he’d recently read.

“The book was Inner Excellence, by Jim Murphy. He’s a devout, Christian believer. He explains that ‘zoe’ is the fullness of life — the Godly, abundant life. 

“Anybody watching wrestling can clearly see when there’s a competitor in that state of mind —  where there’s no place they’d rather be. They’re competing, fully and freely. That’s all we want from our wrestlers. Compete freely. Compete with gratitude. Compete with ‘zoe.’ 

“When they focus only on the things they can control — and one is wrestling freely — it’s no accident that it produces better performances and more wins. We want them to go into the tournament with that frame of mind and wrestling that way. If that happens, we’ll be satisfied at the tournament’s end.”  

Ryan spoke unreservedly of his team’s periodic mental lapses this season, of times where “wrestling freely” was replaced with tentativeness or a lacking awareness of in-match situations.

“There's been times this year where we’ve witnessed (wrestling freely) and there’s been times that certain moments have gotten to us,” he said. “We meet as a team to discuss things every Wednesday, and the guys are really open. Guys will admit that maybe they’d said prior to a match that they were excited and ready to go, but they know they didn’t show that in their match.

“So we challenge each other. We’ll ask, OK, what will you do next time? And how can we help you?’ Things like that. It just takes a few leaders being open and honest in these meetings, and it opens the floodgates for other guys.”

Cannon Takes Over For Sasso At 157

Sammy Sasso’s competitive career for the Buckeyes has come to an end. It’s been a well-chronicled journey for the four-time All American and two-time national finalist, who sustained spinal injuries requiring multiple corrective surgeries after being shot in 2023.

“Sammy did this year exactly what he said he was going to do,” Ryan said. “From the time he was shot, he told us he’d do everything humanly possible to prepare himself to get back to the level he was.”

Sasso’s goal was to regain his former abilities to the furthest extent possible.

“He was honest with himself,” Ryan said. “He told us that in his condition right now, the best thing to do to help the team is to bow out, and that’s what Sammy has done. Brandon Cannon will be in Sammy’s spot at the Big Tens.

“We lost (Luke) Geog this year. We lost (Bryce) Hepner. Obviously, we sat Rocco (Welsh) this year. We’ll have Paddy (Gallagher) at 165 for the tournament. The team we put out there for the Big Tens will be the best we’ve got right now.”

Ryan Opens Up On BTN

As most fans know, Ryan was in a serious car accident last April, striking the back of a broken down tractor trailer at 65 miles per hour. His injuries, surgeries and months of incapacitation rendered him susceptible, he admitted recently, to “dark places.”  

“I’ve tried to learn this past year,” he said. “I’ve realized you gotta have the inner capacity to talk to people, not be ashamed of thoughts that come to you. I wasn’t crazy, there were just times I was in a terrible spot.”

In a recently aired segment on the Big Ten Network, Ryan admitted to thoughts of suicide invading his mind while bed and wheelchair-bound for months. 

Ryan paused when asked if he felt such candor may have surprised some people.

“It’s hard to describe,” he said. “I wasn’t able to get clarity during that time. I couldn’t get the focus off myself. I know how bad and selfish that sounds, but when you’re deeply hurting, it’s sometimes so big you can’t think of anything but yourself. Part of my focus now is, ‘What’s the learning I’m supposed to get from all that?’

“I was soaking in misery. I was in a lot of pain. There was physical pain, but the mental part —  where your mind can go — that was the worst. I went through about a month where I couldn’t find joy or happiness in anything. I'd try to, especially when my grandkids visited, but I was still so sad, and that made me more sad and mad that I couldn’t experience joy.”

Worse, Ryan said, were feelings that his faith was being proven inadequate.

“You begin to wonder, ‘Why am I not trusting God?’” he said. “As a believer, I know life requires us to pick up and carry our crosses, no matter how heavy. I started to doubt my faith. It would compound, and then you’re in a bad rabbit hole.”

Ryan’s admission to the fragility of his mental state during the initial months of recovery has spurred a variety of mental health organizations to invite him to speak at upcoming functions. 

“You gotta be open,” he said. “Sometimes, it feels like things are too heavy. Find people you can talk with or just sit with, maybe no words at all. I used to be arrogant when I’d hear someone say, ‘I have anxiety.’ I was wrong. Our advice has to be more than, ‘Snap out of it,’ more than just, ‘Keep pushing through.’ 

“Sometimes, people are really in shackles.  ”