For Clarion head coach Keith Ferraro, this time of year always elicits the same feelings.

“Yeah, I do,” he said of whether he still gets butterflies in his stomach on the precipice of a new season.

Even in his 12th year leading the Golden Eagles program, the gamut of emotions remains the same as a head coach.

“You have some known commodities and some that you don’t really know how good they are,” Ferraro said.

“There’s a lot of curiosity about what’s going to happen whenever they step on the mat against a college field. So yeah, it makes me nervous. But it’s also exciting — especially some years.”

As it turns out, this year is one of those years for Ferraro, who lauds his 2025-26 team for having “the best preseason probably since I got the job at Clarion.”

All of this sounds familiar if you’re a college coach – of any sport. But unlike most others around the country, even in the wrestling space, Ferraro has another major responsibility on his mind as the season begins.

Introducing The Clarion Open

“I’ve always run it. Even when I was an assistant, it was one of my main things and it’s been important to me.”

Those are Ferraro’s words regarding this Sunday’s Clarion Open — an event that annually serves as one of the best parts of college wrestling’s season-opening weekend.

“When I got here, we were keeping score on paper. It was not broadcasted, it was not covered, and there were no score clocks,” Ferraro said.

Originally known as the ‘Knight Point Open’ upon its inception in the mid-2000s, the tournament has grown in both scope and status over the years, thanks in no small part to Ferraro’s efforts.

“Over the long haul, it’s really been an incredible event,” he said. “And we’ve tried since I got here to kind of pick out a spot every year to make it more prestigious.

“The evolution of the event has been really important to me. I think it’s become a real special thing, and you try to do everything as classy as we can.”

Asked what he feels like the turning point was, Ferraro’s answer might surprise you.

And it all traces back to those darn score clocks.

A Turning Point

“Picture the old flip scoreboards. That’s what we used at the first Clarion Open when I got the job,” Ferraro said.

“We didn’t have any (digital) score clocks and I wanted to do it.

“I was looking at, you know, the three-sided, like LED board, which first came out, and people were using FloArena to run events and scoring on those.”

“I looked at them, and they were like $2500, and I was like, ‘I can build these things.’”

A self-proclaimed ‘tinkerer,’ one of Ferraro’s first big projects was restoring an old Volkswagen bus while he was a student-athlete at Lock Haven University.

“I knew nothing about cars,” he remembers. “I didn’t even change my oil at the time. And I bought a bus out of a junkyard for 500 bucks, and I bought a book, and I restored the whole thing.”

“I haven’t been to a mechanic since.”

That aside…aside…it suddenly makes more sense why the score clock issue felt so eminently solvable to the veteran coach.

“So, I went to a local weld shop, and a guy fabricated it for me — actually ended up donating the brackets,” he said. 

“(After) I got all the guts for free that holds the boards together, I built all those LED boards (myself) – just bought all the parts I needed, electronics and everything.”

From there, it was as simple as finding sponsors to offset the building costs.

“It came to $600 a board, and I got sponsors for $600 a board,” Ferraro said. 

“That was like a huge thing. And then Flo picked up a contract to cover the event. And when we did that, I feel like it took it from just a run-of-the-mill college open and turned it into what I picture as one of the more prestigious college opens of the year.”

In case you were wondering, the score clocks still work great — going on almost 10 years now, according to Clarion’s head coach/mechanic.

But for as great as that is, the competition on the mat is still what carries the day.

Welcoming All Comers

Come this Sunday, athletes from programs like Air Force, Cornell, Edinboro, Ohio State, Pittsburgh and others will scrap inside the (new) gymnasium at Clarion.

And they’ll be joined by a slew of high school entries — 42 as of Friday morning — to help compile one of the more unique wrestling environments you’ll find.

“It brings incredible talent to our campus,” Ferraro said of the annual smorgasbord of competitors at this event.

“Maybe it’s not as digestible as dual meets to a lot of local fans, but to people that are real wrestling nuts, it’s really exciting that they get to come watch these guys come to our gym.”

Of course, a significant portion of the field will be guys Ferraro is already quite familiar with. Just don’t expect him to coach many of them on Sunday.

“I run the event, our assistants run the team,” he said. “That’s kind of how we’ve done it over the years and it works great.”

“When I’m walking through the gym and I have a minute to catch a (full) match, I do — and coach the guy. But my priority has to be making sure the event is awesome.”

“I have great assistants, and they always step up to the challenge and do a great job helping with little details of the event. And then, when we get to that last 24 hours (of competition), they just take the team, and I take the event.”

In those brief moments when Ferraro is able to catch/coach a full match, two of his athletes come to mind as guys he’s really looking forward to watching this season.

Herrera-Rondon And Fischer Seek Strong Finish To College Careers

Both Joey Fischer and Alejandro Herrera-Rondon were blue-chip recruits in the Class of 2021.

Fischer — a 2021 Pennsylvania state champ — has been at Clarion ever since.

Meanwhile, Herrera-Rondon — the top-ranked prospect in America at 152 pounds — spent his first two college seasons at Oklahoma before transferring to Clarion two years ago.

Now, following mixed results/luck as collegians to date, both are about to embark upon their senior season(s).

Their head coach is hoping this final chapter will include a triumphant conclusion.

“Joe Fischer redshirted last year with an intention to really focus on scoring more points,” Ferraro said. 

“He’s capable of beating the best guys — we’ve seen it. But the reason he hasn’t done it consistently is because sometimes in close matches, he has an inability to put up that last takedown that he needs.

“He went up to 133 last year, redshirted and got a ton of matches in (32 total), and we think made some pretty big strides.”

As for the “super talented” Herrera-Rondon, good health (and grit) may hold the key.

“Alejandro…he’s just working on getting gritty in situations that make the biggest difference,” Ferraro said. “His whole career has been kind of riddled with injury, and right now he’s feeling good and healthy and he’s up at 65 this year.

If those elements persist, “I think he could definitely have a great year,” Ferraro said.

“He’s had a great preseason. He’s worked much harder than I’ve seen him work in the past. So that’s exciting.

“A lot of the things we preach, especially to guys like them, is just kind of focusing on the process of getting better every day — being a lifelong learner in the sport and not just focusing on outcomes but focusing on developing and becoming the best version of yourself.

“The truth is, whether it’s exciting or disappointing the way your career ends, if you truly embrace that and give everything you have to be the best version of yourself, there really is no regret that can come from it.”