Veryl Long wrestled for Trinity High School in Pennsylvania and amassed a dual meet record of 65 wins and two losses.

He was a WPIAL, and Regional champion in 1955 and 1956. Long was 138-pound runner-up for the state title in 1955, and the PIAA State Champion at 145 pounds in 1956.

Long entered the U.S. Army after graduating from high school and while stationed at Fort Knox, Kentucky, won the Post championship in freestyle and Greco-Roman at 147 pounds. From 1958-1960 he was a member of the All-Army Wrestling Team.

He was a member of the Pan American team in 1959 and of the 1960 U.S. Olympic team. In the final training camp before the 1960 Rome Olympics, Veryl lost to Shelby Wilson, who went on to a gold medal in the Olympics.

Veryl was then awarded a full scholarship to Iowa State University in 1962. He was an NCAA Division I champion at 147 pounds in 1965 after finishing third in 1963 and fourth in 1964. His finals victory, 5-5, 0-0, referee's decision over Gettysburg’s Joe Bavaro, was crucial to Iowa State's final-day comeback to win the 1965 team title by a single-point over Oklahoma State. Long was a Big Eight Conference champion in 1963 and finished his collegiate career with a 95-4 record while helping the Cyclones finish second, third and first at the NCAA tournament.

After graduating from college, Long became an assistant wrestling coach at Montclair State College, in Montclair, NJ. In 1973-1974 he was the head wrestling coach at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, PA.

From 1989 to 1997 he was the head wrestling coach at Carrick High School in Pittsburgh, coaching 46 Pittsburgh city champions, with 24 wrestlers winning runner-up titles and 15 finishing third. Carrick won the city title once, finished second eight times and in third place one time.

He retired from the coaching ranks in 1997. He was a PIAA wrestling official for 14 years.

Coach Long was elected to the Pennsylvania State Wrestling Coaches Hall of Fame in 1987 and was inducted into the Iowa State Athletics Hall of Fame in 2013.