Jeff Gardner has been a fixture within the Idaho wrestling community for nearly four decades, both as an accomplished wrestler followed by an exceptional coaching career at the prep level.  According to his high school coach, Cliff Laughlin, a 2003 National Wrestling Hall of Fame inductee, “Jeff Gardner’s distinguished wrestling career and significant contributions to the sport of Idaho are indeed commendable…leading Snake River High School to multiple state championships and mentoring numerous state champions, further underscores his impact to the wrestling community.” A 1989 graduate of Idaho Falls High School, Jeff earned not only a district championship, he won back-to-back state titles in 1988-’89, respectively. Jeff continued his mat career in college where he competed at the Division I level for Brigham Young University (BYU). While at BYU, he was a championship finalist at the Western Athletic Conference (WAC), as well as a Graduate Assistant Coach for Head Coach/Olympic Gold medalist Mark Schultz. Graduating from BYU in 1997, Jeff transitioned his talents to teaching and coaching at the prep level. Returning to his alma mater, Post Falls, Jeff was an assistant for the next three year and then took over the reigns as Head Coach at Snake River High School where he built not only a strong wrestling culture, but one of the strongest programs in the state. Over the course of his 23 year coaching career, Jeff produced three state championship teams (2011, ’15, and ’16) in addition to sixteen top four finishes. Additionally, he produced 170 State Place Winners, forty-three individual Champions, seven 2x State Champions, four 3x State Champions, and two 4x State Champions. On top of that, Jeff was voted Idaho 3A Coach-of-the-Year (3x) and 3A Coach-of-the-Year for District 5 (10x).