SUNY Brockport hires Troy Seymour as next head coach

Brockport State Director of Athletics Dr. Erick Hart announced on July 2nd that Troy Seymour will be the next head coach of the Golden Eagles. Seymour wrestled collegiately at SUNY Oswego, qualifying for the NCAA Division III championships and claiming over 100 victories amongst a number of other career accolades. From 2019 to 2024 Seymour coached alongside veteran Lakers head coach Mike Howard, a 2024 Upstate NY Chapter Lifetime Service to Wrestling honoree. Seymour hails from Plattsburgh where he wrestled in the legendary Peru High School program under current Upstate board member and 2018 Chapter honoree Mike Hogan.

For more on Seymour please visit the link below:

https://gobrockport.com/news/2024/7/2/brockport-tabs-troy-seymour-as-full-time-head-wrestling-coach.aspx

University at Buffalo taps Richard, Dunn as assistant coaches

New Bulls head wrestling coach Donnie Vinson announced the hiring of assistant coaches Hunter Richard and Andrew Dunn to the staff at SUNY Buffalo recently. Richard, who wrestled under Vinson at Cornell, qualified for the NCAA Division I national championships twice while posting a 67-33 career record for the Big Red. The Upstate New York native from Barneveld achieved a number of academic honors while at Cornell before a brief career in the finance sector. In the 2023, Richard returned to wrestling on the staff at Appalachian State, helping to coach the Mountaineers to a Southern Conference team title while guiding five wrestlers to the Division I national tournament.

For more on Richard please visit the below link:

https://ubbulls.com/news/2024/5/15/wrestling-hires-hunter-richard-as-assistant-coach.aspx

On June 14th, Vinson announced Andrew Dunn as an assistant to the staff of the Bulls. Dunn wrestled collegiately at Virginia Tech where he qualified for the national championships in 2018. Dunn moved back to his home state of Pennsylvania the following season where he captured the 2019 Division II 285-pound title wrestling for Kutztown University. Dunn completed his career as a three-time Division II All-American for the Golden Bears before moving on to a coaching & operations position with the California Regional Training Center and Cardinal Wrestling Club at Stanford. Last season, Dunn was the Director of Operations for North Carolina Tar Heels wrestling. Coach Dunn is a native of Bethlehem, PA.

For more on Dunn please visit the link below:

https://ubbulls.com/news/2024/6/14/wrestling-hires-andrew-dunn-as-assistant-coach.aspx

Baldwinsville honors Leo Johnson

On June 7, the people of Baldwinsville held a celebration in honor of Leo Johnson who had the renovated gymnasium at the Baldwinsville High School dedicated to him. Leo who had coached wrestling in Baldwinsville and served as their Athletic Director at Baldwinsville for many years was given a large dinner party at the Firefox Golf Course in his hometown. Leo has won just about every award imaginable including, Northeastern N.H.S.A.C.A. Coach of the Year; New York State Coaches Honor Award; Scholastic "Man of the Year" in Upstate New York; a member of the New York State Wrestling Hall of Fame; President of New York State Wrestling Coaches Association; National Regional Coach of the Year -N.H.S.A.C.A.; New York State Coach of the Year; New York Team Coach - Teams from Missouri, Florida, New Mexico, Vermont, as well as Norway and Poland; and NCAA College Division Championship official. In 1997 Leo was inducted into the Upstate New York Chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and served on the Board of Directors for the Chapter for several years. The Chapter salutes Leo and his teams for all their accomplishments.

Len Gadway started his wrestling career in the 5th grade when his physical education teacher, Stan Riggs, presented a unit on wrestling. This was the beginning of Len’s love and passion for the sport. Stan Riggs would go on to be a Hall of Fame coach for Peru High School  and Len will join his mentor and coach into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame today. In high school Len would win two Section VII sectional titles for the Peru Indians. In 1973 Gadway won the 155 pound title and then in 1975 Len would repeat his sectional title at the 167 pound class. Len would travel on to Syracuse to represent the section in the NYSPHSAA wrestling championship and become the first Peru and Section VII wrestler to finish in the runner-up position on the podium. Len pinned his way to the championship match but would be defeated by Chris Lawson from Section VI.

Len credits Coach Riggs for his development as a wrestler but also gives an enormous amount of credit to Jack Hogan, father of another Hall of Famer Mike Hogan, for all that he did for him in wrestling. Len stated, “Jack Hogan carted us (Mike Hogan and Len) around the state to wrestling events and was very instrumental in my development as a wrestler and person. I owe him a huge amount for his effort and generosity.” 

Following his high school wrestling career, Len would journey to Northern Adirondack High School, one of Peru’s biggest rivals in the Champlain Valley Athletic Conference, to become an assistant coach. Coach Gadway would remain there until 1982 when he started his head coaching position at Beekmantown. Coach Gadway’s forty some year career at Beekmantown is something to be very proud of. Gadway has won 482 dual meets at this time and still counting … it is not sure when Len will end this remarkable run as a coach. During this period of time, Len’s Beekmantown teams have won seven Section VII team championships (1985, 86 and 2004,05,06,08 and 2009) as well as six Champlain Valley Athletic Conference championships. In addition, Coach Gadway has been named the Coach of the Year five times during his illustrious career with the Eagles. One of the biggest honors that Len has had is the coaching of his son, Chris, to three Section VII titles in 1999, 2000 and 2001.  And in 1999, Len had his two sons, Lee and Chris, win a Section VII title and wrestle in the New York State Championships together. Further, Coach Gadway has coached many individual wrestlers to championships including Hayden Head to a state title in 2012 and Jason Lapham during his career at Beekmantown finished 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th. He has coached 142 Section VII individual champions and numerous other sectional place winners, too numerous to mention.

Furthermore, Chris Gadway, son of Coach Gadway, had this to say about his father, “It isn’t always about winning and losing for my father. It is how you won and lost that was important to him. My father stressed that his success as a coach was not what happens on the mat but off the mat. Dad is highly respected in the Section VII wrestling community for his success and the way that he conducts himself and his squads.”

 Len has indicated that some of the life lessons that he attempts to teach his student/athletes are the same ones that Coach Riggs conveyed to him at Peru. Those lessons include a wrestler should never quit and that hard work and self-confidence will enable a wrestler to achieve anything that they strive to do.  Jason Cook, one of Len’s former wrestlers, stated this about Coach Gadway, “He was old school and would push all his athletes to do their best. But he would make sure that all his wrestlers were taken care. He would give them money to eat with at tournaments, make sure that they had rides home after practices and contests. And would provide the wrestlers with off season practices and competitions to help them get better at the sport. I feel privileged and honored to have wrestled for Len Gadway.”

Len Gadway has given over 40 years of commitment and service to the sport of wrestling. And for this dedication the Upstate New York Chapter is honored to enshrine him into the Upstate New York Chapters Hall of Fame now and forever. Congratulation Len!   

Bill Doran was a stand-out runner at North Syracuse Central High School, holding a school record in the intermediate hurdles for many years. But during his freshman year, he was “encouraged” to join his high school’s wrestling team when two of his best friends – then members of the team – began a habit of kidnapping him after track practice, tossing him in the showers and refusing to let him exit unless and until he acquiesced to their demands that he join them in the wrestling room.

The extortion worked.

Bill’s wrestling journey officially began after he was “persuaded’ by the same two pals to attend a Lake George wrestling camp in the summer of 1973.

Bill went on to wrestle three years on the varsity for North Syracuse, then known as the Northmen (before that high school re-combined with Cicero High to form the C-NS NorthStars). He graduated in 1976 as a tri-captain of the wrestling team - together with those same two friends.

Bill continued his wrestling career with two years at Morrisville Community College and completed his run as a participant for Region 5 in the 1979 Empire Games. During the early 1980’s, he became the first North Area Wrestling Club Coach, a program which drew hundreds of youth wrestlers from North Syracuse, Cicero and Liverpool, many of whom went on to enjoy highly successful high school wrestling careers.

At this time, Ron Roch, Bill’s high school wrestling coach and friend Gene (“Butch”) Meyle both suggested that Bill consider joining the Syracuse Wrestling Officials Association (SWOA) and the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Officials Association (EIWOA). Doran ended up officiating for both associations for more than forty-three years and, during his time with SWOA, served that organization variously as president, vice-president, member-at-large and rules interpreter.

Bill was selected many times to officiate the class tournaments, sectional finals and the Dual Meet Finals. He was also chosen to officiate the New York State Championships four times and was ranked as that tournament’s top official in 1999 – an outstanding achievement.

As a college official, Doran officiated no fewer than five national championships. Major highlights of his officiating career included being selected to officiate a Division 1 tournament, three Division 2 and one Division 3 tournaments. In addition, during his officiating career, Bill worked seventeen Division 1 national qualifying tournaments, thirty-five Division 3 qualifying tournaments, two Division 2 qualifying tournaments and twenty-eight New York State college championship tournaments.  

Bill was also selected to officiate the first ever collegiate wrestling matches held at Madison Square Garden for the Beat the Streets’ “Grapple at The Garden” dual between Cornell University and Oklahoma State. He was an active member of the EIWOA Executive Board for fifteen years and the assignor for the New York State SUNY schools and Ithaca College wrestling teams.

In 2022, Bill capped his officiating career by being chosen for induction into the Hall of Fame for both the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Officials Association and Section III Wrestling. He continues to remain involved in our sport as the SWOA rules interpreter, organizing training programs for new officials and as assessor for the New York State weight certifications.

Bill’s professional career included working as a business analyst for the Kimberly-Clark Corporation for nearly thirty years. During his spare time, he enjoys golfing. Bill currently serves as vice-president on the Kanon Valley Golf Course Executive Board.

Bill states his involvement in officiating would not have been possible without the love, support and understanding of Roxanne (Rocky), his wife of over thirty years, his son Nicholas, a Federal Bank Examiner for the United States Treasury and his daughter Jessica (ex-wrestling score keeper), a physical therapist assistant for SOS and personal trainer. And, of course, without the “encouragement” associated with being tossed in the showers by his North Syracuse High School buddies.