Champion of his sport: SMCC's Opfer named to wrestling coaches' hall of fame

Most mornings, St. Mary Central Catholic alumnus Jared Opfer still has to pinch himself to make sure he's not dreaming.As executive director of the Ohio Athletic Committee, he's in charge of making sure there's always development opportunities for those in the sport he loves: wrestling."I love it," Opfer said. "I get to work alongside my old high school coach (Jude Roth) organizing and running wrestling events, being a key part in youth wrestling in Ohio."Before the OAC, there was nothing at the middle school and junior high level for wrestling in the state. Now, Ohio has one of the best middle school tournaments in the country."Last Saturday — almost exactly 20 years to the date when he became the first-ever four-time OHSAA wrestling state champion to be honored at Ohio State's Schottenstein Center — Opfer was inducted into the Ohio High School Wrestling Coaches Association Hall of Fame. The 15-minute ceremony that recognized five individuals for their contributions to the sport took place just prior to the state finals.Eight other four-time champions came before Opfer, but all of them earned their quartet of gold medals either at St. John Arena or at the Nutter Center at Wright State. The venue shifted back to Columbus with the opening of "The Schott" in 1999."It's very humbling and quite the honor," said Opfer, who has been the varsity wrestling coach at SMCC since 2009. "There were a lot of people responsible for my wrestling success over the years. And even now with running all these youth state tournaments, there's still a lot of people that are a big part of that."Being a coach for the last decade has given Opfer — one of 32 four-time champs in Ohio — a new appreciation for his feats, which included a career 211-4 record with 139 victories coming by pin."You see more of the things that can go wrong," he said. "You see kids going down with injuries, kids that may have family problems or their support system breaks down with coaches leaving. I was lucky to have all the puzzle pieces in place."Wrestling isn't like track & field where one can just race the clock. Even Ohio's latest four-time champ, Genoa's Dylan D'Emilio, had five other state champions in his own wrestling room to drill with daily."I had great upperclassmen that were drill partners that pushed me freshman and sophomore years," Opfer said. "Then my brother (Drew Opfer) — a three-time state champion (1999-2001) — came in and pushed me. Not too many guys get that type of a room."Plus our father (Ed Opfer) coached us when we were little, where at some point he knew he was going to just be dad, so he always found ways to keep us mentally sharp and motivated."In a freshman 103-pound weight class that included nine future state champions, Opfer entered the 1996 state tournament at 43-2 after falling to Delta's Anthony Carrizales 13-8 in the district semifinals. That year Delta and SMCC were Nos. 1 and 2, respectively in the state as the Panthers ended a six-year district title run by SMCC.But in the state semifnals, Opfer got revenge, toppings Carrizales 9-7 prior to dispatching fellow freshman Tristan Boyd of Lima Central Catholic 8-6 in overtime in the finals. Trailing by two, Opfer got a tying reversal in the final seconds of regulation to force the extra time.In 1997, Opfer moved up to 112 and met Boyd again, this time in the semifinals. Opfer won convincingly, 13-3, setting up another showdown with Carrizales, who he beat 4-3 to become SMCC's third two-time champ. As a junior, he defeated unbeaten and returning state champion Kitt Allega of Independence 5-4 to defend his 112 title with a 57-1 record. Opfer finished his storybook high school run going 60-0 as a senior at 125, ending with a 9-4 decision over Genoa's Nick Borjas. As a team, the Panthers were state runner-up to Delta three times in those four years, also finishing third to Streetsboro in 1997.At the time, Opfer's career win total set a national high school record for a restricted schedule."it was the first couple of years where Coach Roth was putting us in more tournaments, so we'd get more matches. It was unheard of back then," Opfer said. "Senior year was the most with 60 matches, which is now almost the norm. But back then, we were the first guys to do that."It's amazing I never got injured with that many matches, plus the fact I was going against state placers at about every other weight class in practice each day."Roth, Ed Opfer and Mark Hiemstra were the co-founders of the OAC, a 501(c) (3) non-profit organization that was established in 1999 in Sandusky. The OAC was formed to promote youth athletics by creating and providing state-level events.Since its inception, the OAC has awarded more than $100,000 in college scholarships and grants to Ohio students and athletic programs. Last year more than 100 organizations raised funds through the OAC's events for their programs."Back when I was growing up in middle school, you'd wrestle the regular season for your school, and then the conference tournament was the end of your year," Opfer said. "But they were running like nine tournaments a year at St. Mary, and they were thinking, 'Man, we're pretty good at this. We were could put something together where it's statewide.'"Now, we're getting 200 kids to some tournaments. Plus, we're doing football out at Sports Force and we've been involved in cheerleading for the past nine years as well."As a coach at SMCC, Opfer has coached league championship teams and numerous state qualifiers, including state finalist Chris Kuhn in 2018."Being a wrestler and coach have both been equally rewarding," Opfer said. "I'm enjoying being around the sport and the people involved on a daily basis."Jared Opfer was inducted into the Ohio High School Wrestling Coaches Association Hall of Fame on Saturday in Columbus. Opfer, the coach at St. Mary Central Catholic, was a four-time champion at SMCC. He's also the director of the Ohio Athletic Committee.St. Mary Central Catholic coach Jared Opfer was inducted into the Ohio High School Wrestling Coaches Association Hall of Fame on Saturday night. Flanking Opfer as he was recognized at the Schottenstein Center were Hall of Fame chairman Lee Spitzer (left) and Hall of Fame president Dominic DiSabito (right).