Wrestling Southern Conference

Season a major reversal for Citadel wrestling team

Charleston, SC - Ed Steers is one of the best wrestlers ever at The Citadel. He won three Southern Conference individual titles and was a junior on the Bulldogs' squad that won the SoCon championship in 1967, when he was named the league tournament's outstanding wrestler.

Those were the good old days. But Steers says they don't compare with where Citadel wrestling is at today under fifth-year coach Rob Hjerling.

"What these kids are doing now is a whole different thing," said Steers, an associate athletic director at The Citadel. "They are better than we were. Some of those guys from back then will never admit it, but I'll tell them to their face. Five Bulldogs will wrestle in NCAAs.

"What those kids are doing now is a war. The season is longer, the training is harder, the academics are harder. What they are doing right now is much greater than what we did."

Five Bulldog wrestlers are capping one of The Citadel's best seasons ever with an appearance at the NCAA wrestling championships beginning today in St. Louis. Juniors Ryan McClester, Sean Markey and Keith Clifton and sophomores Dan Thompson and Billy Linane earned bids to the NCAAs after leading The Citadel to a 13-3 overall record, a perfect 5-0 in the SoCon and the Bulldogs' first league title since 1967.

The season marked a major reversal for Citadel wrestling in the last five years under Hjerling, a former Colonial Athletic Association wrestler of the year at American University in 1994.

The Bulldogs were 2-11-2 overall and 1-4 in the SoCon in Hjerling's first season in 1999-2000, placing only one wrestler in the NCAAs. The Citadel's record has improved every year since then, including a 13-3 mark and 3-2 SoCon record last year.

How has Hjerling done it? By thinking big and recruiting far and wide, and not just for wrestlers.

"Rob is a dreamer," Steers said. "And he's worked very hard to do things that we never expected."

Citadel wrestlers say Hjerling does not limit their goals to SoCon titles, but wants them to think nationally.

"Being realistic, our team probably won't come close to winning the national championship in the near future," said McClester, at 125 pounds the SoCon wrestler of the year. "But we need to be aiming for that, so that we can get ourselves into the top 10, and then the top five. If we can do that, and if we can place as All-Americans as individuals, then we would have a chance."

Said Hjerling, "Our expectations from the beginning have been very high. It was probably more important to win the conference this year than it ever will be again, just because it was the first time since 1967. But it was something we expected to happen on the way to our ultimate goals, which are to reach our potential, to have guys place in the NCAAs and to start placing high as a team in the tournament."

The Citadel is inching closer to that goal. It takes at least five or six qualifiers to make a team impact at the NCAAs, and the Bulldogs were ranked No. 25 in the nation earlier this season.

Hjerling has cast his recruiting net wide -- of the five NCAA qualifiers, only McClester is from South Carolina. The others are from Texas, Florida, Michigan and New Jersey.

"How many student-athletes do we get from Michigan?" Steers asked. "Not many."

Hjerling also recruited well on his coaching staff, getting assistant Jeff Ragan, a former All-American at Oklahoma State. Ragan is on the faculty and runs The Citadel's math tutoring program, Steers said. Assistants Marc Hoffer and Chris McNally also were standout college wrestlers.

"He's built that staff basically out of no money," Steers said. "And he's been very resourceful. To get a bright guy like Jeff Ragan to come here and be a faculty member, that was a great thing."

As The Citadel's wrestling reputation grows -- "They know who we are now when we call," Hjerling said of recruiting prospects -- the dreams should only get bigger.

"Rob's a dreamer, and he's making it come true," Steers said.