From the Vault: Greg Urbas
Living legends are rare. Greg Urbas is the best kind of them.
I’m finding that some of my favorite commercials frequently have nothing to do with products sold by the sponsoring company. I remember a Bud Light commercial (below) from 30 years ago. Anhueser-Busch captured that elusive, certain something that has me - and I’ve a feeling many others of a certain age - remembering it, these many moons later.
I just watched a spot that Defense Soap ran six years ago (also below), courtesy my pal, PJ Boland, a wrestler and alum of Saint Edward High School in Cleveland, OH. PJ sent it to me, and I’m grateful. I’d never seen it.
Watch it. It’s worth it.
Paying homage to those worthy is always a good idea. Longtime Saint Ed’s teacher and wrestling coach, Greg Urbas, is worthy. In 2018, I was able to write an article on Urbas for Trackwrestling after he’d stepped down as the Eagles’ head coach.
The Defense Soap feature reminded me of my conversation with Urbas, and has me releasing the piece again (with slight edits).
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Don’t be surprised if Greg Urbas, the head coach of Ohio power St. Edward High School for three decades, drops a certain Mark Twain line to his well-wishers.
“The way some of it has been reported, I keep checking my pulse,” Urbas cracked. “Not much is changing.”
Urbas has stepped down after 29 years leading the Eagles. He explained the move only involves job titles.
John Heffernan, Urbas’ longtime assistant, is moving into the head coaching role for the storied high school program in suburban Cleveland. Urbas will be an assistant on Heffernan’s staff.
"John's been the head coach for years anyway (without the title),” Urbas said. “I’ve told people that. His knowledge, technique and experience are unbelievable. He knows what it takes. (He's) the heart and soul of St. Edward wrestling.”
"To even get near (humility), even for a moment, is like a drink of cold water to a man in the desert." — C.S. Lewis.
If humility is cold water, Greg Urbas is Lake Erie in January.
“It’s not me being humble,” Urbas said, referencing Heffernan as the "real head coach" during their tenure together. "It's me being honest."
St. Ed’s, of course, has been state and national high school wrestling royalty for decades. Its legacy includes 317 state placers, 108 individual state champions, and 35 team state titles.
For St. Ed’s graduates, gaudy numbers don’t end the last time they don the Green and Gold. The Eagles are prolific in churning out wrestlers who soar in college, too.
Program graduates have won NAIA national titles (Duke McKean in 1992 and 1993 for Olivet Nazarene), five have won NCAA national championships (Jim Heffernan in 1986 at Iowa, Greg Wright in 1986 for Edinboro, Alan Fried in 1994 for Oklahoma State, Ryan Bertin in 2003 and 2005 for Michigan and Dean Heil in 2016 and 2017 for Oklahoma State).
St. Edward’s alumni list includes 67 wrestlers who became All-Americans. Two-time state champion Andy Hrovat made the 2008 U.S. Olympic freestyle team. More recently, Ty Walz won a bronze medal last year at the U23 World Championships.
For 28 consecutive years, St. Ed’s has had at least one former Eagle earn Division I All-America honors at the NCAA Championships. For 37 consecutive years, an Eagle earned All-America status in the NCAA (D1, D2 or D3) or NAIA. No other program boasts such annual collegiate dominance.
Asked what aspect of coaching has been most gratifying and how the Eagles have remained so elite during his tenure, Urbas responded: “There are too many aspects. Just watching the development of each wrestler, on and off the mat, (that’s) what makes me proud of the student athletes we are privileged to coach.”
Regarding their yearly habit of excellence, Urbas, again, speaks of others.
“Our current staff has 13 coaches,” he said, adding that many are volunteers. “Eleven wrestled in college, and 11 are alumni. This has kept our system going. John Heffernan is the heart and soul of St. Ed’s wrestling. He's given our wrestlers his experience, knowledge, toughness, and example of what a wrestler should be like, on and off the mat.”
Urbas speaks poignantly of the pioneering and visionary qualities of Howard Ferguson, the famed St. Ed’s head coach he succeeded after Ferguson’s death in 1989. He spoke of traveling to Wexford, Pennsylvania — while Ferguson was still coach — where St. Ed’s would wrestle powerhouse North Allegheny, coached by Gus DeAugustino.
The match was sold out inside a raucous gymnasium. With St. Ed’s leading by five, the dual hinged on the heavyweights. The Eagles sent Matt Ramser, a senior and stellar football player, to the mat.
Ramser wasn’t the team’s best heavyweight.
“He hadn’t wrestled his junior year,” Urbas said. “Matt wanted to wrestle his senior year, (but) we already had three heavyweights better than Matt. He just wanted to be on the team. He wanted to help the other heavyweights.”
The three other heavyweights were all sidelined that night with injuries. Urbas remembers coach Ferguson talking to Ramser before the decisive match.
If the backup to the backup’s backup didn’t get pinned, St. Ed’s would win.
“Coach Ferguson reminded Matt of that fact,” Urbas said.
Ramser told Ferguson he wouldn’t get pinned. In fact, he promised his coach a win. Ramser delivered, sealing the then-mythical national title for St. Ed’s.
“About a week later,” Urbas said, “Matt went to the doctor for an evaluation of a physical condition that had arisen.”
Ramser was diagnosed with cancer. He died a year later
With the litany of blue-chip wrestlers he could have provided, Urbas spoke of Ramser as representative of why coaching rewards. For Urbas, Ramser was a distilled example of why he’s immersed himself in his vocation.
Longtime Cincinnati Archbishop Moeller head coach, Jeff Gaier, shared an Urbas memory.
"We were at an important quad with Ed's years back,” Gaier said. “I think Blair (Academy) was there, too. There was a JV tournament in another gym. Before a quad meet like that, as host, you're busy running around. I peeked into the JV tournament, and I see coach Urbas, sitting by himself, doing the scoreboard and the clock.
“That's exactly how he was."
Heil, a four-time state champion and 2013 St. Ed’s grad, speaks reverently of his coach.
“There was never a second he put himself first,” Heil said. “He wanted to make sure that by the time you left St. Edward’s, you were a standout — not in wins and losses, but on the type of person you were, on and off the mat.”
Heil promises on his next return home, he’s treating his high school coach.
“Malley’s Chocolates,” Heil laughed. “They’ll be on me.”
Despite reports of retirement and departure, Greg Urbas isn’t going anywhere. Routines and expectations of excellence will continue. Coaching titles have switched at Saint Edward. That’s all. According to Urbas, John Heffernan will now be addressed appropriately. Titles aren't important to men like Urbas
His teams have won him a boatload of the other kind, anyway.
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