Richard FergolaRevWrestling.com recently caught up with Fergola and talked to him about his experience at Dana, how he landed such an outstanding recruiting class, what the timetable is for winning at NIACC, and much more.
You spent three years at Dana College, two of those years were as head assistant coach and one year as head coach. When you reflect on the time you spent at Dana, how would you describe that experience?
Fergola: It was one of the greatest coaching experiences of my career. I mean, I love Dana College. It was tough leaving there. I had a great group of young men there and a great coaching staff. It was hard to walk away from it. Winning a national championship while we were there, and winning an academic national championship, I wouldn't trade it for the world.
Beau Vest will be Dana's third head coach in three seasons. What's going on there?
Fergola: Coach Costanzo was there for seven years. We won a national championship. When that happened, I think that kind of vaulted some new opportunities for him. He was a three-time All-American at UNO, so he was presented an opportunity to coach at the Division II level. He felt that winning that national championship opened up an opportunity for him. It was something he couldn't turn down. It was a great deal for him. And it was a great deal for me to take over and be the head coach at Dana. It's weird … in our profession timing sometimes isn't always the best. My wife and I had no plans on leaving Dana. We just bought a home there two years ago, so we weren't going to leave. This came along here at NIACC kind of at weird time … and it was something that I couldn't refuse.
For a coach, the opportunity to just coach college wrestling and not do anything extra … I've been teaching high school special education for 11 years now, and I've been teaching it while I've been a wrestling coach. I was presented an opportunity to come to NIACC and just coach college wrestling and just concentrate on that. It was just an all-around great situation for my whole family. We just couldn't say no. So, it's not Dana. Dana is a great place to coach. It has great kids. It's in a great location. Dana wrestling is having great success. It's just unfortunate that other opportunities came available that were just too good to pass up.
When did you first hear that North Iowa Area Community College would be reinstating the wrestling program?
Fergola: Well, like any other guy, I'm on the Internet, so I saw an article on InterMat that they are reinstating wrestling. I was like, 'Oh, that's cool.' Anytime I see a wrestling program reinstated I think that's great. I didn't think much of it. That was in November, so we were just getting kicking at Dana. And then I got a phone call from the athletic director. He asked me to send my stuff in, so I sent my stuff in. It just kind of went from there. He wanted to meet with me, so it just all kind of happened from that.
You brought in an outstanding recruiting class that includes several top national recruits Albert White of Illinois, DaVaughn Perkins of Nebraska, TJ Moen of Iowa, Cody Hogan of Missouri, among others. It's arguably a top five recruiting class regardless of division. How were you able to bring in such an outstanding recruiting class?
I'm in Iowa, too. NIACC pushed the right button when they started wrestling here because North Iowa is just a hotbed, especially with Cael Sanderson being at Iowa State, Tom Brands at Iowa, Brad Penrith at Northern Iowa. Kids want to come out here and go on and wrestle Division I in those programs. We just went after the best guys. I have a great assistant coach who was huge in that deal. We were just able to get some good kids.
Do you expect those wrestlers like Albert White, DaVaughn Perkins, TJ Moen, and Cody Hogan, to wrestle in the lineup two years? Or do you expect them to redshirt a season?
Fergola: Well, you know, I think those are things we just play by ear. Generally speaking, from the beginning, most junior college coaches who get blue chip Division I athletes, typically the plan would be to wrestle them one year and then redshirt them the other year so that they can get three years at a Division I level school. That's normally what you would do, but sometimes those things change. You just have to wait until they get here, wait to see how things pan out, and then just go from there.
There has been a lot of talk that DaVaughn Perkins has committed to Iowa State. Is that correct?
Fergola: Well, you know, people all over the Internet are saying that, but I don't think it's official. I know that's where he wants to go. I know that after he signed with us that he did go there for the spring football game. I know that he told Coach Sanderson that's where he wants to go after NIACC. Obviously that will be in two years. That's where he wants to go.
How about any of your other recruits? Can you shed any light on where they might end up after NIACC?
Fergola: None of them have made any commitments yet. Albert White originally verbally committed to Illinois, but I don't know what Albert wants to do. TJ Moen was originally planning on going to Tennessee Chattanooga. He may still want to go back there after NIACC. In two years, things can change. If they have a lot of success here, you just never know what's going to happen. As of right now, we don't have anybody really stepping in stone where they're going to go after NIACC. We're just kind of concentrating on trying to win a national title here first, getting their academics going in the right direction, and trying to help them fulfill their dreams.
NIACC is situated right in the heart of big time Division I college wrestling with Iowa State, Iowa, Northern Iowa, and Minnesota not too far. How important is for you to build relationships with Division I head coaches in the area like Cael Sanderson, Tom Brands, Brad Penrith, and J Robinson. Where you can say, 'Hey, I've got this great kid who I think could make an impact in your program?'
Fergola: Obviously, it's very important. Those are awesome coaches at storied programs. We're definitely going to build a relationship with those coaches. Hopefully guys will start to come out of NIACC, head in those directions, and have success. That's one thing that has been on my to-do list is to work with those guys. The first thing I did when I got hired here was I e-mailed them all … and I know them all personally … just making sure if they have guys they want to send here, that's great. And then we'll definitely have a relationship with them. It's just great being in this area. The college wrestling in this area is just phenomenal. I'm just privileged to be in this area.
What's the timetable for success at NIACC? You're taking over a program that hasn't fielded a team since 1976. Is it realistic to think this program could compete for a national title in its first year?
Fergola: Well, that's our goal. Any program that I've ever been involved with or been in control of, that's always our goal. Obviously, academics is No. 1 with us. We want our kids doing well in school. That was our goal at Dana and that will be our goal here at NIACC. Those are the first things we're going to get under control. I think potentially on paper with the guys we have right now on our team, I think we have a great shot at doing that. We're going to believe that. That's something that we're definitely going to push for. I think we'll be right there. But like I said, things can change. You always have to deal with injuries and eligibility. Things like that can always come into play. I think on paper right now we have a pretty good squad.
How's junior college recruiting different from NAIA recruiting?
Fergola: Well, NAIA has a different set of regulations and procedures. It's a little different. Most NAIA schools are private schools. It's pretty expensive to attend most NAIA institutions. Most of them are in the $20,000 to $30,000 range, so that makes it difficult on a coach sometimes, having to put a student-athlete in that position to spend that kind of money. I think that's probably the biggest thing. A lot of people don't understand the NAIA. What they don't understand is that there are a lot of very talented wrestlers at that level. I think that makes it difficult.
In comparison to junior college, I think junior college is a little bit easier in the fact that you don't have a lot of academic acceptance standards holding you back. At Dana, kids have to get an 18 or above just to get into school. And I'm not saying that's a good thing, because obviously we want academic standards. That makes it a little bit easier to get certain students into school here and help them achieve what they want to achieve. I think that's probably the biggest thing … that you just don't have a lot of those things holding you back to getting into a JUCO. I would have to say that's the main difference.
Richard FergolaFergola: When I was at Neosho County, that helped a lot. I got to know a lot of the JUCO coaches. I kind of know how it works. I understand the schedules. I know pretty much all the JUCO coaches across the country, and have relationships with them. I think that really helped to really understand what goes in these ranks. I've coached in the national tournament twice. I think that really helped me a lot. It's definitely a lot better than coming into this level not knowing anything, so it was definitely a big help.
You obviously have roots in the state of Kansas, having wrestled and coached there. What's it going to take to get Division I wrestling in Kansas? Do you see that ever happening?
Fergola: There are a lot of great people in that state who are huge advocates to get that started there. When I was still living there and coaching there, I tried to be as much a part of that as I could. I think what it's just going to come down to is that the right people see the light and understand how huge it could be. Kind of like how with NIACC starting wrestling here. The right people saw that it could be a huge ordeal here and ran with it. They are going to benefit from starting the program because it's going to do nothing but help promote the school and get more students.
Kansas needs Division I wrestling. Whatever school gets it is going to be a powerhouse because there are some great athletes in that state. It's phenomenal because Kansas is pretty well known as a wrestling state too. They've done well on the national level: freestyle, Greco, folkstyle. If you look at some other states that aren't known as wrestling states that have Division I wrestling, and you're just like, 'Why doesn't Kansas have it?' Hopefully it will happen someday. I think it's just going to come down to the right people understanding how important it would be and just making it happen.
Maybe this isn't a fair question since you just took over a new program, but do you have aspirations of someday becoming a Division I head coach?
Fergola: I think every coach has those aspirations. Right now, I'm concentrating on getting the job done at NIACC. Whatever the future brings, the future brings. Just like athletes, they all have aspirations of wrestling at the Division I level. I like this level. I enjoyed it when I coached it before. We're just going to get the ball rolling, see what we can do at NIACC, and see what happens.
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