Blue White Illustrated

LAST WORD T I M O W E N | O W E N . T I M . B W I @ G M A I L . C O M hen it came time to select his fu- ture college, Jordan Conaway in- volved his faith in the decision- making process just as much as he did wrestling, if not more. Conaway is a born-again Christian, and that was one of the main reasons why he first com- mitted in high school to wrestle for Lib- erty University. But when the nonprofit school cut its wrestling program late in Conaway's senior year after he signed a letter of in- tent, he was left looking for places that fit a similar criteria. "He wanted to grow spiritually first and wrestle second," said Conaway's father, Dave. He looked at other programs and talked to other coaches, but it wasn't until he visited Penn State that he found what he was looking for. Al- though it was a state school, not a pri- vate Christian institution, many of the wrestlers on the team had roots deep in their religion, and there was often open dialogue about it among teammates and coaches. That piqued Conaway's inter- est. By the time summer school started a few months later, with Conaway now enrolled, he was regularly attending Bible study with teammates Zack Beitz and Nate Morgan and later became a member of Penn State Christian Ath- letes. Almost five years after that, with his Penn State career behind him and two All-America honors under his belt, Conaway believes he was put right where he needed to be after he scram- bled to find a destination as a high school state champion. "It's weird to think how things could have shaped up had I went somewhere else, but I'm glad I came here," Conaway said. "I guess it happened for a reason." On many occasions, including after he earned his second of two All-America honors in New York, Conaway, who has an ichthus tattoo on his right shoulder blade, described his spirituality as a perpetual motivator throughout his ca- reer. "As long as I wrestle my hardest and wrestle for the right reasons, wres- tle for Christ, there's nothing else I can do," he said. He's not the only one who puts faith first and he's not the first to talk freely about it in interviews, either, but never has the open and unabashed belief in a higher power been more commonplace on one of Cael Sanderson's teams than it was this past season. It's not that this group of wrestlers, who ran away with the 2016 NCAA championship, attribute the team's suc- cess to their faith. Not quite. But belief and religion are certainly common themes across the entire roster. "I believe that God put me out here for a purpose," Bo Nickal said at the South- ern Scuffle. "I just ask God to take care of my bur- dens for me and not let me be so nerv- ous," said Jason Nolf after his quarterfi- nal match in Madison Square Garden. "I'm a child of God," said Nico Mega- ludis after reaching the pinnacle of col- lege wrestling, winning his first NCAA title. "I'm very faithful. God has a plan for everything. If I didn't win this, obvi- ously it would have stung, but I'm a child of God and there's a bigger pur- pose." As Nolf also mentioned between matches at the national tournament, the individuals' basis in faith begins with the coaching staff. Cael Sanderson is not holding choir in the wrestling room or reading aloud Bible passages, but the code that he and his assistants live by – in addition to the success that they've enjoyed – serves as a guiding light for many of their pupils. "All of our coaches practice what they preach," Nolf said. "If they tell us to live a clean lifestyle, it wouldn't work if they didn't live clean lifestyles. It might work a little bit, but it wouldn't be as effec- tive. I know all of our coaches live clean lifestyles. They don't drink, they don't party – any of that stuff. I think that's what separates our coaches. They live a clean lifestyle and they practice what they preach." He doesn't actually preach. No, Sanderson often sticks with the ankle picks and duck-unders as his forte, and you're of course not going to hear him push one denomination over another. "We leave that up to the individuals," he said. But there are certain facets – "truths" as he refers to them – that Sanderson emphasizes regularly in discussion with his student-athletes. "Certainly I have principles that I be- lieve in that are eternal, and I try to run this program under those same princi- ples," he said. "I think that's helped me more than anything as a coach." Not one for rah-rah pep talks and com- plex strategies, Sanderson tries to take a more simplistic approach and incorpo- rates concepts that are common across all backgrounds and beliefs into his coaching. It helps forge a mentality that has proven to be difficult to overcome. "Truth is truth," he said. "Gratitude, maybe, being No. 1. Those are eternal principals that bring success, happiness, peace of mind, confidence, so we spend a lot of time focusing more on princi- ples. I don't get involved in what groups they're going to or their religious back- ground. We just try to teach principles and then they take it from there." ■ A leap of faith W

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