Takedown Report

Ohio State wrestling coach receives eternal victory through unimaginable tragedy

Tom Ryan remembers well the day a two-word question became the most difficult he had ever been asked. It was Feb. 16, 2004, and Ryan was in his ninth season as Hofstra’s wrestling coach. Ryan and his wife, Lynette, had just returned from a New York hospital and were greeted by their three children.Nine-year old Jake posed the question that would change Ryan’s life forever. “Where’s Teague?”
Teague was Tom and Lynette’s 5-year-old son. The couple was only minutes removed from being informed that Teague had passed away due to a heart attack. It took years to discover what triggered Teague’s heart attack, but it was eventually discovered that Teague had ARVC, arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy. ARVC is a hereditary heart disease that causes the muscular wall of the heart to break down over time. This can lead to an abnormal heartbeat and death.
Teague’s death tore Ryan apart. His son Jake’s question pierced Ryan’s heart. He doesn’t remember what he said; he only knows that from that moment on he set off on a relentless pursuit for an answer.
Now, more than 15 years later, Ryan is in a new state and in a new phase of life as the wrestling coach for the Ohio State Buckeyes. He has 270 career wins, 161 of them in 13 seasons at Ohio State. Under his leadership, the Buckeyes have won 76 percent of their duals. But by far the biggest difference in Ryan’s life is that he now has an answer to Jake’s question, which plagued him for so long. And he found that answer through Christ. “I think my dad, in that season of life, was questioning, ‘My son’s not here, but where is he?’” Ryan’s daughter Mackenzie, now 18, said in The Lantern. “Which led him to open up himself into learning a bunch of different religions, search for the truth all over and ultimately found Christianity.” Rest of the story at https://sportsspectrum.com/sport/wrestling/2019/10/18/ohio-state-wrestling-coach-receives-eternal-victory-through-unimaginable-tragedy/?mc_cid=e2d879b5f8&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b

October 25, 2019 - Posted by The TakeDown Report | Uncategorized