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His passion to teach and build good people still burns bright. “He’s nowhere ready to retire,” said Bonnie.
The Pied Piper next had to re-recruit his own wrestlers and their parents, or as many as he could, to make this leap of faith with him. “We kind of sold them on it,” he said. “I kept saying, ‘We want to start another fire, but we need some logs.’ I had to sense our guys wanted to help start the fire. I don’t know if you call it an obliga- tion, but I want us to do well. They’ve been so good to us. I want us to make an impact on campus. “We always said, ‘Let’s be a positive
force.’ We’re going to do the same thing down there.” After 32 years at UNO, Denney now heads the Maryville wrestling program. Denney led several UNO contingents to visit Maryville. St. Louis would put some athletes an even longer distance from home and family. Too far in some cases. Then the academics had to mesh. One of UNO’s best returning wrestlers, three-time All-American Esai Dominguez, decided to bypass his final year of eligibil- ity in order to remain at UNO and finish his engineering degree. And then there
Message from Kevin Hansen, USA Wrestling’s Manager for Junior Olympic Programming:
was cost. Maryville’s tuition is higher than UNO’s.
While Denney tried retaining as much of his wrestling family as possible, “the vultures” — recruiters from other pro- grams — circled about, pouncing on UNO strays who were uncommitted or undecided. He finally had to release his wrestlers to talk to other schools. Some of his best returnees left for other pro- grams. Two-time All-American George Ivanov left for Boise State. Most of his assistant coaches couldn’t justify the move either between career and family considerations. In the end, Denney’s brought fewer with him than he would have liked, having to say goodbye to about two-thirds of his former team.
“Oh, my gosh, it’s hard, but you’ve just got to let them go,” said Denney. “Here’s what we feel good about though — we offered everyone an opportunity.” Still, he’s brought with him a stable of wrestlers and coaches who have compet- ed at and won at the highest levels. Denney expects to win right away but is enough of a realist to say, “We’re back into a building process here.” He leaves no doubt though he’s com- mitted to making the Maryville Saints wrestling program an elite one. And he seems to be giving himself eight years to
do it, saying he’s always envisioned coaching and teaching 100 semesters or 50 years, a figure he would reach at age 72. Beyond that, nothing’s for sure. “As long as we can handle it,” said Bonnie. “As long as we don’t fall over at some tournament.”
Ron Higdon can hardly believe what his close friend and old boss is doing. “I have a whole new respect for what he’s taking on and the way he’s handled it and the energy he’s putting into it, because it’s unbelievable.” Make no mistake about it, Denney’s heart still aches over how UNO did him and his program in, but he has moved on. He does, however, offer a cautionary note for those who so cavalierly discard- ed the legacy of UNO wrestling. “If you lose your history and tradition, I think you lose something that’s so vital to your organization,” he said. “You must keep it, you must do everything you can to keep it. You’re going to see the long term effects of this later on. That culture won’t last.
“What happens when you lose your tra- dition, your history, and you forget about it — then you don’t recognize it. You lose something, and sometimes you’ll never get it back.” Leo Adam Biga writes for the New Horizons newspaper in Omaha.
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33 USA Wrestler
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