Mountain Man
January 24, 2008 01:19 PM | General
January 24, 2008
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Clinton, Ohio, native Jared Villers has always thought of the Mountain State as a home away from home. Mountaineer blood has been running through his veins since he was born. His father Jerry’s side of the family is from Elizabeth, where some of his relatives still live. The younger Villers spent many summers in his formative years exploring the outdoors and experiencing much of what our great state has to offer.
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| Jared Villers and his West Virginia teammates take on Clarion tonight at the WVU Coliseum.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks |
“We had a farm in Elizabeth and we would go down there in the summer for family reunions and four-wheel riding and camping,” Villers said. “I got to know the state from a whole and not just the University.”
His familiarity with WVU was enhanced as a freshman wrestler at Northwest High School under the direction of former Mountaineer standout Dan Staats. Staats wrestled for Craig Turnbull in the early 1990s before becoming a coach.
While Villers credits Staats with teaching him much of what he knows about wrestling, he also credits his high school coach with shaping his character and molding him into the solid person he has become today.
“He shows a lot of personal integrity and drive,” Villers says of Staats. “He is in his mid-thirties and he runs marathons. He takes on those challenges that require personal drive and mental toughness and that’s what he instills.”
“He had this thing he called the four pillars of success: technique, mental toughness, strength and conditioning,” Villers said. “Those are the things that I always take with me in wrestling and you really need those four things to really be successful in wrestling and also in life.”
Villers first became a WVU fan after his older brother visited the school for a look at the wrestling program. He followed Mountaineer football from that point on and still looks at pictures of himself standing on the wrestling podium as a freshman in high school wearing a WVU hat.
“He (Statts) got my brother a look here and brought him down on a visit. My brother brought me back a stocking cap and I wore that to some of the events when I was a freshman,” Villers said. “That’s when I really started to take notice of this school.”
This school began to take notice of him as well. Villers won two state titles while wrestling in four different weight classes, garnering wrestling offers from Nebraska along with Pitt, Kent State, and Cleveland State.
The two-sport star chose to play football at Illinois State for a season before transferring to West Virginia before his freshman season was over. He chose the Mountaineer wrestling program because of where it had been and where he believed it was going.
“I respected the program and where it was going. This facility is amazing. When I came here the blueprint for this was laid out and all in the works,” Villers said. “Greg (Jones) was here as a teammate and I saw how he worked and I wanted to train with him and learn to wrestle like him.
“Along with that, Coach Turnbull is a philosopher-slash-guiding type of coach and that really seemed like a good fit for me,” Villers explains. “I had a chance to pursue a national title and accomplish all my dreams here. It wasn’t too far from home but it was still far enough away I could go get lost in the mountains for a couple days if I wanted to.”
Villers accomplishments as a West Virginia wrestler have been anything but lost on the sports’ experts. He is currently ranked 12th in the nation in the 197-pound weight class and leads the team with 10 wins, carrying a four-match winning streak after a 2-0 performance at the NWCA/Cliff Keen National Duals against nationally ranked Minnesota and Ohio State two weeks ago.
“It has been a learning experience in both the matches I have won and lost. The individual goal is to be on the top of the podium at the end of the year,” Villers said. “It’s my mission to get there and I think I have taken some critical steps to get there so far this year.”
The senior will take another step tonight when West Virginia (3-3) takes on Clarion on at 7:30 p.m., followed by Bloomsburg on Friday, Jan. 25 at 8 p.m.
WVU defeated Clarion 38-6 last season and looks for a repeat performance in EWL competition this year.
“Historically Clarion is a great program,” Villers said. “They have had a lot of people come through their program that has been very successful outside of college.”
Bloomsburg scored a 22-15 victory over the Mountaineers last year and Villers knows his squad will be a significant underdog Friday night.
“Bloomsburg creates a heck of a challenge for us. They are expecting to come in here in our house and take away a win from us,” Villers said. We are going to have to win matches we are underdogs in but if we focus they are winnable matches.”
Villers came to WVU as part of a championship program and as his career winds down, he is looking to return the Mountaineers to that status.
“My freshman year we were EWL champs and that’s what I hope to bring back this year,” Villers said. “Edinboro has had a great team in the EWL, being ranked in the top 10 in the country the last few years, but that’s where we need to be and that’s where we expect to be.”
