Since coming to Waynesburg before the 2008-09 season, Ron Headlee has guided the Yellow Jacket wrestling program through one the most amazing turnarounds in school athletic history.
Last year’s 12-4 overall record is part of a 127-87-1 overall mark posted by Headlee. He has also led the Jackets to the best Presidents’ Athletic Conference (PAC) dual record (22-4) over over his 12 years as head coach of any league team.
During the summer of 2016, Headlee added to his already impressive resume by being inducted into the Southwestern Pennsylvania Wrestling Hall of Fame.
During his first decade-plus with the squad, he guided the Jackets to their first seven PAC team titles in program history and helped develop 10 All-Americans, including the first NCAA Division III national champion in program history. During the winter of 2018, then-junior Jake Evans pulled off several upsets en route to taking the 2018 crown. Evans graduated as a two-time All-American (7th in 2017) and his 185 total wins are the most in all divisions of NCAA competition.Â
Other notable individuals who have competed under Headlee's leadership include 2014 graduate Anthony Bonaventura, who placed second at 174 pounds, and 2015 graduate Luke Lohr, who became a two-time All-American after accomplishing the feat in 2013 and 2015. Lohr was also a three-time national qualifier and a four-time PAC champion. For his efforts, Headlee has been named PAC Coach of the Year on six separate occasions and was honored as the 2017 NCAA Division III Mideast Regional Coach of the Year.
In 2018, Headlee guided a trio of Jackets to the national tournament for a second-straight season. Evans was joined by sophomore Ken Burrs (197) and senior Tristan Buxton (12) at the D III Championships. In 2017, freshman Shaun Wilson and Evans, returned to Waynesburg with All-American medals at 149 and 285 pounds, respectively. Senior Ryan Shank also made the trip to compete for a nationa crown.
During the winter of 2015, Lohr was joined by senior teammate Sam Guidi at the NCAA Division III National Championships. The duo made program history by coming the first set of teammates to earn D III All-American status at the same tournament.
After taking over a team that went 0-11 in dual matches during the 2007-08 season, Headlee, along with primary assistant John Yates, rebuilt the team from the ground up and that year’s Yellow Jackets to a 10-4 season.
Included in those 10 dual wins were victories over PAC rivals Thiel and Washington & Jefferson. It was the first time in recorded conference history that the Jackets had completed the sweep as they went a perfect 7-0 against Division III opponents. The Jackets also upset Shippensburg, which was ranked 19th in the country at Division II.
By the time the regular season ended, the Jackets were ranked 28th in the D-III rankings by the National Wrestling Coaches Association (NWCA). However, the Jackets’ accomplishments weren’t limited to just those of a team variety.
At the annual PAC Championships, then-freshman Alex Evanoff and then-first-year grappler Corbin Semple won conference titles at 165 and 197 pounds, respectively.
Semple then joined then-sophomore Nick Garber in winning individual titles at the NCAA Division III Midwest Regional Championships. The pair then went on to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to compete at the NCAA Division III National Championship Tournament. Both grapplers earned an upset win over a fifth-ranked opponent, while posting identical 1-2 records at the event.
For his efforts, Headlee was nominated for rookie head coach of the year at the Division III National Championships and was also inducted into the Washington/Greene Chapter of the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame.
In all, Headlee’s wrestlers have earned 10 regional individual titles, 43 PAC individual titles and taken home five PAC Outstanding Wrestler awards. Among those honorees is Garber, who was a three-time Midwest Regional champion and three-time national qualifier.
Before turning the Jackets around, Headlee spent 13 years as a head and assistant high school coach.
Most recently, Headlee was an assistant varsity and junior high coach at Waynesburg Central High School, where he worked with Yates, who was the head coach of the Raiders until 2007.
Prior to his stint with WCHS, Headlee spent nine successful years as the head coach of the Jefferson-Morgan Rockets (1988-1997). While there, Headlee helped guide along a man who many consider the greatest high school wrestler in the state of Pennsylvania, Cary Kolat. Under Headlee’s guidance, Kolat went undefeated all four years that he wore a Rocket singlet.
While with the Rockets, Headlee compiled an impressive 111-25-1 record and won five Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League (WPIAL) team championships. He also coached a total of 24 WPIAL champions, 15 state place-winners and seven state champions.
Prior to his coaching days, Headlee enjoyed tremendous success on the mats as a competitor.
After graduating from Waynesburg Central High School in 1978, Headlee moved on to Messiah College, from which he graduated in 1982 with a degree in health and physical education.
While wrestling for the Falcons, Headlee produced an impressive record of 101-14-1, a then-record, which ranks him ninth on the school’s current career wins list. He was an NAIA all-American for his first three years at Messiah, and was the school’s first NCAA Division III All-American in 1982 after placing fifth at the national tournament.
In 1996, Headlee was inducted into the Messiah Athletics Hall of Fame. Before shining with the Falcons, Headlee was a three-time section champion, a WPIAL runner-up and a PIAA state qualifier for WCHS.
Headlee, who also serves as the head men’s and women’s tennis coach, resides in Waynesburg with his wife Karen. The couple has two sons, Drew and Ethan. Drew is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh where he was a four-year letterman on the wrestling team, who went on to find success on the national and international competition levels as a freestyle wrestler. He has since returned to Pitt as an assistant coach. Ethan was a four-year letterman for Pitt and a Division I national qualifier
