NJCAA National Qualifiers Set; National Tournament Feb. 25-26 in Rochester, MN.
The Dream Is Over For 46-Year-old Leo Sawyer of Spartanburg Methodist College ““But He Didn’t Go Down Without a Fight
By Matt Krumrie “Senior Editor
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The NJCAA Regionals were held throughout the country last week, and 250 wrestlers qualified for the National Tournament, held Feb. 25-26 at the Rochester Civic Center in Rochester, Minnesota. Ellsworth, Iowa Central, Gloucester, Harper, North Idaho, Southwest Oregon, and Stevens Tech all qualified ten wrestlers for the national tournament. Labette, Lincoln, and Ridgewater all qualified nine, while six teams qualified eight wrestlers, and six teams qualified seven wrestlers.
Northwest College of Wyoming is the defending NJCAA Division I national champion, while Nassau Community College of New York is the defending NJCAA Division III national champion. Northwest qualified seven wrestlers for the national tournament, while Nassau qualified eight.
One wrestler who did not qualify was Leo Sawyer Jr. of Spartanburg Methodist College. Sawyer and his son, Leo Sawyer III, signed National Letters of Intent to compete at the South Carolina school last summer. Leo Sawyer III was an Oklahoma 3A state champion at 215 for Glenpool High School in 2004. However, he did not stay in school at SMC and returned home shortly after enrolling in school.
However, Leo Sawyer Jr., a 1978 Alaska state high school champion, and the 46-year-old father of Leo Sawyer III, stayed in school and competed with the team and also played a dual role as an assistant coach.
After high school Sawyer Jr. was competing at Umpqua Community College in Oregon (which no longer has a program) in 1979 when he had his season cut short because his father got ill, forcing him to return to Alaska to run the family construction business and appearing to end his wrestling career. But throughout that time Sawyer Jr. stayed active in wrestling and athletics “he was a volunteer assistant coach for Glenpool “while also competing in freestyle, Greco-Roman, sambo and judo tournaments. He was a national judo champ and was once invited to the Olympic Trials. He has also won national titles in senior and masters level Greco-Roman and sambo tournaments. When Caterisano was recruiting his son, the elder Sawyer joked about how he had one year of eligibility left. Turns out he wasn’t joking. Caterisano and SMC officials investigated and in Junior College there is no time limit to complete eligibility, as opposed to the NCAA Division I level, where you have five years to complete four years of competition.
The rest is history.
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