The class that changed Ohio wrestling.
When Ohio wrestling coach Joel Greenlee assembled his 2016 recruiting class five years ago, he had no idea it would be the best he ever had.
At the time, it looked as if he would have a "weak" class considering the small number of commits he originally recruited.
But four seniors — Spartak Chino, Cody Walters, Phil Wellington and Andrew Romanchik — would become the staple of what it means to be a Bobcat wrestler.
“Easily, this is the best class I have ever had,” Greenlee said.
The recruiting process
Chino had his heart set on Illinois because he is from the state. He was also being recruited from Nebraska until Greenlee called him.
On a Sunday during his senior year of high school, Chino, who's from Wheaton, Illinois, called Greenlee saying he was going to verbally commit to Illinois. Greenlee responded by asking what he was doing that Wednesday, and Chino said he would be in school.
That Wednesday, Greenlee drove to Illinois to visit Chino, talking about why he wanted him at Ohio and what it would mean for the program. Chino, despite verbally committing to Illinois, backed out and chose Athens.
Things were different for Walters. From a young age he was set on going to Kent State and getting his name in the wrestling record books.
The coach at Kent State was a family friend, somebody Walter's knew from a small age. His dreams, however, went out the window when the coach said he had no chance of wrestling at Kent.
“When I visited (Ohio), the first thing I heard when I walked in The Convo during my visit was coach Greenlee yelling ‘Walters!’” he said. “He came out smiling and I was like, ‘Who is this guy?’ ”
A couple weeks after his visit, Greenlee called him and asked how he was doing. Walters, a Macedonia, Ohio native, was sold and soon forgot about Kent.
For Wellington, he didn't know the opportunity of wrestling was an option to him. He visited Athens with a friend who was on a football visit and Wellington fell in love with the campus.
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He reached out to Greenlee and agreed to attend as a preferred walk-on.
When Romanchik won the Catholic Invitational Tournament his junior year of high school, he also won a spot on Greenlee's roster.
Ohio wrestling was there that day to scout Romanchik’s opponent, but when Romanchik won easily, Ohio contacted him soon after.
“Since I was young, I have always wanted to represent the state of Ohio,” Romanchik said. “When it came down to deciding, I wanted to represent Ohio and it was the best fit for me.”
Angelo Disabato also is a redshirt senior.
The inception
Before those seniors came to Athens, the culture of Ohio wrestling was much different.
The seniors then had a different mindset than the incoming freshmen. Everything changed when the group began beating the upperclassmen in practice.
Walters said he remembers when Chino and himself were sitting in their dorm room hanging out after a practice. All of a sudden, a senior burst into the room and slammed the door.
Walters said the senior launched into a lecture with the premise being that as freshmen, they need to know their role. Ohio had a "system," being the seniors enjoy themselves and when it comes to practice, the seniors beat the freshmen.
What followed may have been the turning point of the program.
Chino and Walters started yelling back to the senior, telling him they were going to wrestle however they wanted.
“We kind of shaped the program into what it is now,” Wellington said. “We came here and we had to lead ourselves. The seniors when we got here didn't have the right mindset for themselves and where we wanted the program to be at.”
Since then, Ohio has been 43-22-1 in dual meets and has sent wrestlers to the NCAA Championships every season. All four competed in last year's NCAA Championships.
The family tree
Since the change of mindset, the four have become close with Greenlee, who has coached at Ohio for 19 seasons with a salary of $80,629.
Each have their own stories of what Greenlee has meant to them over their five years; coming to pick them up when their car was broken down or being there to talk about life and the future.
“Coach Greenlee has played a huge role in my life,” Wellington said. “He gave me an avenue to succeed, he has shaped me into the wrestler and man I am today. He is a father figure in my life.”
It's not just about what happens on the mat. It’s the life lessons Greenlee has taught the redshirt seniors.
“Coach has been a second father to me,” Chino said. “In life, he has been there though the thick and thin for me. I would run through a wall for that man because I know he would do the same for me."
Brothers forever
What brings the seniors together more than the role that Greenlee plays in their life is how close they have become over the past five years.
For some of them, they weren't all best friends at first.
Cody Walters and Spartak Chino hated each other, until they met up at a party and realized neither felt like drinking.
So, they sat down on the stairway and got to know each other, talking about their backgrounds and what they wanted out of the wrestling program.
Since then they have been inseparable.
“Five years ago when these guys came in, we said this is what we want to do and this is how we want to do it,” Greenlee said. “The four of them bought in. They have put us at where we are today."
Wellington, Chino, Romanchik and Walters built the program up from the one of the worst teams in the Mid-American Conference to being a perennial threat to win the MAC Championship every year.
What they will remember most, however, will not be the wins but the experiences of being an Ohio wrestler.
“It is the little moments that you takeaway that mean the most,” Chino said. “The little friendships, the small inside jokes, the process of doing things you don't want to do together, going on long bus trips. It’s the priceless things that you will never forget.”
@Pete_Nakos96
pn997515@ohio.edu
