Cerjan led Eagles to county title in 2025-26 season
· Yahoo Sports
Geneva wrestling coach Ron Cerjan earned the 2025-26 Ashtabula County Wrestling Coach of the Year honor.
But, really, the work for Cerjan started several years ago as he and a others worked diligently to get the Eagles mat program back to when he was on the mat for Geneva.
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Cerjan wrestled for the Eagles in the late 1980s for coach Tom Koehler. Back then, Geneva had full varsity lineup, JV lineup and freshman teams.
Later, Dwight Fritz came along and continued the success, making regular trips to Columbus for the state tournament.
When Fritz left for Mayfield Heights, though, it wasn’t long before the program began to decline.
Cerjan teamed up with head coach Chris Stamper in 2013 in an effort to return the program to its former glory.
“We started rebuilding the program,” Cerjan said. “That’s where we are now.”
Cerjan is in his fifth year as the head coach.
Like other county schools, Geneva does not have the enrollment it did like in the past, so the numbers are nothing like they were in Cerjan’s day.
But this season the program was in a very good place.
“I was very excited to know that I got coach of the year, but I could not have done that without the team that I put out there the whole season,” Cerjan said.
The Eagles won the first Ashtabula County Wrestling Tournament at Jefferson High School in early February. They had nine wrestlers on the championship mat.
In the postseason, Tanner Williams, at 126 pounds, advanced to the Division II state tournament, the first Eagle since Caleb Selman in 2021, to compete in Columbus.
Dominic Palmisano placed sixth at 175 in the Kenston District Tournament as well.
Geneva also had success throughout the regular season.
“We always put at least five or six guys on the podium in every tournament we wrestled in,” Cerjan said.
It was the first time Cerjan coached a wrestler at the state tournament.
“It was exciting,” he said. “I mean we work hard all year to get a guy to the state tournament. We don’t have an easy district to get out of.
“If we were in some of the other districts, we’d probably get guys out every single year.”
At state, Williams ran into the eventual state runner-up, Carter Trukovich from Gallion, and lost by a technical fall in the first round.
Willimas then lost a 4-2 decision to Bloom-Carroll’s Elias Kline in the consolation round to end his season.
Though he went two and out, Cerjan said getting a state qualifier was a great step for the program.
“We had a tough draw,” the coach said. “In our first match, we had to wrestle the guy who was the projected state runner up, and sure enough, he was the state runner up.
“We had to battle back in the consolation and lost a tight one, 4-2. I think, if we got past that one, we would have gotten to the podium. It just didn’t go our way.”
Cerjan is already looking forward to next season.
“Following a strong season, we will be graduating three core wrestlers, whose contributions will be difficult to replace,” he said. “However, we return a solid foundation with six juniors, one sophomore and two freshmen, along with additional talent developing in the weight room.
“With this group, we are well-positioned to build on this year’s momentum as we move into next season.”