At this time last year, then nine-year Kenton Ridge head wrestling coach Landon Pierce was in Columbus helping one of his wrestlers through the most difficult time in his life, yet still keeping him focused enough to place at the state wrestling tournament.

Fast forward one year, and Pierce is an assistant wrestling coach in Montana, and the wrestler, Joe Quisenberry, competes collegiately at Notre Dame College.

And Pierce is not only still on the state tournament stage, he’s on top of the podium. His team, Glacier High School in Kalispell, Mont., recently won a state championship for the first time. And Pierce, good luck charm or not, was finally atop the wrestling summit.

“It was pretty neat,” said Pierce by phone on Tuesday. “I was lucky enough that the coaching staff wanted to have me around. Once I got started, the kids really liked me a lot.

“There’s a lot of community and parental support out here, too,” he continued. “They are very excited about the sport and their team..”

Pierce noticed a difference right away, though.

“There’s a different style here,” he said. “But the kids liked all the different techniques I brought out here. They are starting to get the routine of how you are supposed to drill.

“I cling to that Ohio wrestling style,” he continued. “It’s a great style. And it shows in all the national rankings and such.”

Pierce will tell you that winning state titles pales in comparison to helping a kid make it through the life-threatening crash of his only parent, as Pierce did with Quisenberry.

As you may have read a couple of weeks ago in this column, Joe Quisenberry’s mom, Susan, nearly died in a head-on collision while going to work just two days before last year’s district meet.

Joe was a mess. Pierce was a rock. And Joe ended up making it through districts and placed eighth at state.

“I don’t know what would have happened with Joe if it hadn’t been for Coach Pierce,” Susan said in her interview for that column. “He probably wouldn’t have made it through this.”

Instead, Joe caught the eye of the Notre Dame staff and now is attending a Division II college on a full-ride scholarship.

“I’m real proud of Joe,” said Pierce. “I still keep in contact with him and his mom.”

Impact like that is needed ... everywhere. So Pierce continues to look for a head coaching job.

“It’s tough being a head coach for nine years and then be an assistant. As an assistant, you just have to worry about coaching. But I definitely want to have control of a practice (and a team) again.”

He certainly knows how to build a program. Proof of that is still evident at KR. The Cougars finished with just six wrestlers the year before he took the reins and only scored one team point at the Central Buckeye Conference tourney. Now they annually send multiple representatives to the state tourney and recently defended their CBC Kenton Trail Division title that they won with him last season.

“I definitely missed the team this year,” he said. “I mainly came out here to be with the family. It was tough for me to leave Ohio and my family.

“I definitely miss the Ohio wrestling.”

Even if he’s on top of Montana’s wrestling summit.