4 Dernlan brothers teamed for 10 state championships

“I’ve been blessed to have these kids. I’ve been here all 16 times for all four boys. It’s sad to see my last kid graduate. This is it for me, too. I just want to thank all of our friends that have helped us along the way.”

— Dave Dernlan, after watching his youngest son, Tim, win the last of 10 state wrestling titles won by the four Dernlan brothers

WEST LIBERTY — Dave Dernlan remembers how it all began. His oldest boy, Jeff, came home one day after basketball practice in middle school, asking, “Is there anything I can do where I can touch a guy and the ref won’t blow his whistle?”

“We can think about wrestling,” Dave told him.

Dave didn’t have a farm, so the wrestling mat became the place where his four boys developed the work ethic, integrity and honesty he wanted them to possess. By winning 10 individual state titles between 1985 and 1993, the Dernlans of West Liberty-Salem High School also built themselves a permanent place in the record books.

“Jeff kind of blazed the trail,” said Dave Dernlan, a pastor for many years at Grace Chapel in West Liberty. “Right after that conversation, he told me, ‘I want to be a state champion.’ I remember his sophomore year when he lost in the finals, he had big tears in his eyes, but I gave him the thumbs-up and said, ‘It’s going to be OK. We’re going the right way.’ The next year, he won, and it was an exhilarating feeling.”

The Dernlans parlayed their success as teenagers into varied and interesting lives.

Jeff

Even before he started wrestling, Jeff knew the sport. An uncle on his mom’s side was a state champion at Whitmer High School in Toledo, and another uncle coached a high school team in Michigan to 10 state championships.

In eighth grade, Jeff started to get serious about wrestling. His dad took him to wrestle at the Jordans’ garage in St. Paris, where Jim and Jeff Jordan forged the talents that made them both four-time state champions for Graham.

After the Jordans left for college, the wrestling scene shifted to Dick McDaniel’s garage in West Liberty. His son Clark wrestled as well, and everyone realized a need for an after-school practice area for the wrestlers.

“There are no stained-glass windows, only greasy panes streaked by years of grime,” the News-Sun’s Rob Oller wrote in 1992. “No paintings of Jesus, but posters of other heavyweights adorn the walls. The participants in this weeknight gathering spend much of their time on their knees, but not in prayer. It’s a service of sorts at a service station.”

Jeff beat Grandview Heights’ Ken Morley 6-5 in the 1985 final, finishing the season 27-2. A year later, he posted a perfect 33-0 record punctuated by a 9-4 victory against Stryker’s Trevor Frank.

Steve Dernlan finished third at state in 1986, Jeff’s senior year, and remembers being inspired by his brother’s performance.

“For him to be the first one in the family (to win state) was a huge icebreaker for the rest of us,” Steve said.

Jeff wrestled at Penn State and Purdue and coached at Liberty University, where Steve and Matt wrestled. But after college, he started pursuing a career in music.

In 2006, Jeff released his first album of folk music, “Broadmoor.” His second album, “Cobblestone,” came out in 2008. Jeff toured the Midwest for his last album. More recently, he has focused on writing and on producing a documentary, “FightShark,” about a mixed martial arts fighter coming back from open-heart surgery.

Jeff and his wife Christy have three children.

Steve

A wrestler might cover a kilometer in a season on the mat, not that anyone’s measuring. Steve Dernlan, who spent so many years of his life on or around wrestling mats, now spends his time watching his four kids run cross country or running himself. He competes in trail runs. He has done a 50K race and hopes to run a 50-mile and then a 100-mile ultra marathon in the next year.

“I’m not as fast as the skinny little road racers,” Steve said, “but if I can get them to the trail, I can bring them down to my level.”

Like Jeff, Steve reached the top level in Ohio wrestling in his last two years of high school.

In 1987, Steve finished off a 40-1 season with a 21-6 victory over Summit Station Licking Height’s Jim Raver. A season later, Steve captured his second title with a 15-5 defeat of Richmond Height’s Herbie Adkins, who hadn’t lost all season.

Not even a bloody nose in the final could stop Steve.

“Dad brings a bag full of cotton to every match,” Steve said after the final. “It’s just the normal thing to do. I’ve had lots of bloody noses over the years.”

Matt

Seeing his brothers win four state championships before he had any could have hindered the third-oldest Dernlan, Matt. Instead, he looked at the pressure in a positive way.

“I wanted to achieve what they did,” Matt said. “It was a motivating force.”

“Matt has the advantage of being a younger brother,” West Liberty-Salem coach Eric Harmon said in 1989. “Jeff had the hardest part of all. It was all new territory for him. He came back and pounded on Steve, and they both pounded on Matt. I supposed if you want to make a good comparison, you might want to wait until you see Timmy because he’s been pounded on the longest.”

Matt went 44-0 as a sophomore in 1989, beating Versailles’ Ethan Morgan 5-2 in the final. In 1990, he finished 37-0 with a 23-8 technical fall over Beachwood’s Ryan Peters in the championship.

As a senior in 1991, Matt closed another undefeated season (38-0) and a 144-4 career mark with a 10-6 victory over Gahanna Columbus Academy’s Alex Garcia. An arthritic big toe, a hamstring injury, bronchitis, a cut under his eye and a sore knee didn’t stop Matt. He also had to overcome booing during the finals. The crowd thought he was stalling.

“It was real tough,” Matt said after the match, “but I just prayed and asked God to give me strength throughout the match.”

Matt spent the next four or five days recovering in bed. After high school, he wrestled at Liberty University, and then he got into coaching. Matt, his wife Carie and their two daughters have been at Penn State since 2003.

“It’s going to be neat to see our program grow,” Matt said. “Historically, we’ve been one of the top five wrestling programs in the country, and our goal and vision is the same. We want to be a power in wrestling.”

Tim

After his third state championship, the family’s 10th, all Tim Dernlan wanted was a chocolate malt.

“I wasn’t even thinking about the family thing,” said Tim after his final match in 1993. “My dad told me before the finals that it didn’t matter and that they would all still love me. He told me I would still get my chocolate malt. I’ll probably get it soon, maybe even a few stops from here to home. I’ve been thinking about it for three weeks now.”

As a senior, Tim defeated Cincinnati Academy of Physical Education’s Shantell Sanders 5-1 at the Nutter Center. It was extra sweet because he finished fourth at state as a junior after winning championships as a freshman (6-3 over Kansas Lakota’s Scott Roth) and sophomore (19-6 over Mansfield St. Peter’s Leconte Merrell).

Steve and Matt, both then wrestling at Liberty University, surprised Tim after the match. He hadn’t know they were watching.

“They didn’t want to make him nervous by telling him,” Dave said after the match. “They just wanted him to think wrestling.”

Tim finished his high school career with a 154-3 record and then wrestled at Purdue. He became an All-American in 1998, placing sixth at the NCAA meet. In 2008, he was named the head coach at Ashland. He and his wife Kara have four children.

Dave and Sue Dernlan also live in Ashland. Dave trains pastors in Eastern Europe and is often traveling, though wrestling will always be a part of his life.

“God used (wrestling) to change our lives,” Dave said. “Probably the greatest joy for all of us is we made friends statewide and nationally. They’re still our friends today.”

Sue Dernlan remains the secret ingredient behind the family’s wrestling success. She had more confidence in her sons than anyone, Dave said.

“I would still be trying to train them two seconds before the match,” Dave said, “and she would say, ‘Honey, just pat them on the back and tell them, ‘You’re tough; you can take this guy.’ She was right 99 percent of the time.”

“My mom was the queen of the house,” Tim said. “She always said she felt like she was living in a men’s locker room. We started wrestling in the living room when we didn’t have any furniture when we first moved to West Liberty. Mom sent us to the basement. Then we moved to the barn.”

From those humble beginnings, a wrestling powerhouse was born.

The Dernlans’ state championships

Note: All titles won in Class A or Division III.