Ryland Wagner graduated from Gainesville High School in 1997.

A little over 27 years later, Wagner joined a special group this past weekend when he was inducted into the Florida Chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.

“It is a very humbling experience,” said Wagner, who finished his GHS career as a state runner-up at 152 lbs. and as the school’s all-time winningest wrestler. “No one who gets into coaching does it for personal accolades. We want all the attention to go to our athletes. So, all of a sudden, to have the spotlight put on you is an interesting feeling but one that I will never forget. This whole journey has been incredibly rewarding.” 

Making the accomplishment even bigger is that you can only get into the Florida Chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame if active members vote you in. 

“And to be honored by my peers has been the best part of this whole thing,” said Wagner, who referenced a podcast called, “Wrestling changed my life,” in his opening comments of the induction speech.

According to chapter president Gary Townsend, the Florida Chapter of the National Hall of Fame annually honors their Florida inductees “with a weekend of reunions, testimonies, a banquet with excellent food, stories of laughter and emotions when we hear from our inductees, and then the presentation of their Green Jackets.”

“Our goal from day one was, and still is, to honor our inductees at a first-class level for their contribution and dedication — their lifetime service to the sport of wrestling,” Townsend wrote in his newsletter. “It is also our responsibility to represent the National Wrestling Hall of Fame with dignity and professionalism. This board works diligently to maintain these goals. We also have a responsibility to the Florida wrestling community to develop and preserve the history of Florida Wrestling, the development of girls wrestling and boys wrestling.”

For 30 years, Wagner has been involved with the GHS wrestling program as a wrestler, assistant coach, head coach, fundraiser, and booster club president. He has worked tirelessly to give back to the program that gave him so much. 

“I have shifted into more of an advisory role at this point in my career,” he said. “I’m not able to be in the room as often as I would wish, but I try my hardest to promote the sport and especially in North Florida. I’m the Booster Club President at Gainesville High School and I assist in fundraising for the team, which is so essential to all high school sports. And I still will travel wherever I am asked for free to do a ‘Cradle to the Grave’ camp.”

Wagner said that a popular pinning combination in wrestling is called a cross-face cradle.

In 2011, after coaches started asking him, he started coaching camps that showed their technique and he’s been doing that ever since.

“We emphasized this move quite a bit and practiced it every day [putting it mildly],” he said. “It got to the point where teams knew it was coming and couldn’t stop it.”

Brian Smith, the head coach at the University of Missouri and a former Florida state champ, once told him to create an identity and own it. 

“We just started using the cradle all the time,” he said. “Even if we were losing, we were always trying to pin you with the cradle and sometimes we succeeded…just traveled to three schools this summer to show it. So, it’s pretty incredible that our cradle legacy has lived on.”

That legacy began his eighth-grade year in North Carolina in 1993.

“I was at a summer camp, Eagles Nest, and after dinner, they had activities you could sign up for,” Wagner said. “I guess a few of the counselors were former wrestlers, so we ended up rolling around in the grass for a few hours. I didn’t really think about it again until my freshman year when Scott Billings, former GHS head coach, literally grabbed me out of the halls and told me I should wrestle. I’ll never forget going into that wrestling room for the first time. It was dark, scary and it didn’t smell good, but I loved it.”  

Following his time as an athlete at GHS, Wagner enrolled at the University of Florida in 1998, and he rearranged his class schedule to begin his coaching career with his high school alma mater.

During his time coaching the GHS wrestling program, he helped coach seven state champions, three state finalists and 35 state place winners. His teams won seven district titles [three runner-up finishes] and four regional titles [three runner-up finishes].  

He was named the Gainesville Sun’s Coach of the Year four times, awarded Volunteer of the Year by the School Board of Alachua County in 2001 for working with the youth wrestling community at the Gainesville Takedown Club, and was given the Spirit of Gainesville Award in 2011 for his coaching and community leadership. 

As a head coach, Wagner compiled a dual meet record of 203-67-1 and led his team to four top-five and two top-10 finishes at the state tournament, including a state runner-up finish in 2006 where GHS scored 126 points and had seven state place winners, a school record.  

“We had a lot of firsts [at GHS] that I got to be a part of, first district title, first regional title, first state champion,” he said. “And who could forget our 2006 state runner-up finish [one of only six schools in North Florida History to bring home a trophy]? But honestly, my fondest memory is just seeing all the wrestlers reach their potential.

“For some, that was a state championship, but for some, it was just making it to the state tournament. For some, it was taking home a medal for placing. But whatever that max potential was, that was my fondest memory. Whether their season or career ended on a win or a loss, if they walked off that mat reaching that potential, there was always a smile in there and that warmed my heart.”

As time has passed, he is no longer the Hurricanes’ all-time winningest wrestler.

“Not even close,” Wagner said. “The newer generation of wrestlers were able to get so many more matches than some of the older generations. For comparison, Jacob Harmer [2008 171-pound state champ] is now Gainesville High School’s all-time winningest wrestler with 211 wins.”

He said there are many factors that have changed wrestling since then.

“I would say coaching and tradition are the two biggest factors,” he said. “We have more and more people moving to Florida every day. And with that migration from the North, we have more and more people coming to Florida with wrestling experience. There are some very qualified coaches spread out around the state that are making this sport better and better.”

If it promotes the sport, Wagner is all for it.

“Tradition just comes from longevity,” he noted. “Florida’s first sanctioned State Wrestling Tournament was in 1965, which leaves us celebrating 59 years of FHSAA State Tournaments.  In comparison, Iowa and Pennsylvania are celebrating over 90. We are seeing more legacy members in Florida, people with wrestling pedigree, who have fathers or uncles who wrestled.  The more that happens the better the state will be.” 

Wagner, who has coached nationally-ranked wrestlers, NHSCA All-Americans, Fargo All-Americans, a Super 32 placer, a Dave Schultz winner for the state of Florida, several D1 college wrestlers, and Miriam Jenkins, the first female wrestler to win a match at the boys’ FHSAA State Tournament in 1999, said the biggest factor that has helped improve and change wrestling in Florida “is the sheer opportunity to wrestle whenever you want.” 

“There is a literal tournament or camp every weekend,” he said. “If you want to get better at this sport, there is no excuse because the opportunities are there.”