'That's why I came back': Eric Kline, Ravenna wrestling seek return to glory

RAVENNA — Months before wrestlers across Northeast Ohio fanned out to Garfield Heights, Hoover and Perry seeking their shot at advancing to the Schottenstein Center, Eric Kline sat in an eerily quiet James L. Coll Gymnasium and talked about his dreams for Ravenna wrestling.

Kline knows where the program was.

He was a part of it, wrestling for the legendary Steve Reedy-led teams that sent busloads of wrestlers down Interstate 71 to the Schottenstein Center in the 1990s.

The Ravens' first-year coach also understands just how much work stands in front of him in order to get the program back to those lofty days.

In the years since, the Ravens have struggled and their numbers have dipped.

As Kline talks, in a silent gym, his soft voice is marvelously persuasive.

Without raising his voice one iota, Kline communicates a deep passion for the program and a fervent commitment to bringing Ravenna back.

"I don't have a time, that's up to God and this and that, but my goal is to be competitive at a state level every year," Kline said. "Every year, that's my goal."

That’s a vision that’s shared by Ravens athletic director Jim Lunardi, who himself was an assistant coach for the program.

Lunardi has demonstrated his commitment with more than words. He helped bring about a vastly improved wrestling room at Ravenna, including the new competition mats that arrived in just the last several days.

“Jimmy is committed to getting this program back to being an elite program,” Kline said. “Not competitive, not average, not good, but great, and that's why I came back. That's why I came back to be a part of this because I see Jimmy's vision for this program and where he wants it to be, and I'm on that same level.”

Lunardi helped bring a new look for the program, including sharp new signage that showcases the proud history of Ravens wrestling.

Kline is determined to bring a new attitude as well.

“That's the one thing that we will change here is something that I learned from wrestling for Steve Reedy back through the '90s,” Kline said. “Go after the things that you want to accomplish in your life and don't let anything stop you within the means of being responsible, and go make something of yourself, and that's what we're doing here.”

Eric Kline's road back to Ravenna

Eric Kline could see himself coaching.

But he was never quite sure that he wanted to coach.

Oh, Kline certainly had some of those classic coaching traits from the start. As he tells it, he was far from the best wrestler in a loaded Ravens program, but he had a deep understanding of the sport.

"I'm very proud to be a part of a lot of the guys on that wall," said Kline, pointing to a banner loaded with wrestling championships at James L. Coll Gymnasium. "I just never had the talent to be at that level, but I really understood. Like a basketball game, you can have somebody, an assistant coach or a coach that he can just see the floor before the play happens, right? That's how my mind works. That's what my wife says."

Still, as much as he learned from watching Reedy as a student-athlete and as much as he might have been made for coaching, Kline originally wanted to watch his kids from the stands.

“I wanted to be the dad that just wanted to watch my kids in the beginning,” Kline said. “Then, in my early 30s, I'm getting the itch, and I'm like, 'Give me the shoes, give me the head gear. I want to go back out and do it again.'”

Kline started coaching at the youth level, at Ravenna and then Rootstown.

With the Rovers, currently one of the top Division III programs in the state, Kline coached a booming youth program that competed for titles.

When he returned to the Ravens, first with the youth before taking the high school helm, Kline's challenge was simply to get kids out for wrestling.

"Two years ago, Ravenna didn't even have a youth program and COVID played a big part of that, but prior to that I think they only had eight kids in the entire program for youth," Kline said. "I knew it was single digits, so I came back and I wanted to start the youth program back up here."

Kline said the numbers have begun rising.

He said the youth program got up to 25 to 27 last year, a season in which the Ravens didn't compete in the Ohio Athletic Committee postseason as they worked to simply get their kids experience in the sport.

He said the middle school numbers are up from two to 18.

The high school number, around 10, isn't quite enough to fill a lineup, but Kline likes what he sees.

"These kids at the high school, they do want to work," Kline said. "They want to work hard."

Strong senior class hopes to leave a legacy for Ravenna

When Eric Kline was announced as the Ravens' new high school wrestling coach, he needed no introduction.

After all, he had coached a number of Ravenna's current wrestlers at the youth level.

"I was actually really excited to hear that he was coming back because that's arguably one of the best coaches I've ever had," Ravens senior Sean Loucks said. "He's just a really good coach. I was super excited. I knew that the program was going to change."

Kline immediately got to work assembling a coaching staff, and he said one key was keeping it professional. He didn't want to have a room full of his buddies. He wanted to find the best assistants possible, and Lunardi helped by assembling a list of names he might want to consider.

Kline sat down with those potential assistants and talked about vision in an "all business-type meeting" and tried to see if there was a match.

The staff he assembled includes Jeremiah Sanders, the middle school head coach whose work in the middle school every day ensures he can connect with kids in the hallways. (Sanders also heads the Ravens' middle school football team, helping create a football-to-wrestling pipeline.)

Mike Prikryl, who, like Kline, has roots in Rootstown's powerhouse program, is heading Ravenna's youth.

They are among the myriad of coaches helping Kline institute a workmanlike approach to practice.

"We're trying to instill from the youth, especially the middle school and the high school level, how you practice to become a champion, how you train to be a champion," Kline said. "Now, I'm not saying everybody needs to be Rocky Balboa and put the headsets on and play Rocky songs all day long. But when I have you for two hours in my room, we're wrestling, we're banging heads, we're going to be competing with the best of them."

His seniors have noticed.

"The entire attitude around the program is completely different," Ravenna senior Cory Cole said. "Everybody's held to a higher standard and we just push ourselves, try to walk out of the room better than we walked in."

Fellow senior Donovan Mack said he hopes to see a little bit of the competitiveness he saw wrestling at a larger school like Stow-Munroe Falls, where big numbers meant big competition at practice.

"Wrestling at Stow, you're wrestling somebody in your weight class and you're battling to be the number one guy, and if you lose that you're still going to be wrestling with that guy each day," Mack said. "You just got to work hard and you're going to be pushed by those coaches, too."

Senior heavyweight Alex Johnson has already started to see similarities between one highly successful coach he played for, Lunardi on the football field, and what Kline is looking to achieve on the mat.

"[Lunardi] had the guys he trusted that he knew he could rely on, but also to show the newer people what that meant to win, how to be a Raven and how to do your best no matter what," Johnson said. "With Coach Kline and Coach Lunardi, it was definitely tough love where he'll push you to the absolute limit, but he'll still treat you with love at the end of the day, no matter what."

All four seniors — Cole, Johnson, Loucks and Mack — finished in the top four at the Kenston Sectional to advance to the Garfield Heights District.

All four have worked for Garfield Heights with visions of Columbus.

But the four also hope to leave a different kind of legacy — a powerful foundation for Kline to build upon in the years to come.

"We want to set a tone for the future and kind of show the underclassmen what it takes to get to the next level," Cole said, "and what's expected out of this program in the future."

This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: Eric Kline, Ravenna wrestling seek return to glory