Having a baby will really suck the life out of you, even as it gives you something to love. Babies take hundreds more hours than you expect them to. People who have never had one wonder why someone would put themselves through the pain and effort required to raise a child the right way.
Just ask Steve Garland, the Virginia wrestling coach. In 2006, he was taking care of two of them: his infant daughter and the Cavalier wrestling program to which he had just been given reins.\nGarland will be the first to tell you that, at times during his first year at the helm, one of his babies got the short stick.
"I lived with not seeing my daughter during the first year of her life," he said. "I was too busy on the road doing recruiting and doing alumni development and doing free clinics all over the state. I completely was obsessed with making the program better."
Some results were pretty immediate - Garland's first class was the third best in the country and probably the program's first top-five class ever, he said - but the real fruits of his labor became apparent with this season's historic success.
The Cavaliers not only achieved the highest ranking in program history at No. 16, but also finished 15th at the NCAA Tournament - the best finish since 1957. They also won the conference title for the first time since 1977 - the first title "since literally the year I was born," Garland said.
I caught up with Garland earlier this week for the first time since their last season. I was curious what the young coach - who's still my favorite person in all of Virginia athletics, by the way - had to say about his team's transition from good to great.
As always, he had all the right things to say, and plenty of entertaining ways to say them. He credited first his athletes and second his staff.
"I'll never forget seeing those faces and how joyful they were" after winning the ACC Tournament, Garland said. "One of the kids came up to me and said, 'Coach, we're just so happy for you.' And that brought me to tears because I thought: Wow - this is your title! I had nothing to do with it!"
His peers seemed to disagree with his self-analysis, awarding Garland his first of many likely ACC Coach of the Year awards. But Garland brushed off credit even for that personal accolade.
"Unfortunately, I'm the only guy on that award," he said. "When I get this award, it's really about the team and really about the staff."
But certainly this year's success wouldn't have happened without Garland's tremendous level of commitment and sacrifice during the past four years, especially that first year.
"I knew that there were a lot of things that needed to change," Garland said. "Kids needed to know they had to come here and win."
He continued, alluding to a necessary change in the program's culture.
"That took a lot of work, my friend, with Scott and myself having divorce lawyers on speed-dial," he joked.
But when you live with as much character and compassion as Garland, things tend to come full circle. Sacrifice turns into success.
"If you take a step back and look at what happened the past four years, it's pretty incredible," he said. "If I really had to pinpoint the main catalyst, it'd be recruiting."
With this philosophy guiding the wrestling program, it makes sense this year would be the first great one. The first Garland-recruited guys are juniors, including All-American Chris Henrich.
There were many impressive accomplishments this postseason, but Henrich's were the most notable. He didn't just win an individual ACC title - he dominated the competition.
"In the ACC finals match, what he did that kid was unbelievable," Garland said. "He was hitting moves that were silly. I actually jokingly referred to it as moves from the Matrix."
Henrich tore through nationals before he finally slipped up in a fluke match in the national semifinals. He was up 8-2 against the eventual national champion before falling apart to lose 10-9.
"In the semis, it hurt," Garland said. "That loss is still with us. It'll be with us for awhile. He shut down. He lost in a horrific manner. I couldn't sleep that night. I know he couldn't."
But Henrich, with the guidance of Garland and the rest of the staff, bounced back to trounce his foe in the consolation match and take home third.
"Here's the difference between Chris and a lot of other kids, not just on our team but in the country: Chris actually learns from his mistakes and he actually feeds off of those things and gets better from it," Garland said. "Do you know how hard that is to do? Your dreams, your hopes, everything you've been working towards has been crushed. But you've got a match in 24 hours. Good luck!"\nHis loss in the semifinals will likely drive him all of next year, too.
"I'm telling you, it's probably the worst thing that could happen for everyone else his weight class because that will fuel him," Garland said.
Also standing out for the Cavaliers was 197-pound Brent Jones, who won the Gorriaran Award, which is given to the wrestler who pinned the most opponents in the least amount of time at the championships. Jones was "literally a shoelace" away from becoming All-American, after he barely missed a chance to pin the leg of Sonny Yohn.
In all, Virginia had eight wrestlers compete at nationals, seven of whom advanced to the second day of bouts.
So, what's next for Garland and the Cavaliers? Certainly more solid recruiting. Possibly another ACC Championship.
(Quick aside: Most people expected Virginia Tech or Maryland to win the conference title. "Nobody outside of our program thought we were going to win that tournament," Garland said, but he was wrong. I spent the past year confident that Virginia would win the ACC title this time around, going so far as to promise readers in my April 8, 2009 column "Moving Forward" that I'd eat my shoe if they didn't.)
And, who knows, maybe Henrich will become Virginia's first-ever national title winner in 2011. No matter how you look at it, Garland's baby is starting to grow up, right before our very eyes.
And if his other baby, his daughter, is anything like her daddy, she's probably on her way to being something great, too. For the rest of her life, she can come to Onesty Hall, the wrestling headquarters, see her father's name on that ACC Coach of the Year award and remember that character and sacrifice can truly make special things happen.
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