Chestnut Ridge 2008 state champion wrestler dies | News

The Johnstown-area wrestling community lost a young legend on the very same day that it buried another.

Gary Pfahler, 26, who became Chestnut Ridge's first – and to this point only – state champion in 2008, died Thursday morning in Fort Pierce, Florida, according to J Edward Blackburn Funeral Home in Alum Bank, which is handling arrangements.

Christine Weekes, administrative manager for the St. Lucie County Coroner and Medical Examiner's Office, said that an autopsy was performed but could not determine the cause and manner of death. A toxicology report is pending.

Pfahler captured the PIAA Class AA championship in 2008, his senior year at Chestnut Ridge.

A year later another District 5 wrestler – North Star's Nick Roberts – won the first of his three state championships. Roberts died on Saturday at his apartment on the Pitt-Johnstown campus in Richland Township.

“It's been a rough week,” said Joe Kimmel, District 5's wrestling chairman. “I couldn't believe that when I heard it (Thursday). I went to the viewing (for Roberts) on Wednesday.”

Pfahler broke a 25-year drought for Bedford County wrestlers when he won state gold, and he gave longtime Chestnut Ridge coach Jim Clark a going-away present by beating Burrell's Jordan Shields 4-3 at the Giant Center. Clark, a hall of fame coach, won more than 300 dual meets at Chestnut Ridge, but Pfahler represented the school's biggest individual success.

“It’s the best feeling in the world,” Pfahler told The Tribune-Democrat at the time. “Better than any other match I ever won before. Better than anything.

"It was something me and my family dreamed about since I was 4 years old, starting out wrestling. I finally got it. I made my family proud, my coaches proud.”

Kimmel, who was the superintendent at Chestnut Ridge in 2008, remembered Pfahler as a “very personable kid. He was tough as nails on the wrestling mat and, I heard, off. But he was pleasant, courteous, respectful as anyone in the school setting. Very likeable and fun-loving.”

Greg Lazor, Chestnut Ridge's current head coach, was an assistant to Clark when Pfahler won gold.

“How I remember Gary is a very big-hearted young man,” Lazor said. “He was very emotional. He really loved his team, loved his brothers. If he thought they were being done wrong, he'd let you know about it.”

A a senior project, Gary's older brother, Brandon, started a program in which Chestnut Ridge varsity wrestlers worked with elementary wrestlers. Gary continued the program and made a big impact, according to Chestnut Ridge assistant coach Scott McGill, who helped both brothers with the program.

“All of these kids would go to practices that were coached by Gary,” McGill said. “That was a big inspiration. We even had some shirts made up that said 'Pfahler-trained' on the back. He was telling everybody about working hard and doing extras to become a state champ, and then he became a state champ.”

Those young wrestlers that the Pfahler brothers helped coach turned Chestnut Ridge into a powerhouse program that is routinely one of the best in the state, and the current crop includes state championship contenders Justin McCoy, Morgan Deremer and Jared McGill.

Kimmel said that Pfahler is a legend at Chestnut Ridge, and the person who answered the phone at the funeral home recalled how the community threw a parade from the Pennsylvania Turnpike exit to the school – and then to Pfahler's home – to honor the returning hero after his state championship.

“It was a great atmosphere for the school and the community, to have the first state champ there in Chestnut Ridge,” Kimmel said. “That was a major deal because they had a history of a lot of great wrestlers. He was very humble and, not only that, he worked diligently with the younger kids.

"He would help with some of the camps and coach up some of the younger kids. They obviously looked up to him. He handled that very well. He was giving back to the school, the community and the younger wrestlers that were there.”

Lazor said that he hasn't talked to his wrestlers yet about Pfahler's death, but he and McGill both know that the Chestnut Ridge wrestlers – along with others in tight-knit wrestling community – will be affected by it and Roberts' passing.

"I feel bad for both families," McGill said. "My thoughts and prayers go out to those families that are dealing with this."

Pfahler joined the military after high school, but was injured in a car wreck, according to Lazor. Although he lost touch with Pfahler in the past few years, Lazor said he ran into him recently.

“I talked to him a couple of weeks ago,” the coach said. “Pleasant as heck. Said he was getting his life together and wanted to come back and be part of the program.”

Funeral arrangements have not yet been finalized.