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Kevin Ward and Chris Chionuma

Feature Friday: Army Coaches Return Home

February 12, 2016 | Wrestling

Feature Friday highlights the tremendous personal stories our coaches and cadet-athletes have to share on a weekly basis. Each Friday, a new feature story will be prominently highlighted on GoArmyWestPoint.com. The features will include multi-media pieces, as well as written stories by media outlets and the Army West Point athletic communications staff.

The wrestling program at Army West Point has been around since the early 1920's. Being the leader of this group of elite athletes is a rare fraternity that has just 10 members, the most recent of whom comes from one of the most prestigious wrestling programs in the country.

The 2015-16 Black Knights are under the direction of Kevin Ward who spent his college days in Stillwater, Okla., wrestling for the Oklahoma State Cowboys. As an athlete, he learned from the greatest coach of the most storied program in the country. John Smith, an alumni of OSU, has been at the helm since his graduation in 1993 and has continued the rich tradition that came before him.

The two-time Olympic gold medalist is the winningest coach in the program's 100-year history with a record of 381-58-6. Additionally, he instructed five of the Cowboys' 34 national championship teams, 15 conference championship teams between the Big Eight and Big 12, 29 individual national champions, 95 individual conference champions, and 111 All-Americans.

Ward was a four-year letter-winner at OSU, compiling a career-record of 62-25 with four pins and 10 major decisions and contributed to four-straight NCAA championships from 2003-'06. As a senior in 2005, the Soddy-Daisy, Tenn., native worked his way to a career-high 23 wins and earned the Big 12 championship at 157 pounds prior to a 3-2 performance at the NCAA Championships.

"For Kevin, it probably wasn't the ideal career that he thought he was going to have, but I think as he looks back on it, he cherishes the time and recognizes how important the role that he did play was," Smith shared. "He happened to have a guy named Johny Hendricks in front of him, who is considered one of our greatest wrestlers of all time.

"When he wasn't starting, he played the role of a great teammate that was going to help whoever was in that spot become the best that they could be. You don't get that all the time, but that's just how Kevin was. That was why we won four NCAA titles. It wasn't always the starters that were the difference in us winning four-in-a-row, it was the guys that were playing roles as backups that they didn't want to play, but yet understood the overall mission of the team."

Following graduation, Ward stayed with OSU for one more rodeo as a volunteer assistant, once again helping the Cowboys to the national crown. From there, Ward took a three-year hiatus from the sport to pursue other interests, but he could not stay away from the mat for long.

A small Division-II school named Ouachita Baptist University drew Ward back into coaching with an offer to be the head coach for their inaugural season in the 2010-11 school year. In just his second year, Ward turned this upstart program into national contenders, leading OBU to a 15th-place finish at the NCAA championships.

The ascent continued for the Tigers in his next two seasons as they reached a 12th-place finish before vaulting into the top-five with a pair of NCAA finalists and 10 All-Americans. That performance earned Ward the 2014 NCAA Division-II Coach of the Year award.

In his final season in Arkadelphia, Ark., Ward was assisted by a fellow Cowboy. Chris Chionuma, now an assistant coach for Ward at West Point, was recruited to OSU as a senior from Lindenwood University. Coming in as a three-time NAIA All-America selection, Chionuma's success continued in Stillwater as the Blue Springs, Mo., native was undefeated in 11 matches at open tournaments as a red shirt in his first season with OSU. In his final season, Chionuma captured the 184-pound Big 12 championship and qualified for the NCAA championships.

"In the practice room at Oklahoma State, there were no easy days," Chionuma reflected. "You were surrounded by two or three-time state champs, Fargo All-Americans and Fargo National Champions. You're in a room where everyone is just as good or better than you. I went from being the top dog at Lindenwood to being the underdog at Oklahoma State. When I stepped out on the mat to compete, that side of it was easier to work with because people knew what it meant to wrestle at Oklahoma State. It was a great honor to be able to wrestle for such a prestigious program."

"While their time here was short, Kevin and Chris definitely rubbed off on some people, and their examples still have an influence on our team today," reminisced Smith. "They both had a great commitment here, not only athletically but academically. Kevin Ward pretty much set the standard throughout all four years for our team academically. Chris was the same way. It was a real blessing to have guys like that who had the mentality to train hard, work hard, and also take their academics very seriously."

Upon his graduation in 2012, Chionuma took the position under Ward at OBU. The following season, Ward would return to the Division-I ranks, accepting his current position at West Point and freeing up the Tigers' head coaching job. Realizing the opportunity that was ahead of him, Chionuma stepped into the lead role and brought the team back to a top-five ranking at the national championships. He mentored four All-Americans in his lone season as a head coach, including OBU's first ever national champion in 184-pounder Dallas Smith.  

Prior to this season, Ward persuaded Chionuma to work alongside him once more. Thus far, Ward has earned three wins in each of his first two seasons with the Black Knights and has vastly changed the attitude of this program. Ward brought Army from fourth to second in the New York State Championships, tied for 28th to a program-best 14th-place finish at the Las Vegas Cliff Keen Invitational, 33rd to 12th at the Southern Scuffle, led the team to its first win at the All-Academy Championships in eight years and snapped a 17-year winless streak against service academy rival Navy. At the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association (EIWA) championships, Ward took the Cadets from a 14th-place finish to 10th last season and has the squad poised to make a deeper run in next month's tournament.

For Coach Smith, Ward's early success comes as no surprise, and he credits Army and Director of Athletics Boo Corrigan on taking a chance with someone who had no prior Division-I coaching experience.

"We need more individuals with great character that will focus on building great wrestling programs across the country, and you've got two of them there in Kevin and Chris," added Smith. "West Point did the best thing it could have done for its program. I think that you're going to be very pleased with both of those guys and their efforts in the future."

"As I get into my coaching career, I hope to someday be as successful as John has been," admitted Ward. "I want to be a national champion coach. I want to be the best coach in the country. For me, to be able to wrestle against somebody that I look up to is a pretty cool thing; however, this trip is strictly business. I promise you that when we get out there on the mat, they're not going to care if I was an athlete or if Chris or I wrestled for him or not. We're going to be competitors out there on the mat, so we're going to be looking at each other one way: that we want to win."

Today, Ward and Chionuma return to Stillwater, Okla., and Gallagher-Iba Arena for the first time to oppose their alma mater. It is the third all-time meeting between Army and Oklahoma State and the first since 2007.

"I know how it's going to feel going back; we're going there to compete," remarked Ward. "I certainly have a lot of respect for Coach Smith. The more I get into coaching, the more I appreciate him and the influence he had on my development throughout my career. We're going there to compete, and that's why we wanted a team like Oklahoma State on our schedule because having the chance to schedule teams and programs of that caliber could do nothing but elevate us if we approach it the right way. To us, there's only one right way to approach this, and that's to compete and go in there to get wins. That's all there is to it. It's a business trip."

"It's going to be surreal going back there," Chionuma added. "I don't think I can put it into words. I have a lot of respect for John Smith. He's obviously a big factor to my success now and me being a coach at the Division-I level at Army West Point. I'm excited to go out and compete against him."
 
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Army head coach Kevin Ward

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Army assistant coach Chris Chionuma in action at Oklahoma State

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