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Conley Carrying Legacy Of His Mentors Into ‘Hall’

Reflecting on his tenure as both a successful high school athlete and now coach, Todd Conley recalled a bevy of fond memories stretching back to his formative years at Southwestern Central School.

It was in his years in the wrestling room and on the football field for the Trojans that the 1989 graduate was given a firsthand look at what it takes to be a successful coach, under the instruction of Chautauqua Sports Hall of Fame inductee Walt Thurnau.

Thurnau left behind a legacy of more than three decades of achievement at Southwestern, leading up to his eventual retirement in 2002, absorbing much of what he passed on from yet another legendary coaching figure, Clarence “Flash” Olson, who also now shares the honor of being in the Chautauqua Sports Hall of Fame.

Carrying on the legacy of his mentors, while pursuing the growth of his own Randolph athletes on and off the field the past dozen years, Conley was honored with his own induction into the Cattaraugus Sports Hall of Fame on Saturday.

Also in the 2018 induction class are Fred Caya, Portville, Robert Jimerson Sr., Gowanda, D.J. Whitmore, Salamanca; Barbara Duggan, Cattaraugus-Little Valley; Dick Edmunds, Pioneer; Chad Lyter, Allegany-Limestone; Bruno DeGiglio, Olean; Susan Horton, Ellicottville; Royce Ross, Franklinville; Mike Williams, West Valley; Wayne Marsh, Cattaraugus-Little Valley; and the late Tommy Irons, Olean.

While Conley’s coaching career with the Cardinals may have begun as a football assistant in 1997, and evolved into years of success at the helm of Randolph wrestling, it was the early experiences at Southwestern that formed the foundation.

It was in Conley’s junior year, while dealing with a broken leg suffered on the football field, that his talent for leadership and working with other athletes was serendipitously first noticed by Thurnau.

“When I was in 11th grade, this was interesting in how things played out for me,” Conley said. “I couldn’t wrestle my junior year. Our junior high coach at the time was having a medical procedure done, so that he couldn’t coach. Coach Thurnau asked me to coach the junior high team. I just did it because he asked me to. Lo and behold, 25 years later I end up here, doing what I’m doing.”

Knowing the kind of man that Thurnau was, and the programs that he put together in all his years with the Trojans, it says a lot that Conley was chosen to lead a team of wrestlers while still an athlete himself.

“It was all about representing the school, it was all about representing your family and your team,” Conley said of Thurnau’s style. “If you won, you were excited about that. If you lost then you were a gentleman.

“I think a lot of that came with him from his mentor, Flash Olson. He taught us a lot of humility. There are a lot of ups and downs in life, and you have to deal with them both and deal with them in a humane and diplomatic way. He was just such an even-keeled gentleman.”

Reminiscing about the two most important lessons that Thurnau impressed upon him, which Conley now hopes to pass on to his athletes, the Randolph coach said that, “The two greatest lessons that I learned from Coach Thurnau were to give all that you can, and to be a gentleman.

“I’m extremely proud of. … if I am doing that, bringing that to Randolph.”

After getting his first taste of coaching and moving on from Southwestern, Conley’s athletic career took him to Canisius College, and the focus on football would remain through his 13 years as an assistant coach with the Cardinals, starting in 1997.

“Football was kind of my foremost passion and coaching football, really if I was going to pick anything it would be football,” Conley said of his first years as a coach. “Once I got going on wrestling, I realized that if I could fill a need there in Randolph I would give it a shot. I gave Coach Thurnau a call when I was contemplating taking the job and he referenced me coaching in 11th grade. He said, ‘That is your mission, that is what you should do.'”

Once again, it seems as though Thurnau’s eye was right on the mark, as Conley and the Cardinals sit on three consecutive Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Athletic Association Division 2 championships, while sporting a perfect 18-0 league record the past three seasons.

This season saw Conley travel to the New York State Public High School Athletic Association Division II Championships with two qualifying wrestlers for the first time in his career, as both Matt Evans and Nick Becker earned place-finishing honors to close out the season.

While football was initially Conley’s focus, the experiences that he has had with the wrestling community are as lasting as any of those on the gridiron.

When it comes to the keys to his recent success, it is hard to overestimate the emphasis that Randolph has placed on team wrestling.

“I think that the key to the success that I have had in recent years is that I have encouraged the concept of being a team. It didn’t matter if you were the best kid or the worst kid, we wanted you on our team. We were going to give the new guy as much attention and care as anybody else,” said Conley. “I want to help produce good young men from Randolph. If that is the least that I can do to make this country a better place, if I can use the sport of wrestling to help the young men of Randolph be good people, then that’s really what it’s about at the end of the day.”

As so many wrestling families have come to learn over the years, the sport is an all-inclusive event.

In addition to all the success on the mat that Conley has earned over the years, he and his wife Denell have also raised five children, many of them learning the coaching lessons of their father from underneath his corner chair at wrestling tournaments.

“Wrestling is a family atmosphere. All those coaches embrace your kids. I would have my kids at matches and other coach’s wives would hold them while I was coaching,” said Conley. “All my kids grew up in my coaching corner. They grew up sitting under my chair.”

Given Conley’s successes, on and off the mat, that’s not a bad place to be.

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