Bedelyon Brings Wrestling Camp, Bigger Vision Back Home

BY BRIAN CARSON

Nic Bedelyon knows what a Mifflin County wrestling room can do to a kid.

It can harden him. It can humble him. It can send him into summer practices when other kids are finding easier things to do with their afternoons. It can give him a goal that keeps moving far enough ahead to keep him chasing.

For Bedelyon, the chase went from Mifflin County to Kent State, from high school dreams to NCAA tournaments, from competing at the Division I level to coaching there.

Now the Rider associate head coach is bringing some of that road back home.

Bedelyon will hold a wrestling camp Saturday, June 13, at the Mifflin County Wrestling Club, 611 Electric Ave., Lewistown. The camp runs from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., with drop-off at 8:45 a.m. Cost is $50, payable by cash at the door or Venmo. Registration closes June 5.

The flyer says plenty. Bedelyon is a two-time All-American at Kent State, a four-time NCAA qualifier, a two-time MAC champion and a coach who has helped produce 11 All-Americans.

The better part is what the flyer can’t fully explain.

This is a college coach coming home with proof in his hands. Proof that a kid from Mifflin County can leave here, wrestle at the highest level and build a life in the sport.

The friendship behind the camp goes back decades.

“One of my best friends, Trent Russler, started the Mifflin County Wrestling Club,” Bedelyon said. “I grew up with him from preschool to high school, and my son’s 7, his son’s 8, and he’s run the Mifflin County Wrestling Club.”

Bedelyon held a camp in Mifflin County last year. This will be the second year in a row.

A one-time appearance can feel like a visit. Coming back again looks like a commitment.

“We got it set up, and we want to bring exposure,” Bedelyon said. “I mean, it’s pretty awesome. You have a Division I coach in college wrestling who can come back, and you build relationships with the kids. And maybe in the near future, I’m recruiting them to come wrestle at Rider.”

That’s the door he’s trying to open.

In wrestling, relationships matter. A coach sees a kid early. A kid hears something that sticks. A family learns what the next level looks like. A young wrestler who thought the sport ended after high school starts looking past the county line.
Bedelyon put it plainly.

“We could build a pipeline from Mifflin County to New Jersey, which is about a three-hour drive,” he said.

That sentence should make local wrestling people sit up.

Mifflin County has had good wrestlers. It’s had tough rooms. It’s had kids willing to work. Bedelyon is talking about vision. He wants the next group to see more.

He also pointed to other Mifflin County wrestlers, like Hyden Hidlay, coaching at the Division I level and said that should mean something here.

“To have guys coaching Division I level in Mifflin County, I think it’s special,” Bedelyon said. “Why can’t we get the kids excited about wrestling at the next level?”

That may be the camp’s whole argument.

Why can’t a local kid think bigger?

Bedelyon had big goals when he was young, but even those goals had borders.

“I wish I had more people when I was growing up,” Bedelyon said. “My goal for the longest time was just to be a state champ. It was never to wrestle Division I. So I want kids to think bigger and have a true passion for the sport.”

There’s a lesson in that for every parent looking at the calendar and every wrestler wondering whether a Saturday in June is worth it.

A camp won’t turn a beginner into an All-American by dinnertime. That’s not how wrestling works, and nobody who knows the sport would pretend otherwise.

Wrestling is built on repetitions that get boring before they get good. It’s built on corrected mistakes, lost scrambles and long rides home after a kid learns the difference between wanting something and preparing for it.

A good camp can still matter, especially when the person running it has lived the path.

Bedelyon said his main goal for the day is simple.

“My biggest goal is to get these kids to love wrestling,” he said.

That may sound soft until you think about what the sport asks. A kid who only likes winning won’t last. A kid who only likes the medal stand will have trouble with December. The ones who last usually find something deeper. They learn to love the work, or at least respect it enough to return to it.
Bedelyon wants wrestlers to understand the sport doesn’t have to end when high school ends.

“I love my job,” he said. “I tell everyone, ‘I’m living the dream. This is what I get to do for a living.’”

That line should land with young wrestlers. Around here, kids can imagine the next match or the next tournament. It’s harder to imagine the larger map.

Bedelyon is part of that map now. He isn’t talking about Division I wrestling from a distance. He’s living in it.

He knows the distance between a good wrestler and one who keeps climbing. When asked what separates wrestlers who break through from those who have talent and stall, Bedelyon went back to drive, passion, and the willingness to fail.

“I was never afraid of, ‘What if I don’t win?’” he said. “I had that drive and passion that separated me. And finding something you love and going all in and not being afraid to fail is probably the secret that we have for our guys.”

That’s a hard thing to teach in one day. Maybe impossible. It can still be modeled.

A young wrestler can hear it from someone who made an NCAA semifinal and has coached All-Americans, someone who still talks like he’s chasing the next thing.

For parents, part of the value is instruction. For Bedelyon, the larger value is the relationship.

“I think it’s the relationship you build with a Division I coach,” he said.

He said 10 wrestlers he has coached at Rider are now coaching at the Division I level, with connections across programs that include the Big Ten, Princeton, Pitt, Lock Haven, and Franklin & Marshall.

“The Division I community is very small in the wrestling world, but they’re very passionate,” Bedelyon said.

That’s part of what parents are buying for $50. No promise. No shortcut. Just a day near someone who knows the road.

The camp is open to boys and girls. Bedelyon made a point to mention girls' wrestling, calling it the fastest-growing sport in the country. He said girls from Mifflin County, Huntingdon, State College and surrounding areas are welcome.

“It’s all day from 9 to 3,” he said. “So you've got a lot of time to get stuff done and let your kids get better at wrestling and connect with a Division I coach.”

That’s the practical pitch.
The larger pitch is better.

A Mifflin County kid who once wanted to be a state champion became a two-time All-American and a Division I coach. Now he’s coming home to teach and maybe to make the next kid look farther down the road than he did.

For a wrestling county, that’s worth a Saturday.