Few persons have a better understanding of the history and traditions of Cleveland State University wrestling than Ben Stehura.

A knowledge of the Vikings’ program actually ranges back beyond the 1996 Jefferson High School graduate’s birth. His father, Pete, still an area high school wrestling official, was a part of the CSU wrestling program in the late 1960s for legendary coach Dick Bonacci, the founder of the program who turned it into a team of note on the national level, first in Division II, then in Division I.

Ben Stehura has his own connection to Cleveland State wrestling. After his graduation from Lock Haven University in Pennsylvania in 2000, Stehura spent a two-year stint at Cleveland State as a graduate assistant for Jack Effner while earning his master’s degree.

Given the chance to run his own program, the 30-year-old Stehura began the program at Limestone College in Gaffney, S.C. In just five years, Stehura has molded the Saints into an emerging power in Division II wrestling. This year, Dan Scanlan from Leesburg, Va. became Stehura’s first national champion.

With Stehura’s connections to Cleveland State wrestling, then, it seemed almost a natural for athletic director Lee Reed to select him as just the third head wrestling coach in school history. Stehura succeeds Effner, who resigned to take a guidance counseling position in Virginia Beach, Va. Effner succeeded Bonacci, who ran the CSU program for more than 30 years.

It will definitely be a homecoming for Stehura and his wife, Michelle, a Chicago native to whom he has been married for two years after meeting her while still at CSU. The former Michelle Jaworski was a team physician for the Vikings through her work at the Cleveland Clinic. It will get them back close to her parents, as well as Pete and Lynda Stehura, who still reside in Jefferson.

“We’re extremely happy to be coming home,” Ben Stehura said while closing up operations at Limestone and getting ready to make the transition to Cleveland State, where he officially takes over Sept. 2. “This is a tremendous opportunity for us.

“There are so many connections to the Cleveland State program. It started with my dad wrestling for Coach Bonacci. I grew up hearing stories about what a great program they had, even getting as high as third in the country. There is such great tradition there.”

Much of Reed’s decision to bring in Stehura no doubt comes from his desire to get Viking wrestling on the same upward swing other CSU programs have been making in just the last five years. Among those are the qualification for the NCAA Tournament by the volleyball team, featuring Geneva graduate Alexis Korovich, the women’s basketball team and the men’s golf team, which includes Perry product Kent Monas. The men’s basketball team reached the NIT this year.

“I understand what has been going on in the rest of the athletic program,” Stehura said. “I know the expectations are to continue that pursuit of excellence and be up there with the other programs.”

Unlike some of those programs, which have only recently come to prominence, the CSU wrestling team has maintained a tradition of excellence through the tenures of Bonacci and Effner. In fact, Bonacci still is on the scene.

“Coach Bonacci still is connected to the team,” Stehura said. “I’m counting on his continued input.”

The Vikings sent two wrestlers to the NCAA Tournament in 2008, 165-pounder Marcus Effner, son of the former coach, and heavyweight Rashard Goff. Effner’s return is uncertain, while Goff is a senior.

“They had a little bit of a down year, but Jack didn’t leave the cupboard bare,” Stehura said. “I think we have a solid foundation.

“We’re also bringing in an outstanding recruiting class. Jack recruited a high school national champion from Kansas who also happens to be a 4.0 student.”

Still, Stehura is looking to become even more competitive in the always-tough Eastern Wrestling League. It includes Edinboro, under the watchful eye of two-time Olympic champion Bruce Baumgartner, West Virginia, Pittsburgh, Clarion. Bloomsburg and his old alma mater, Lock Haven.

“It’s a great league with great competition,” Stehura, who placed fifth for Jefferson his senior year and also made the Division II state tournament as a junior under the tutelage of Scott Francis, now coach at Kirtland, and Bill Nye, now Grand Valley superintendent.

Stehura will also be relying heavily upon his assistant coach, Anthony Coleman, who was a wrestler in the CSU program when Stehura was there previously.

“Anthony has kept the lines of communication open and is very aware of the wrestling scene in northeastern Ohio,” he said. “Recruiting season is over, but he already has some prospects for 2009.”

Even though he has been in South Carolina, Stehura has also kept an eye on the talent-rich Ohio wrestling scene.

“We had six guys from Ohio on our squad at Limestone,” he said. “We’ve been able to sneak a few kids down here out of Ohio. Now I’m looking forward to tapping into that talent even more.”

There will be some catching up for Stehura when he does take over the CSU program.

“It’s definitely late,” he said. “It’s not going to be a seamless transition, but we’ll just have to work real hard. Fortunately, we still have a lot of the key players here.”

Even though he’s been in a different wrestling environment for several seasons, Stehura hasn’t lost a feel for what plays in this part of the country and at CSU.

“I don’t have a southern accent,” he said with a laugh. “I’m still from the Midwest. My style is to be a grinder, to be very physical and to be going as hard in the third period as we were in the first.”

High standards are also expected academically from his wrestlers.

“You have to be a complete student-athlete to be a Division I athlete because it demands excellence in both areas,” Stehura said. “We don’t just want All-Americans at CSU. We want Academic All-Americans, too.

“We’re going to expect a lot of community service from our athletes, too. We want them to be ambassadors for their sport.”