The former Edinboro University wrestler has been named head coach at Virginia's Christiansburg High School, hoping to replicate that storied program's winning ways -- as well as his own win streak at the helm of Independence High in Coal City, W.Va.
Cliff WardenWarden has already announced that he plans to retain Christiansburg assistant coach Devin Biscaha, and will add Zach Epperly -- a Blue Demon and Virginia Tech mat alum -- to the staff.
Epperly, who was a 2016 NCAA All-American and 2017 Atlantic Coast Conference champ at 174 pounds, had made a commitment to be an assistant coach at another school but was persuaded to return to his former high school to join Warden's staff.
"That was very helpful in my decision," Warden told the Roanoke (Virginia) Times.
Warden has deep roots in the Mountaineer State, having wrestled at Independence High. After his time at Edinboro, Warden returned to his high school alma mater, first as an assistant coach, then being promoted to the head coaching position in 2005, where he guided the Patriots to four West Virginia Class AA state titles and was the runner-up at the state championships the two previous seasons. In addition, Independence claimed six individual titles at the 2017 West Virginia State Wrestling Championships. His son Nate was a runner-up at 160 pounds as a freshman, and is moving to Christiansburg with his father.
Warden admitted that making decision to move from his native West Virginia to Virginia was a tough one; "Warden agonized over the move for weeks" according to the Beckley (W.Va.) Register-Herald.
"I'm sitting here at my dad's place looking at the log home that I sweated and bled and built," Warden told the Roanoke paper. "Same with the program. It was hard to sort of jump off a ledge and leave everything that we built and made."
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