After year away, Southmoreland grad Anthony Govern reignites wrestling career

His college career had not even begun, and it was headed for an open-ended finish.

Anthony Govern, a three-sport athlete coming out of Southmoreland, though, saw his plans take a hairpin turn after they first came to a screeching halt.

Suddenly, his future is clear, and his focus has returned. The hazard lights have stopped blinking, and he is back on the road.

Initially, Govern planned to play two sports — maybe three — at Waynesburg. Football and wrestling were locks, whereas baseball was a wait-and-see venture.

But when coach Gennaro Bonaventura, as much a central character to this story as Govern, left the wrestling program at Waynesburg, Govern was shaken.

Additionally, the football staff changed.

Several coaches he had put his faith in were gone.

“One of the big reasons I was going there was the connection I had with coaches,” said Govern, a 2022 Southmoreland graduate. “I had built relationships.”

The one he built with Bonaventura stuck, and Govern decided to follow the coach at his new venture at Fairmont State, where Bonaventura was hired as wrestling coach.

“We stayed in contact all along,” Govern said. “The problem was, it all happened so late, I didn’t have a lot of time to get settled at Fairmont.”

Instead of cramming before the start of his first college semester and pushing against deadlines early in the fall, he opted to take some time off.

A couple of months working in a machine shop with his father, Al, led to reflection.

The time off made him take a long, hard look at his next move: Should he follow through and join Bonaventura or retire early and call it a career?

Govern, 19, just knew what to do next. He felt the gravity of the situation — the what-ifs and pending regrets that could have followed later in life.

Yes, there was still time to embark on a college career.

“Out of the blue, I just thought, ‘You have your whole life to work,’” Govern said. “Wrestling is the sport I love. I missed it. Life is too short to work your entire life.”

After a year away from the sport, he announced his full commitment to Fairmont State, where he is enrolled this fall.

Govern, a talented baseball player who pitched and hit the Scotties to victories and a dual-threat quarterback for a resurgent football program, is set to give his all to the mat.

Bonaventura is thrilled to finally land Govern, a potential 197-pounder or heavyweight at the Division II level.

“When I was at Waynesburg, he was a slam-dunk recruit,” Bonaventura said. “He was having second thoughts, so he took the gap year. He’ll be a year behind, but he will get back on course. He is one of the better athletes I have ever recruited. I don’t think he has even come close to his full potential. I am excited to get him into the fold of the program.”

Govern went to his brother Jake’s wrestling workouts and matches and could not shake the urge to compete.

“I have fun in this sport,” Anthony Govern said. “That took over my mind. In wrestling, it’s all on you. It’s one on one. You don’t have eight other guys to bail you out like football or 10 other guys in baseball.”

One year off isn’t quite like the 10 that Jake Evans took after he left Elizabeth Forward in 2006, but it still is time off.

Evans became a Waynesburg legend when he resurrected his wrestling career in 2016 and went on to win an NCAA Division III championship.

“That’s the thing with Division III,” Bonaventura said. “There is no clock. In Division I or II, you have the four-year window. Jake’s run was amazing. He came to us at age 26.”

Evans was 29 when he achieved NCAA glory.

Govern, 19, knows about Evans’ story and is amazed by it. But is he following another, slightly more famous athlete?

“Kenny Pickett did it, too,” Govern said.

Bonaventura said Govern will redshirt in his first year while competing unattached at a handful of tournaments.

“I want to become the first wrestler from Southmoreland to become an All-American,” Govern said. “Jaden Datz almost did it. He texted me, ‘You can be the future,’ and to go do it.”

Govern is going to major in criminal justice in an effort to become a state trooper.