State Champion #8 Justin McCoy Makes his College Commitment

Justin McCoy had seen enough.

The state champion from Chestnut Ridge, who is the No. 8 ranked senior in Pennsylvania, could have kept taking official visits, but he decided there was no reason to do so.

The University of Virginia is the place for him.

McCoy decided that after an official visit to Virginia Tech this weekend. Nothing agains the Hokies – or Lehigh, which he also has visited, or Cornell, where he was scheduled to go next weekend – but he just felt at home in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Of course, with seven Pennsylvania wrestlers already on the roster and a friend of his – Ligonier Valley’s Robert Patrick – already committed for next year, that shouldn’t be a big surprise.

Combine that with Virginia’s outstanding academic reputation, beautiful campus and a coaching staff that includes Steve Garland and new additions Travis and Trent Paulson, and McCoy couldn’t wait any longer to join the Cavaliers.

Virginia’s lineup already includes Brian Courtney (Athens), Cam Coy (Penn Trafford), Brian Kennerly (Upper Darby), Sam Krivus (Hempfield Area), Drew Peck (Chambersburg), Garrett Peppelman (Central Dauphin) and Robert Scherer (Burrell).

“I know Cam Coy very well, and I know Robby (Patrick) very well,” McCoy said Sunday night in an exclusive interview with PA Power Wrestling. “I knew Brian Courtney, but not really, really well. I got to hang out with him on my official visit. I connected with him.”

Courtney wasn’t the only one.

“I feel like I really connected to their coaches and the team, too,” McCoy said. “I felt really comfortable around them.”

A two-time Fargo All-American in freestyle, McCoy won the Class AA title at 145 pounds last season and expects to bump up to 152 this season. But at 5-10, he has the frame to add more weight over the next few years.

“The coaches are projecting me to be 165 to 174,” he said. “They just kept preaching to me that we could have a lineup of (returning All-American) Jack Mueller, Brian Courtney, Cam Coy, me, then Robby. They were naming names off.”

McCoy was impressed by the coaching staff, which now includes the Paulson brothers, who had been at Iowa State.

“They’re right by my weight, too,” he said. “They’re like Olympic-level wrestlers. I feel like they can really help me become a national champion.” That’s one of the goals, but not the only one for McCoy. Though he’s undecided on a major, he likes the doors that a Virginia education can open for him in the future.

“They seem like a family down there,” he said. “It’s not like a business. It’s not like you wrestle and you leave the college and they forget about you.”