By DAN McCOOL
REGISTER STAFF WRITER
Wrestling official Chuck Yagla said he would like to have an NCAA Division I wrestling tournament as good as last season’s.
The 51-year old Yagla, though, would prefer to not experience the same drama leading up to this season’s event on March 16 in Oklahoma City.
The former two-time NCAA champion at Iowa – and, in 1976, the Hawkeyes’ first outstanding wrestler of the NCAA tournament – was diagnosed with medication-induced hepatitis in the fall of 2004.
Yagla said the culprit was likely a non-steroid, anti-inflammatory drug he took for 15 years to alleviate pain and swelling of a herniated disc in his back.
By the time he returned to officiating last January – Yagla’s weight dropped 20 pounds to close to his 150-pound collegiate wrestling weight. His skin had the jaundiced yellow tint his wife, Sarah, first noticed in his eyes.
“The hardest part for me was I got so weak, I got to where I couldn’t even do one push-up, “said Yagla, whose strength helped him earn a berth on the freestyle team for the 1980 Olympics that the United States boycotted. “It really got depressing on (the strength) side of it. One thing I always did over the years in the morning was to do push-ups. Not to be able to do one, this was crazy.”
The doctors never said he might die, but he was getting sicker while awaiting word on the results of a liver biopsy.
“I was thinking, ‘Gee, this might be the end,’ ” Yagla said. “You have your faith in God and I have a very supportive wife. Once I got those results back and they were pretty sure it was nothing but that medication, that I would get better and it would just take time.”
Yagla said the back is pretty good now, but he can not take ibuprofen on the tough days. He takes a pill for the pain, and works out two to three times per week to strengthen the back.
Yagla began his 21st year of officiating with last week’s Northern Iowa-Iowa meet. His schedule takes him from Iowa Conference gymnasiums to NCAA Division I arenas, sometimes in a week. He still looks lean enough to wrestle off for a 157-pound spot.
Yagla wanted to work his typical 20-25 dates last season, but he had to erase his schedule for November and December.
“I felt fresher at the end than I normally did, “Yagla said, “and I felt like I had the best national tournament I ever had, as far as an official. This season, I purposely didn’t schedule much in November or December.”
He will be back in his gray officiating shirt and black pants for the National Duals Jan. 14-15 at the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls. Yagla could have been working the Midlands Open in Evanston, Ill. Dec. 29-30, but he has more important work on the opening day. His first grandson, Justin Gethman, was born Dec. 29, 2004, so there is a big birthday party.
Yagla will get to work off the cake by keeping busy in the next three months.
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