Tony Fera has been a teacher, an athletic director and coach of the highly productive Youngsville Eagle Wrestling Program for twenty-six straight years. Raised in Meadville, Tony was successful in high school football and wrestling for the Bulldogs. Recruited by Slippery Rock, Tony played football and wrestled for the 'Rock'. He started his coaching career at Beaty working with the junior high boys wrestling team in 1978 and 79. In 1980, Tony was named as the Head Coach of the Youngsville Eagles and has been coaching steadily for the past twenty-six seasons.
Over the course of his career, Tony has coached 35 sectional champs, 33 place winners at districts, 8 district champs, 15 regional place winners and 3 regional champions. He has had 16 state qualifiers with one fifth place finish with Mike Sullivan in 2005, and one State Runner-up in Matt Kiser in 1993. Coach Fera is the only wrestling coach in the county to have two State Champs with David Fehlman '88 and Jim Hoffner in '93. He has had eight wrestlers earn 100 or more career wins. Especially gratifying for Tony was the success of coaching his son T.J. to 108 wins in his career.
Coach Fera is highly revered and respected throughout the state. “Coach Fera serves as a roll model for his athletes, his community and his fellow coaches,” said former Youngsville Athletic Director Tom Craig. Tony serves as the President of the D10 Coaching Association and he is an officer in the State Coaches Association. He has served as a coach of the Pennsylvania Greco and Freestyle Teams which annually travel to Fargo, North Dakota to compete in the National Wrestling Tournament. Coach Fera has had three All-American wrestlers in Jim Hoffner, Jeremy Woodcock and Mike Sullivan who was the 2002 National Champion in both Greco and Free-style wrestling.
Among his honors, Tony has been named as District 10 Coach of the Year in 2000. Tony Fera is presently coaching his final season for the Eagles. At the end of the 2004-05 season, Coach Fera's record was an outstanding 203-138-3. Coach Fera recently had three of his grapplers win section II titles and one a District 10 Championship.
