Eight years ago, Zack Beckner wrestled at the national tournament, becoming an All-American.
Then came a seven-year hiatus where Beckner completed his sophomore year but did not wrestle and then left Ferrum.
It is now 2025, and Beckner has once again ascended to the rank of All-American during his final season as a college wrestler.
Beckner, now a senior, recently placed fourth at nationals this year to cap his college athletic career.
“It felt good, like a lot of hard work finally coming to fruition,” he said. “It wasn’t exactly what I wanted, but it was nice to finish up this chapter of my life the right way.”
Beckner chose to be a Panther for the first time in 2017, deciding that he would rather represent Ferrum over being a Hokie.
“What brought me to Ferrum was (then-Coach Nate) Yetzer after I decided to de-commit from Tech. The rest was kind of history from there,” he recalled.
Over the past seven years, however, there has been an itch that needed to be scratched.
“What made me come back was (now-Coach Logan) Meister and not wanting to live with the regret of not knowing because I never tried. So, I came back and tried,” he said.
Meister also believed that Beckner could do more by returning to the arena instead of staying away.
“He was a teammate of mine back in 2017, so I was always egging him to get back out on the mat,” said Meister. “You know, he’s super talented. (I) just knew he still had it, and he was always talking about, ‘I think I could still do it,’ you know, and I’m always just, ‘you know, you won’t, you won’t, you won’t,’ just kind of prying on him.”
The process wasn’t quick and clean.
“Eventually it became a serious conversation where it’s really considering coming back and continuing to get on the mat,” said Meister. “And we went through a couple recruiting cycles where we, you know, we felt like we almost had something worked out for him, to be able to come back and finish. Part of it was trying to just make sure we could get him in and out in two years, you know, to finish that degree at about two years left of classes.”
Once Beckner was back on the team, there were two objectives laid out for him to achieve, finishing his degree, and performing his best on the mat.
“We come here to get your degree and win wrestling matches,” said Meister. “You know, we enjoy the process along the way, but we’re not a party school, we’re not the big city university. We come here for those two things, and (it’s) really cool to see just the level of focus and maturity.”
Meister said that Beckner has been locked in with the classroom.
“The guy has had a 4.0 every semester,” Meister said. “So, he’s got an A in every single class that he’s taken since he’s come back in the fall of 2023.”
It wasn’t just the classroom where Beckner excelled. He put his all into every aspect of his return.
“Just going out there and competing in everything, whether it’s dodgeball, spike ball, the sprints live go’s, even the weight room,” said Meister. “Dude does not like to lift weights, but he pushed himself because he wants to push his partners, you know, the conditioning type of stuff. That’s not that fun, but he kept, kept pushing himself and just, just super, super proud of him for making those adjustments.”
Meister said that at Beckner’s age, coming back isn’t that easy.
“It’s tough to do,” Meister said. “Especially when you’re a 26-year-old, and you’ve had habits for a while that they’re hard to change. And you know, seeing him walk in and compete at a really high level was exciting for us.”
As Beckner closes off his career here Meister feels that the wrestler has lived up to his reason for coming back.
“Super, super proud of him,” said Meister. “Now he’s going to get his degree, too. So that’ll be pretty cool to see him just complete the journey.”
Meister said that was the pitch.
“You know, the thing I was just preaching to him when I was recruiting him, I was like, you just got to finish. Finish what you started,” Meister said.
Beckner’s teammates praise his abilities, while also learning from him and growing alongside him.
“As a wrestler he’s tough. He is very gritty and slick like a fox. He wrestles hard and goes out there and score points,” said Trent Proctor, senior. “As a teammate, he’s humble. Although he wins a lot, he doesn’t flaunt it. He stays humble and helps us learn to get better. As one of his drill partners, I can say he improved my skills a bunch just by wrestling with him during our practices.”
Assistant Coach Levi Engelman has another perspective on having Beckner around on the wrestling team, as Beckner was part of what brought him to Ferrum.
“He was someone I looked up to when I was a little kid,” said Engleman. “He was a little bit older than me, and we wrestled growing up. So, I kind of want to follow in his footsteps. It’s one of the reasons why I came here. I was sold on just like being his practice partner and just grinding with him kind of like old times. And unfortunately, he left my freshman year and didn’t return until I graduated.”
While Englemen didn’t get the time with Beckner he originally planned, the angle of being his coach allowed him to appreciate Beckner’s growth and talent in a different way.
“But looking on the other side as a coach, just being able to grind with him still and watching him improve, it was awesome to see,” said Engleman. “He told us he got that itch to get better. He realized he wasn’t the best, so he wanted to get better, and it was awesome to see.”
Outside of Ferrum, wrestling is a piece of Beckner that he feels defines him and makes him who he is as a person, despite the circumstances that brought him into the sport.
“Wrestling means pretty much everything to me at this point, which is funny because I only started because I lost a bet in 8th grade. Butterfly effect goes crazy. I’ll probably stay involved in wrestling somehow for the rest of my life,” he said.
On top of feeling that wrestling is the core piece of himself, Beckner believes his family is the driving force that has allowed him to make it this far in the sport.
“They’ve had my back from the start when I said I was going to come back, and (they) encouraged me throughout the process,” he said. “My reason for getting up and doing what I do/did was again because I wanted to finish this chapter up the right way. That motivated me every day; to not make the same mistakes I made before and give it all I had, knowing the last chapter was coming to an end.”
Meister believes Beckner’s story is a lesson from which any other wrestler can learn.
“You know, I think it’s just a reminder for everybody that’s involved in the sport. Like you’re never too good at it,” he said. “You can always get better at something in that in the sport, and there’s a thousand different ways to win a wrestling match. So, the more of those ways you can figure out, the better wrestler you’ll be and, and I think he’s goanna be a great, great coach because of it. And I think that’s what he wants to do when he graduates. So hopefully we can keep him around, but wherever he is, he is going to do a good job.”
