Liberty’s Brewer, Harrisonville’s Devenney earn NWCA Scholastic Coach of Year awards

Harrisonville’s Eric Devenney and Liberty’s Dustin Brewer enjoyed accomplished careers as high school wrestlers in Missouri.

Brewer was a three-time state champion at Oak Park, and Devenney finished as a four-time state medalist at Columbia Rockbridge and won a state title as a senior.

But until this year, neither had won a state championship as a head coach.

That changed this winter as Harrisonville’s girls captured their first state title and Liberty’s boys cruised to a championship of their own.

The honors kept coming this week when the two coaches earned the ultimate form of respect from their peers: the National Wrestling Coaches Association’s Missouri Scholastic Boys and Girls’ Head Coach of the Year awards.

The NWCA’s Coach of the Year awards are determined by votes from members of the Missouri Wrestling Association.

“It was very nice to be recognized by my peers,” Devenney said. “I was very flattered; I was tickled to get it.”

“I feel very honored to win the coach of the year award,” Brewer said. “It goes to show how awesome our assistants are and how great our kids are.”

Both schools made clean sweeps of the coaching awards, as Liberty’s four assistants — Bret Marshall, Bricker Dixon, Kellen Laws and Kenneth Lenger Jr. — took home the NCWA’s boys assistant coaching staff of the Year award. Harrisonville assistants Bobby Herrick, Daniel Jennings, James Pesek and Shannon Lineberry were recognized as the Missouri girls’ assistant coaching staff of the year.

In Kansas, Norton Community High’s Bill Johnson took home the boys coach of the year honor and Washburn Rural’s Damon Parker earned the same award for the girls.

To establish a winning pedigree at Harrisonville, Devenney said he sought to promote a sense of family and a culture of belonging. In just three years, his girls team has expanded from seven wrestlers to 14.

Nonnie Justice, who won a state championship at 125 pounds this year, said being a part of the Harrisonville program has given her an additional support system, and it starts with Devenney.

“He 100% deserves (the award),” Justice said. “He does everything a coach should and more. He supports everybody no matter who you are, what your name is or where you come from. He’ll love you all the same and push you just as hard as everybody else.”

Devenney had high hopes for the team this season, believing his wrestlers had the talent to finish in the top five at state. As the season went on, Devenney said the girls worked hard and gained confidence in themselves heading into the state meet.

Justice’s victory in the finale not only clinched an individual championship, it cemented Harrisonville’s first state title by 2.5 points. Devenney said it was surreal to watch his team celebrate the title, saying it’s a testament to the hard work done by the Harrisonville administration, his family and his assistants.

While the girls championship was a tight race until the very end, the Class 4 boys wrestling title was never in doubt. With one day remaining, Liberty had already picked up enough points to clinch the championship and eventually won by almost 100 points.

Individually, four Liberty wrestlers won state titles, including senior Jeremiah Reno at 120 pounds, Kyle Dutton at 132, Drake Smith at 160 and senior Greyden Penner at 182. Reno and Penner finished the season undefeated, going 44-0 and 29-0, respectively.

When Brewer took the top wrestling job at Liberty in 2016, he told himself his goal was to win a state championship by his third year. While the Blue Jays came up short in 2019, Brewer knew this fourth season presented him with the best team he’d had yet at Liberty.

It wasn’t all smooth sailing this season, as some of the Jays’ top wrestlers battled injuries. But Brewer preached the “next man up” mentality, and every wrestler stepped up for Liberty in its quest for a title.

“I don’t think there’s a group of guys who deserved it more than those guys,” Brewer said. “It’s something I’ve been looking forward to a long time. It’s the first one and it’s something that I know I’ll remember forever.”

This story was originally published June 17, 2020 at 5:54 PM.