Two years after the biggest disappointment of his life, Luke Pletcher is still finding a way to turn it into a positive.

Pletcher was the top seed at 141 pounds in the 2020 NCAA tournament. Then a senior at Ohio State, the Latrobe native was 26-1 and had just won the Big Ten title, having avenged his lone loss with a victory over Penn State’s Nick Lee. He was mentally and physically prepared to end his college career with a bang.

Instead, it fizzled out with a heartbreaking announcement: The championships were being canceled in an effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

From the outset, Pletcher handled the news with a maturity that few could muster. Now, two years later and recently promoted to a full-time coaching position on the Pitt staff, he maintains that attitude.

“It still stinks, and it still stings, but it hasn’t been all bad,” said Pletcher, who admits having done a lot of soul searching on long drives by himself in the weeks following the cancelation of the 2020 tournament.

“I think about that probably too frequently, but it is what it is,” Pletcher said of what might have been if he’d been able to compete in Minneapolis. “It stinks that it happened, but it opened up some doors for me. I ended up back at Pitt. If it didn’t happen, who knows what would have happened. Everything got shut down and I started talking with Coach Gavin about becoming a volunteer assistant.”

Those talks led to positions as a resident athlete with the Pittsburgh Wrestling Club RTC and as a volunteer assistant coach for the Panthers, where he has worked out with the lightweights for the past two years. Among his frequent practice partners is Cole Matthews, who earned his first All-American honor in March. Last month, Matthews won the U23 national title in freestyle, and he enters the college season as the top-ranked 141-pounder in the country.

“It’s going to be exciting,” Pletcher said of Matthews’ future. “He’s gotten a lot better over the past 12 months. He’s going to continue to work. He’s got a lot of tools and a good mindset on him. It’s going to be fun to watch.”

Wrestling Pletcher hasn’t been much fun for Matthews.

“This is no joke: We probably wrestled one match a week since he was hired two years ago, and I’ve only beaten him in one match so far,” Matthews said. “It was a pretty good day. I think I went out and celebrated.”

Those difficult matches have begun to bear fruit.

“Pletch has given me a lot of little things to break down, like that outside step that I’ve tried to add to my arsenal,” Matthews said. “It started working at U23s when I got to Ridge Lovett’s legs twice and got the step-out.”