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Former Utah Valley All-American wrestler Ben Kjar speaks at a ceremony where was inducted into the USA Wrestling Utah Hall of Fame on Monday, Sept. 29, 2025.

Brian E. Preece, Special to the Herald

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2025 USA Wrestling Utah Hall of Fame inductee Ben Kjar

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2025 USA Wrestling Utah Hall of Fame inductee Wade Discher.

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Ben Kjar, left, embraces former Utah Valley head coach Greg Williams during his induction into the USA Wrestling Utah Hall of Fame on Monday, Sept. 29, 2025.

Brian E. Preece, Special to the Herald

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Utah Valley University’s first wrestling All-American Ben Kjar, along with former Wasatch head coach Wade Discher were inducted into the USA Wrestling Utah Hall of Fame Monday night in a ceremony at the UVU Ballroom.

Kjar has had an amazing life journey. Diagnosed with Crouzon syndrome, a genetic disorder that causes abnormal fusion of bones in the skull and face, doctors told Kjar’s parents that he would never be able to wrestle or do other contact sports. Because of his condition, which required several surgeries when he was younger, he was often bullied by other children and even adults.

As a young boy, Kjar just wanted to fit in but his mother Stana encouraged him to “stand out” rather than fit in. Buoyed by this advice Kjar jumped into youth sports but it was wrestling where he found huge success becoming a 3-time state champion at Viewmont High School.

Kjar then became a 2-time national qualifier for Utah Valley but in his senior year placed fourth in the NCAA Division I tournament. In the 2011 tournament, Kjar was defeated by Anthony Robles in the semifinals 4-2, giving the Arizona State grappler his closest match of the season.

Robles, like Kjar, has his own motivational story as he was born without a right leg. Robles’ national title run was chronicled in the movie “Unstoppable” while Kjar’s own journey to success is a subject of the documentary movie called “Standout” which will debut in theaters on January 23, 2026.

Kjar joked about some artistic license in the “Unstoppable” movie where instead of Kjar being the semi-final opponent it was another wrestler.

“Hey, I wrestled him a lot closer than the guy in the movie and I didn’t kick him in the face either. But no worries, Anthony and I are close friends.”

Former Utah Valley head wrestling coach Greg Wlliams introduced Kjar and Kjar’s acceptance speech was far from the standard for any inductee as he showed four clips of his documentary movie. Kjar felt it was important as a parent to show his own three children his own passions. So while he was in his early 40’s, he got back into competing. At the World Masters Championships, Kjar won a gold medal in Greco-Roman and a silver medal in freestyle. Kjar said that was one of his most favorite memories in wrestling.

“When my kids were watching (me), that was everything,” said Kjar. “The coolest thing was my kids back at the hotel, they grabbed the gold medal and the silver medal, and here I was thinking that I failed because I trained to win gold but it didn’t matter to them and that’s cool.”

Kjar also mentioned that a career highlight was beating Zach Sanders of Minnesota in the quarterfinals which won him the right to face Robles. Sanders had beaten Kjar earlier in the season but the Wolverine wrestler turned the tables at the NCAA meet.

Kjar works as a motivational speaker for corporate events while doing clinics and other motivational work for high school programs.

When Wade Discher made his way from Minnesota to the Beehive State, he had huge shoes to fill taking over Steve Sanderson who had built Wasatch wrestling into a dynastic powerhouse.

But Discher made his own distinct mark on the Wasp wrestling program in two different stints as their head coach. All total Discher won 10 state titles as a coach, eight in the traditional format and when the UHSAA had sanctioned dual meet state championships, Wasatch won both of those 4A state tournaments.

“I’m totally honored (by this induction)” Discher said. “I still feel like a 25 year-old coach inside, yet the people in the Hall of Fame are Mount Rushmore people and I don’t feel like one of those people.”

Discher coached dozens of state champions, hundreds of state placers and several All-American wrestlers. Discher also led his 1999-2000 team to a title at the prestigious Reno Tournament of Champions. Discher was also recognized by his peers as the state’s top wrestling coach several times. Even when his teams didn’t win the gold trophy, seldom were they out of the top three.

Discher certainly recognized that it took a community effort and he wasn’t alone in building the success of the Wasatch program during his tenure.

“You come in, you’re not sure what you’re doing, you go back to when I first began, I’ve had great people around me,” added Discher. “From Steve Sanderson showing me the ins and outs of being a head coach to running a program, I just tried to continue that stuff and just work.”

Discher then listed a lot of his assistant coaches like Dave McNaughton, Jason Watt, Sean Kelly, Justin Kelly, Mark South, Wade Woolstenhume, Bob and Mary Piscitelli, and Gabe Vigil. He also noted that a lot of former wrestlers would come back into the room and share their talents. Wasatch has a strong community for wrestling and a family atmosphere.

Discher can’t or won’t say what his favorite state title team was.

“This is your favorite team until a new one comes along and then you have an old favorite team and a new favorite team. I feel so blessed.”

Still, there were two particular experiences that stood out over everything and that was when his son Jakob won back-to-back state titles in two very close and exciting matches.

“Being there when my son won those matches was very special,” related Discher.

Besides the Hall of Fame inductions, USA Wrestling honored some of the best youth and high school wrestlers and coaches across the state.

Westlake’s Tevia Nau Rarick, who will be a sophomore this year, was tabbed as the best freshman girls wrestler, as well as the top 16-and-under competitor in freestyle where she won a national title winning all her matches by pin or technical fall.