CLARION, Pa. (EYT/D9) — Dakota Geer didn’t want to be a dairy farmer.
(Photos courtesy of Oklahoma State University.)
Growing up near Franklin, Geer balanced his love of wrestling with working on the family farm.
It was backbreaking work that sewed the seeds of his ethic and certainly toughened him up for the rigors of life on the mat, but it was something he was sure he didn’t want to do for a living.
“I knew I never wanted to live on a dairy farm again,” Geer said. “That’s one thing I knew wasn’t going to happen. It’s a lot of hard work. It propelled me into have a successful career, but I feel like I’ve done my time.”
Geer had little free time as a kid and as a teen. When he wasn’t traveling the region to compete in wrestling tournaments and attending practices, he was rising with the sun with his dad to work the farm.
It’s not that he hated the work. He just didn’t want to do that for the rest of his life.
He wanted to wrestle and when his days grappling were over, he wanted to coach the sport.
“I knew wrestling was my ticket,” Geer said.
It’s been punched.
After a stellar career at Franklin High School, then in college, first at Edinboro University and then at Oklahoma State University, Geer has landed a job as a volunteer assistant wrestling coach at Clarion University.