Longtime Lebanon High School head wrestling coach Randy Roark will be inducted into the Missouri Sports of Hall of Fame.
According to a Facebook announcement by the Sports Hall of Fame, the presentation is set to take place at the Winter Sports Luncheon presented by the Ozarks Coca-Cola/Dr Pepper Bottling Company at 11 a.m. Tuesday, Dec. 16 at the Oasis Hotel & Convention Center in Springfield.
Roark wrapped up his career as head wrestling coach in 2022 after recording more than 300 dual wins over 19 seasons as head coach.
Roark coached Lebanon High School’s wrestling program from 1998 to 2022, with three girls teams (2019, 2021, 2022) winning state championships and two boys teams earning top four finishes (2020 state runner-up, 2021 fourth place), according to the Hall of Fame. Overall, his teams had a 333-102 dual record, produced 126 state qualifiers and 53 state medalists – including five state champions. Lebanon won 11 conference championships in his tenure, along with six district titles and 47 tournament titles. Twice he was named Coach of the Year, with the wrestling room producing 19 100-match winners, 94 individual conference champions, 47 district champions, five sectional champions, 10 national medalists and one national champion.
“Additionally, he enhanced the Lebanon youth wrestling program, securing the old junior high gymnasium as the program’s primary facility, and growing the youth program to about 180 wrestlers annually,” according to the Hall of Fame press release. Roark has been in wrestling going back to his youth. A 1992 graduate of Columbus (Kan.) High School, he was a three-sport athlete (football, wrestling, baseball) who was a four-time state wrestling medalist – including three state championships – and helped Columbus win two state titles. He was a four-time college All-American, having wrestled at Labette Community College in Kansas before transferring to Missouri Valley College.
“It has been awesome,” Roark said about his time in Lebanon in a 2022 interview with the Record. “I have worked with some great coaches and made a wrestling family. They have taken to my family and me.
“It has been 24 good years here … it (retirement) has been on my mind a while and wanted to end a few years ago,” he said. “I talked to the wife, and she talked me out of it, coaches talked me out of it, and people in the town talked me out of it. I just knew it was time after this year,” he said in the 2022 interview.
During his career, Roark was able to coach his two sons (Cole and Canon). Cole was a multiple-time state qualifier, while Canon was a third-place finisher at the state tournament in 2021.
