GREENFIELD — There was an agreement from their first day together.
And neither Greenfield-Central assistant coach Ed Hamant or head coach Josh Holden ever altered the arrangement.
A small detail for some in the grand scheme, but an echoing statement for the pair, who coached the Cougars wrestling program in collaboration from the corner of the mat for the past 17 years.
“Early in our career, Ed asked me what chair I wanted to sit in during matches, and I said I’d sit on the left because you’re my right-hand man,” Holden recalled. “From then on we never, ever, ever sat in the other chair.”
Hamant started coaching at Greenfield-Central as an assistant 40 years ago. Former head coach Gary Pence asked him to train eventual 155-pound state champion Terry Edon for a “one-year deal,” Hamant joked decades later.
In his tenure, Hamant helped mold another state champion in Josh Farrell (152 pounds in 2013) and more than 50 state qualifiers.
“He was the program. Outside of maybe one, he coached every state qualifier, every state-place winner, every state champ, every state finalist,” Holden said. “You look around the room and he built the trophy case. He built the hall of fame, the state-placer wall. He organized the wall of champions, ordered it, paid for it. He did the record boards, and we painted the doors blue together. He was the program. Everything that we stand for and try to instill in the kids, is Ed.”
Hamant’s impact on the Cougars and it’s wrestling history was undeniable, which made Wednesday’s team meeting inside the wrestling room that much more difficult.
On Wednesday morning, Hamant, 75, passed away at his home, survived by his wife of 57 years, Diane, their two children, a daughter, Karyn, and son, Kevin and an extensive wrestling family he touched with his humble, yet driven nature, that stretched well beyond the Greenfield city limits.
Holden informed his wrestlers on Wednesday evening. Many sat in silence afterwards reflecting on the man that dedicated himself to the sport for more than 50 years after graduating from Decatur Central in 1963.
Hamant served as a junior high head coach, a volunteer high school assistant, the junior varsity and freshman wrestling coach and led the Greenfield Wrestling Club with a stint as interim varsity head coach (2015-16) before Holden returned (2016-17) after one season away.
Hamant worked alongside five different head coaches, including Pence, Bill Yozipovich, Grant Nesbit, Lance Parsons and Holden.
Through that time, Hamant trained two state champions, three state runner-ups and more than 20 state-place winners.
He owned and operated Ed Hamant Construction, but the Cougars’ mainstay never took a day off, often heading straight from the job to practice, rolling up his sleeves and putting in another full shift.
“I remember going to wrestling practice back in the late 1980s and seeing Ed. He worked so hard. I knew he had a construction company, and to still have the energy to roll around with the kids was amazing,” said Chad Masters, Mt. Vernon wrestling coach and former pupil of Hamant’s.
“He tried to help me become a better wrestler, but that was a tough deal. A friend and I would travel everywhere, anywhere they were at because Ed was just a constant positive influence on the people he coached.”
Hamant became only the third assistant coach ever inducted into the Indiana High School Wrestling Coaches Association’s Hall of Fame in 2016, joining Evansville Mater Dei’s Randy Helfrich (2001) and Pendleton Heights’ Eric Kriebel (2002).
But, he was more than a coach.
Hamant was an attentive ear, a leader by example, a hands-on mentor, a sense of calm calculation in a sport centered around speed, strength, agility and stamina.
He was a proud historian of Cougars’ wrestling, partaking in a meticulous six-year process of piecing together every achievement in program history, dating back to the 1960s era of coach Bob Miller through the tenure of Yozipovich, a 2005 IHSWCA Hall of Fame inductee.
Hamant compiled his findings on spreadsheets and later displayed them proudly on the wrestling room’s walls. He continued the practice throughout the years, updating each one as time went on.
Much like his wardrobe, he personified blue and gold.
“Anything that ever happened. He was able to recall it. He was just an amazing person, first and foremost, but one of the most knowledgeable people in the sport of wrestling that I’ve ever come across,” Greenfield-Central athletics director Jared Manning said. “I don’t think we’ll ever see anyone like him again.”
In 2004, when Holden was hired to become the program’s sixth head coach in school history, he had one question.
“I don’t know why Greenfield hired me? Ed applied for the position at the same time, but somehow they hired me, and Ed taught me how to be a head coach,” Holden said.
“He taught me what was important as far as building a program and to put kids before winning.”
A graduate from the University of Indianapolis and a 140-pound state champion at Lawrence Central High School, Holden knew how to win. He won it all as a senior with a 43-1 record in the last state finals ever held at Market Square Arena in Indianapolis.
It was Hamant, though, who showed Holden, a former national qualifier and two-time academic All-American, how to be a leader of young men.
“When I was a 23-year-old, brand new head coach, I thought I was going to win all these state titles. Coaches don’t win state titles, kids do, and coaches are supposed to help kids become adults and learn the values to make them successful in life,” Holden said. “We’re here to help kids win whether it’s on the mat or somewhere else. That was all Ed. He taught me.”
It could have been different, too, Hamant recalled whenever he reminisced on his youth. If he only had a jump shot, then he might not have chosen wrestling. But, as he recalled prior to being inducted into the hall of fame, he “sucked at basketball.”
As a wrestler and a wrestling coach, he was in his element. He was home much like the house he built for his wife in 1973 where they raised both of their children that went on to graduate from Greenfield-Central.
“Everything he owned was blue and gold or blue or gold. We’d tease him all the time, saying, ‘Don’t you have any normal clothes that aren’t Greenfield wrestling?’ He had to basically enlarge a closet in his house so he could make more room for his Greenfield-Central wrestling t-shirts,” Holden said. “That’s a true story. That’s not made up. That actually happened.”
Using winter practices to stay in shape, Hamant relished his time inside the Cougars’ sweltering wrestling room where temperatures routinely spiked into the mid-to-upper 90s despite being set at a comfy 74 degrees.
He wasn’t afraid to execute the fundamentals when necessary or pin an overconfident wrestler more than 50 years younger while onlookers would marvel at his swiftness.
“I’d get out there and tell him that he’s complaining about his knee, shoulder and all that, but you won’t get it looked at because you can’t take time off work, you need to quit wrestling,” Holden said. “He would say, ‘I’ll never quit wrestling.’”
Wrestling was his top priority and conversational centerpiece.
“When I started coaching, Ed would always be there to have a conversation about all kinds of things. He was a great man,” Masters said. “I will never forget his passion for the sport, his passion for teaching kids life lessons. He was always humble, but he was a guy you wanted to get information from because you knew he knew what he was talking about. I always appreciated seeing Ed in the opposite corner.”
Holden, while grief-stricken by the news of Hamant’s sudden death, took solace in knowing his good friend lived how he dreamed.
“When you hear something like this, obviously, you think of all the bad things, but then you start thinking about him. He said, ‘I want to wrestle until the day I die. I don’t want to do anything else.’ And, even though, I know it came too soon, he didn’t lay in a bed and waste away. That wasn’t something he wanted to do. He did what he wanted to do,” Holden said. “I’m glad he did it how he wanted, how he wanted to go.”
