When redshirt wrestling freshman Julian Chlebove committed to ASU after his freshman year in high school, he and his family were very comfortable with the situation he was putting himself in.
Thanks to a connection from the late 1990s West Virginia Mountaineers wrestling team, ASU head coach Zeke Jones knew the Sun Devils were getting not only a great wrestler but a great kid as well.
In 1998, when Jones was on the WVU coaching staff, Julian's father, Whitey Chlebove, became one of the best wrestlers in the country, on his way to earning All-American honors in both 1998 and 1999.
Shortly after, Whitey Chlebove joined the WVU coaching staff, deepening his relationship with Jones, and his wife gave birth to a son, Julian.
"I’ve known Julian since he was a baby, I changed his diapers,” Jones said. “It was always kind of ‘you’re going to wrestle for coach Jones one day.'”
Julian Chlebove grew up around the WVU wrestling room, and even his high school coach had ties to his father and Jones.
“It was a cool little family between Zeke all of us,” said Seth Lisa, Julian Chlebove’s high school coach at Northampton High School. "There was a lot of people around here rooting for him to go to ASU and be with coach Jones.”
Growing up around Coach Jones, Julian Chlebove always had ASU on his radar. After visiting the school, it wasn't long before he committed himself to the same coach that coached his father over 20 years before.
“(ASU) was always in the back of my mind, and once the time finally came and I got out here, I just fell in love with it,” Julian Chlebove said. “He or his wife would watch me when I was a baby, I grew up around them and the wrestling room … we just stuck together as I grew up throughout my wrestling career.”
Now in Tempe, Julian Chlebove is looking to build off the success he had in high school, which included a 43-2 record as a freshman in high school and three state championships in Pennsylvania in his career, one of the best high school wrestling states in the country.
So far in 2021, Julian Chlebove is 2-3 in his individual matches, and ASU is ranked in the top 10 nationally as a team, aiming for its first national title since 1988.
“He wants to be a national champion here at ASU, he wants to win as a Sun Devil,” Jones said.
Reach the reporter at dmwilhe1@asu.edu and follow @dmwilhelm225 on Twitter.
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