Wyoming junior Joe LeBlanc is a two-time All-American. University of Wyoming photo.

Joe LeBlanc’s days on the University of Wyoming campus don’t allow for much free time.

He spends most of his day excelling in the classroom with a challenge-filled schedule as a kinesiology major.

He spends his late afternoons battling teammates during grueling workouts in the Cowboy wrestling room.

The best part of his day comes that evening when he arrives at home. That’s where his 10-month-old son, Tyson, is eagerly awaiting his father’s arrival. No matter how tough his day is, LeBlanc always manages to crack a smile when he walks through the door.

“He’s the joy of my life,” LeBlanc said.

As serious as he is about academics and athletics, LeBlanc’s most important role is as a husband to his wife, Amanda, and as a father to his son.

“My family means everything to me,” LeBlanc said. “I want my son to be grateful for everything he has and not take anything for granted.”

Nobody knows that any better than LeBlanc, the second-ranked 184-pounder in the country.

LeBlanc was just three years old when his father, Randy, a three-time Colorado state high school champion and NAIA runner-up for Mesa State, was killed in an automobile accident.

Randy LeBlanc was a doctor with a thriving medical practice in Meeker.

“I don’t really remember anything about my father,” said Joe LeBlanc, the youngest of five children. “I’ve heard a lot of the stories, and seen a lot of the old photos of him. I know he was a great wrestler and a great man. I always wanted to meet up to his standards and be like he was.”

Fortunately for LeBlanc, another man stepped up to fill the void left by his father’s passing. Bren Sullivan, a friend and college teammate of LeBlanc’s father, became part of their family and eventually married the widowed Sharon LeBlanc.

Bren and Joe hit it off right away. Sullivan was an assistant coach at Meeker High School who won a state title of his own during his high school days there.

It didn’t take long before Joe started calling his stepfather “Dad.”

“Bren was definitely my Dad,” Joe said. “He taught me everything about wrestling. He was my coach and my mentor. He drove me all over the country to camps and tournaments. He was the biggest wrestling fan I’ve ever known. I’ve always had more respect for him than any man I’ve known.

“He used to tell me, ‘No matter what you do, don’t ever give up.’”

That’s what makes the events of July 4, 2009, so difficult for Joe LeBlanc to comprehend. Bren Sullivan inexplicably took his own life that day.

LeBlanc had just turned 20, and he had lost another father.

“I had no idea it was coming,” he said. “It was devastating for me and my family.”

Joe LeBlanc won three Colorado state titles for Meeker High School and drew recruiting interest from Cal Poly, Army and Air Force.

When LeBlanc returned from his recruiting visit to Cal Poly, he told his stepfather he was “90 percent sure” he was headed to California.

His stepfather wanted to him to take one last visit.

“I want you to go up and take a look at Wyoming,” Sullivan told LeBlanc.

LeBlanc reluctantly headed to Laramie, Wyo., just a three-and-a-half hour drive from Meeker, to check out the school.

“I kind of went up there with my nose up in the air because I really liked Cal Poly and I thought I was going there,” he said. “When I was up there, (then Wyoming assistant coach) Matt Johnson got me up at 4 a.m. to go coyote hunting. That changed everything. When we went hunting, I was like, ‘This is my kind of place.’”

LeBlanc grew up on a ranch with horses in Meeker, a northwest Colorado town of 2,200 residents. The nearest town to Meeker is a 45-minute drive away.

“I love the outdoors,” he said. “I was sold on Wyoming after that hunting trip. It felt a lot like home.”

LeBlanc redshirted his first season at Wyoming as a 165-pounder, compiling an 8-6 record in open tournaments.

“I had a rough year,” he said. “I had pneumonia, and then I had my tonsils out. I missed a lot of time on the mat.”

Toward the end of the season, LeBlanc started feeling better. He had never lifted weights in high school, and started gaining muscle while training 3-4 times a week in the Wyoming weight room.

“I never knew how to build muscle until I got to college,” he said. “I was weighing close to 200 pounds by the end of my first school year there.”

Following LeBlanc’s redshirt season, Oklahoma State assistant coach Mark Branch was hired as the new Wyoming head coach.

“I was really excited when he came in here. I knew all about Branch,” he said. “My dad was a huge fan of Oklahoma State, and he talked about them all the time. We were really pumped up about having Branch coming in here.”

Branch didn’t know much about any of the Wyoming wrestlers when he arrived in Laramie.

“I had never even heard of Joe LeBlanc when I got here,” Branch said with a laugh. “I didn’t know if he was worth a lick really. I started looking at the roster and he didn’t stand out on paper. I didn’t even know if he would be in our lineup.”

Those feelings changed in a hurry. LeBlanc not only made the starting lineup at 184, he made an immediate splash early in his redshirt freshman season.

In the first round of the Cliff Keen Invitational in Las Vegas, LeBlanc knocked off seventh-ranked Vince Jones of Nebraska.

“It was my breaking through point where I realized I could really compete at this level,” he said. “It gave me a lot of confidence that I could compete at this level.”

LeBlanc continued to stockpile momentum before finishing his freshman season by placing fifth at the 2009 NCAA Championships in St. Louis. He became Wyoming’s first All-American in 13 years.

Shortly after the 2009 NCAAs, LeBlanc and Amanda Gillan were married that May.

A couple of months later, he received jolting news. His stepfather – the man he called Dad – had committed suicide.

“I knew my dad had some business problems, but I never thought it would come to that,” he said. “That was the hardest thing I had ever faced in my life. I don’t know how I made it through, and sometimes I didn’t think I was going to.

“I thought I could do one of two things – I could quit everything I worked so hard for or I could do better. Then I realized I wasn’t going to give up. It was going to make me better.”

LeBlanc returned to school in the fall and earned a perfect 4.0 grade-point average that semester. He followed it with a 3.7 GPA in the second semester. His cumulative GPA was 2.7 his first two years at Wyoming.

“My dad always wanted me to get a 4.0,” he said. “I just decided to push myself to the next level in the classroom.”

LeBlanc pushed himself to the next level on the wrestling mat as well.

He entered the NCAA Championships this past March in Omaha as the No. 7 seed at 184. He knocked off No. 2 seed John Dergo of Illinois 10-8 in overtime in the quarterfinals. That night, he stepped on the mat to face No. 6 seed Max Askren of Missouri.

LeBlanc built an early lead on Askren before the Missouri senior rallied to tie the match. Askren scored a takedown in overtime to win 9-7. Askren went on to win the NCAA title and LeBlanc finished fourth in his sophomore season.

“The match with Askren, it was a devastating loss,” LeBlanc said. “I worked all year to be a national champion. After the big win in the quarters, I thought I was on my way. I was trying to hold on against Askren, and I got a little too defensive. I need to stay offensive and build on my lead.”

LeBlanc starts his junior year ranked No. 2 nationally behind Boise State’s Kirk Smith, who lost to Askren in the 2010 NCAA finals.

LeBlanc and Smith will meet in the NWCA All-Star dual meet later this month in Fresno, Calif. LeBlanc is 0-3 in his career against Smith, including a one-point loss last year.

“I’m really looking forward to that match, and I’m really excited about this season,” said LeBlanc, who has an 84-14 record in college. “I came close to my goal at nationals last year. Only 10 guys are satisfied at the end of the season, and I wasn’t one of them. I’m working for that national title.”

LeBlanc just returned to the mat. He underwent surgery late this summer after breaking a bone in his foot.

One of his new training partners is Chris Pendleton, now a Wyoming assistant coach. Pendleton won two NCAA titles at Oklahoma State and is a past U.S. National Team member in freestyle.

“It’s great having him here,” LeBlanc said. “It’s really awesome to have Chris push me.”

LeBlanc also has a strong support system with his family, particularly his mother Sharon. His two older brothers, Barny and Isaac, also excelled in wrestling. Barny was a state runner-up and Isaac won a state title. His sisters, Nikki and Andrea, were valedictorians at Meeker. 

“My mom did a great job raising us,” he said. “She’s strong-willed, and she’s been steadfast through everything. I have all the respect in the world for her. She held everything together for our family.”

LeBlanc is looking to become just the second NCAA champion in Wyoming’s history. Dick Ballinger won an NCAA title for the Cowboys in 1960.

“It would mean everything to win it, and it would mean a lot to our program,” he said. “Coach Branch is building a great program here, and he’s not going to rest until we are competing for a national title as a team. All the guys in the room are working to be champions.”

Branch said LeBlanc is on the right path.

“Joe has all of those special qualities of a champion,” said Branch, a two-time NCAA champion for Oklahoma State. “His attitude, his desire and his competitiveness – he possesses traits of some of the best wrestlers I have seen. He’s a winner.”

LeBlanc caught Branch’s attention right away during their first practices together.

“Joe’s very coachable and asks a lot of questions,” Branch said. “He is always trying new moves. We were talking during weigh-ins about a move and he went out there in the meet that night and tried it. He threw himself to his back because he hadn’t even tried the move in practice yet. If he doesn’t do a move right, he won’t quit on it until he gets it right. He is a sponge, and he is always learning. He keeps evolving as a wrestler. It’s pretty awesome to have a guy like that on your team.

“He wants to be coached and he wants to get better. He’s enjoyable to coach because he wants to learn. He brings the fire to our room every day he comes in there.”

Branch is impressed with what LeBlanc has done off the mat as well.

“Joe’s really matured,” Branch said. “He has gone through a lot of personal struggles, but he’s triumphed with the way he has managed his life and his schoolwork.”

With all the demands on his time, LeBlanc is grateful for the support at home.

“My wife is awesome,” he said. “She is always looking out for me and helps out with everything. I’m very grateful for that. Her support means a lot.”

LeBlanc said his wife has made brown and gold outfits – with “LeBlanc 184" on them – for their son to wear to the Wyoming meets.

“Tyson is great,” he said. “We have a lot of fun together. We wrestle around all the time, and he just loves it. He’s like the little team mascot. I want to be the best father I can be to him. I want him to appreciate everything he has.”

LeBlanc said his stepfather, the man who helped raise him and taught him to wrestle, is never far from his thoughts.

“My dad always taught me to be the best I can,” he said. “Those words will always stay with me. It motivates me to be the best at everything I do in my life.”