University of Mary Athletics

Joe Tezak
Outstanding Athlete
Wrestling 1993-1997

Joe Tezak, a wrestler from Mt. Carmel High School in San Diego, CA, was aggressively recruited by many colleges and universities before signing to attend the University of Mary. Entering the Marauders program in the fall of 1993, Joe quickly lived up to Coach Milo Trusty’s assessment of him as “a diamond in the rough.”

Immediately establishing his dominance on the wrestling mat at the conference, regional, and NAIA national levels, Joe was named NAIA All-Region three times, and in the 1996-1997 season became the NAIA National Champion at 118 pounds. Joe and his teammates won conference titles—NAIA Regional Championships in the 1994-1995, 1995– 1996, and 1996–1997 seasons.

Joe graduated in the spring of 1998 with a B.A. degree and double majors in secondary education and social behavioral sciences and then became a Marauders graduate assistant wrestling coach.  In this role, he helped guide many student-athletes to great success and played a major role in developing and leading the Marauders wrestling program into the NAIA spotlight. But there is more to Joe’s story.

During his graduate assistant years, Joe suffered a tragic accident and sustained a spinal cord injury resulting in quadriplegia. The same spirit and determination that made him a champion on the mat saw him through rehab. Receiving his master’s in management in 2000, Joe began a career in federal government in 2001 as a staff assistant at the United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) San Diego Field Office.  He was promoted to the San Ysidro Port of Entry, where he operated the customs area security center for three years before accepting a position in Washington, D.C. Following numerous promotions, Joe works for CBP, an agency within the Department of Homeland Security. In his belief that God gave him a “very competitive nature and a mind to figure out what [he had] to do” and in his continued accomplishments, Joe reminds all of us what one can really do with a strong spirit of belief. He is the son of Linda and the late Joseph Tezak and the stepson of Sharon Cardonna Tezak.