132 lb Chandler Freshman Will Conley and his father were attempting to fight a fire on Will’s grandmother’s property this past Friday. They were overwhelmed by the fire and attempted to escape on their four-wheeler. Unable to see due to the smoke, they crashed and were later found by emergency services and taken to the hospital.
Will’s dad, Allen Ferguson, had pulled Will out of the fire after the crash and was badly burned in the process. He later passed away. Will has now had five surgeries since the fire and is expected to have a long road back to recovery.
Besides Will’s incredible resilience and fight to keep going through these surgeries and recovery, one of the more remarkable things we’ve followed in this has been the wrestling community’s rally around Will and his family.
His youth club coach, Shane Earp, who was assisted by his father Allen, started a GoFundMe five days ago that shared their story. The goal was to raise money to support his mother and family in the aftermath of all the medical bills, funeral costs, and Will’s long-term recovery. The Chandler community and people around wrestling in Oklahoma rallied. As you scroll the donation list, you see donations from groups like the Claremore Wrestling Club and numerous others who are wrestling specific people. Most notable is Paycom CEO Chad Richison. Richison wrestled in high school at Tuttle, collegiately at UCO, and has been a big financial supporter of Oklahoma State and UCO Wrestling. Richison pitched in $50,000! So far, their GoFundMe is now up over $110,000 after just five days of being live.
Will has also been sent care packages of wrestling gear from OU and OSU.
There is still a very long and expensive road to recovery for Will and his family. He’s expected to require more surgeries and likely need a lot of support once he returns home. If you’d like to donate to help their family, the link to their GoFundMe is below.
Fundraiser by Shane Earp : Assist Will’s Fight and Honor Allen’s Memory
