Tournament directors are the volunteers who wrestling communities know are the ones who keep the wresting motor running and John Swartz is just such a man.

Swartz's greatest legacy for wrestling is bound to be the Virginia Duals, famous since 1981 for its size, fierce competition, and spectator-friendly team-on-team format.

Swartz began working the tournament in 1999 and under his leadership as part of a long-term crew, the event prospered mightily while turning a profit every year since 1984. From modest beginnings, the 2024 event featured 16 colleges and 48 high schools. In his painstaking history of the tournament, Swartz shares that in 44 years, the extravaganza in Southeast Virginia has welcomed 157 colleges and 256 high schools from 24 states.

Founded by luminaries like the late John Graham, a longtime National Wrestling Hall of Fame supporter, board member, Olympic Team Leader and 2001 Hall of Fame Order of Merit recipient, the tournament runs in mid-January and features multiple divisions, including one with the brawling label of "Black and Blue". Since 2012, it wraps up with a "Kids National Sunday Tournament" that has become the perfect way to end by developing the future. Co-director Swartz and his team smoothly manage the three-day spectacle held across 10 mats at Hampton Coliseum. He and his crew make it look easy, but as anyone who has run a tournament can attest, it isn't easy.

Swartz has also coached, beginning with youth wrestlers and then at Smithfield High School from 2013-19. His Razorback Hogs finished third at the Class 4A state tournament in 2014 and fourth in 2016 and 2017.

He has also been a busy commissioner, assigning events and officials for several wrestling clubs from Southeast Virginia and into North Carolina. Swartz has also served as president or vice president of the Peninsula Wrestling Association off and on for most of this century.

Swartz has a methodical mind and his current military title is program analyst, deputy director for the United States Air Force.

For wrestling, he researches history and has created a foundation for the Class 4A/5A/6A Tournament Handbook while also leading the effort to improve rules and weight control issues to make our sport safer and better for our wrestlers.

John has three children, Zak Edwards (30), Lauren Edwards (20), and John Swartz (25).

Father, airman and friend of wrestling, John Swartz embodies the high ideal of service for which the Hall of Fame honors him.