As they sat in the wrestling room at Lied Recreation Athletic Center, the boy picked up his “Noisy Boy” figurine and urged his father to pick up another.

It was March 16, 2009, the first day of the NCAA Championships, when redshirt senior Jerome Ward’s life changed. As Ward prepared to take the mat as an NCAA qualifier in St. Louis, his son, Jerome Ward III, was born in Des Moines.

“Maybe he was just being a good sport,” Ward said of his son, whom he calls Trey, waiting for him to be there. “He came that morning at about 11 a.m., and then about two hours later I had to run back down to Ames and get a practice in and get my weight down.”

Ever since, Ward has battled time management. He’s worked to complete his degree in criminal justice, toward one final push for an NCAA title and, most of all, to spend time with Trey.

“It’s a lot to handle and he’s done it with character and class,” said redshirt senior Andrew Sorenson, who was recruited in the same class as Ward by former ISU wrestling coach Cael Sanderson. “I don’t think you can say that about everybody if they were to have a son at that age.”

ISU wrestling coach Kevin Jackson also has been impressed with the manner in which Ward has handled the workload.

“It’s a juggling act,” Jackson said. “For him to juggle all of those things and to have success in the classroom, on the mat and with his son, which is most important, is pretty impressive.”

As his senior season began in fall 2011, it did so with uncertainty. Ward had qualified for the NCAA Championships in each of his first three seasons, but now, in his final season, he was having back issues.

Jackson said Ward could hardly stand straight for much of the season. As each week passed, Ward began to realize his career could be over.

“When the injury comes, you’re naive about it; you don’t want to believe an injury is something that will keep you down,” Ward said. “That’s the kind of mindset I approached it with and then, as months started to roll through the season, it started to look like I wasn’t going to come back.”

But with Trey, a newfound love for Ward, it was easier to accept.

“I just think it matured him and turned him into a man,” Jackson said of Trey coming into Ward’s life. “It showed him that there are a lot more things that are important — his son is the most important thing to him — and things he probably thought were important weren’t that important.”

As the NWCA National Duals neared at Hilton Coliseum in February, Jackson approached Ward with the idea of giving it one more shot on the mat. Ward accepted and took the mat at his home arena one final time.

With a takedown in the final 13 seconds of his match, Ward defeated No. 17 Taylor Meeks of Oregon State, who had lost just two dual matches during the season. After thinking his career might be over, Ward had earned one last victory at Hilton.

Needing one victory in two matches Saturday at the Big 12 Championships to qualify for the fourth and final time for the NCAA Championships, Ward lost two close matches, a 5-3 sudden-victory decision and a 4-2 decision in double sudden-victory in the third-place match.

Now his focus will shift to the person Ward called his “biggest fan.”

“Jerome is a great dad. He loves that son and he takes him everywhere,” Sorenson said. “You can tell his son just loves him. Everything I’ve seen with him has always involved his son, he’s always taking care of him.”

His coach shared a similar sentiment.

“He’s a great father,” Jackson said. “I think it’s a big deal for him to support his son the best way he knows how.”

Ward said wrestling would likely be in Trey’s blood, adding that he would support his son in whatever he does. For Ward, the hope is to continue in wrestling with coaching if possible.

And maybe, one day, Trey will trade his figurines for some time on the mat too.