MONTGOMERY COUNTY (WSLS 10) - People in Montgomery County are grieving the loss of a wrestling legend.
Cody Gardner died at the age of 28 last Friday from an apparent drug overdose, according to the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office.
Gardner wrestled at both Virginia Tech and Christiansburg High School, where he was ranked number one in the country his senior year.
His death was a shock to many of those who knew him, but the circumstances surrounding it sadly were not.
Gardner's former coach Kevin Dresser says he knew Gardner was dealing with a drug addiction for many years, but had heard he was getting help.
He says the loss is a tragedy that Gardner's family wants to work to prevent from ever happening again.
Dresser says Cody Gardner was larger than life.
That's why his loss is so hard to cope with.
"If something like this can take down Cody Gardner, it can take down a lot of people," said Dresser.
It in Christiansburg's Hawkeye Hall, that Gardner first got his start in middle school.
His teammate Luke Brugh says he quickly stood out.
"He competed hard, but you could never tell in big matches that he was nervous," said Brugh.
Dresser says Gardner quickly shined in the years that followed.
He recalled one bout from his first year coaching Gardner at Christiansburg High.
"They had a senior that was a state champ and Cody was a freshman and Cody went out there and just annihilated the guy, and we knew right then and there we had a gem," said Dresser.
That "gem" quickly out-shined every other wrestler in the state.
Four years in a row, Gardner was a state champ.
Then, his senior year, he was named the best wrestler in the country.
"To see him become the number one, I mean it wasn't really a surprise, that's what you would expect if you knew him. He was good," said Brugh.
Dresser took a job at Virginia Tech in 2006, and he says Gardner was one of his first recruits, but around that time was when Gardner's drug problem became apparent.
"Everything that had been easy for Cody in his life, now he kind of had a battle on his hands," said Dresser.
After one semester, Gardner quit wrestling.
Dresser says he met with Gardner's family.
"It was mutually kind of agreed on between his family and myself and him that it was probably best for him to get away from home for a while," said Dresser.
From there, Gardner went to Ohio State, then to a Division Three college, never achieving his high school success.
"He knew that he had an addiction and, the thing about Cody was that Cody wasn't a guy that made excuses, he took things head-on, and even at the end, he wanted to beat this disease. He took the classes, he did the rehab," said Dresser.
Gardner's family held a memorial service in Hawkeye Hall for Gardner Tuesday night.
Looking back, Dresser says Gardner may have felt there was no one he could talk to about his problem.
"I know Cody felt like he didn't have a lot of people on his side. You know what? If he would have been here last night, he would have seen the hundreds of people that were on his side," said Dresser.
That's why Dresser says Gardner's family wants his life to be a lesson for others.
"If there's something going on, reach out. Get help. Communicate before it's too late," said Dresser.
The Sheriff's Office says it will likely be several weeks before we learn Gardner's official cause of death and what, if any, drugs were in his system at the time.