Takedown Report

Championship Wrestling Coaches – Division II

The Division II (D-II) National Championships were first held in 1963 in addition to the Division I (D-I) championships.  Since then 57 championship teams have been crowned.  There has been a greater balance in the number of D-II championship teams than in D-I as was reported in the previous story.   

There have been 15 different schools winning a championship in D-II.  The school and coach with the most championships is California State Polytechnic University with Vaughn Hitchcock as the coach for eight championships.  Hitchcock first won at the 4^th National Championship in 1966.  In 1968 Hitchcock coached his team to another championship which became the first of seven consecutive titles.  This has been the longest streak of consecutive titles in Division II.   

Three coaches are tied for 2^nd with seven team titles each.  They are Joe Seay at California State Bakersfield, David James at Central Oklahoma and Mike Denney at Nebraska-Omaha.   Seay moved on to Oklahoma State and won two more championships at the D-I level.  James has directed his teams to championship titles five times while in the NAIA before the school moved into the D-II championships. Nebraska-Omaha abruptly dropped the sport just hours after Denney led his team to a 3^rd consecutive championship (and 6^th in just eight years).  He moved on to coach at Maryville University when they added wrestling and remains as the only active head coach of the top four coaches.

Tied for 5^th are Bucky Maughan of North Dakota State and Steve Costanzo of St. Cloud University with four championship teams.  Costanzo is still active and his teams have won four championships along with 4 runner-up finishes in the past nine years.  Tied for 7^th place with three championships each are Marc Bauer of Nebraska-Kearney, and Larry Kristoff of Southern Illinois-Edwardsville who won three consecutive titles in the mid-1980s.

Five coaches are tied for 9^th with two championship titles are Frank Romano of Notre Dame College, Chuck Patten of University of Northern Iowa, Marlin Grahn of Portland State, Tracey Borah of Western State in Colorado and Pat Pecora of Pittsburgh-Johnstown.  Pecora is the third coach on this list that is still active and his team looks to be a pre-season favorite for the title.  Patten won his titles before U.N.I. moved to Division I.  Borah was the first coach to win a D-II championship.  His team repeated the feat the following year.  Grahn won the only national championships by a men’s team at Portland State.  The school moved to D-I and rationalized dropping their program ten years ago citing a lack of success at the new level.  It leaves the school with just five men’s varsity programs.  Recently retired Romano earned his team’s titles after winning championships in NAIA and NCWA divisions. 

In 14^th place are four coaches each with one of the remaining championships. 

These coaches that have guided their teams to National Championships are commendable and worth recognition.  Next article will look into who was the coach of championship wrestling teams in NCAA Division III and then the NAIA and the National Junior College A.A. 

• = school now competes on the Division I level.

‘* = active coach
** = school does not currently field a wrestling team
# = Coach is now active with another team

September 9, 2019 - Posted by The TakeDown Report | Uncategorized