Takedown Report

College National News

The 2020 d3wrestle.com Coach of the Year
The 2020 d3wrestle.com Coach of the Year is TJ Miller of Loras College. Miller coached the Duhawks to a 14-1 record, a championship in the American Rivers Conference and Lower Midwest Region, and a runner-up finish at the National Duals. Loras qualified eight wrestlers for the NCAA Championships, six of whom were seeded in the top eight. In winning the ARC team title, Loras broke Wartburg’s 27 year streak of conference titles and snapped a 220 match conference winning streak. Miller was also named ARC and NWCA Division III Coach of the Year. Miller wrapped up his fourth season as head coach at Loras in March. He led the team to a runner-up finish at the 2019 NCAA Championships. He coached nine All-Americans in his first three seasons and was set to increase that total before the 2020 tournament was canceled. The team was ranked 2nd going into the 2020 championships. …. story at https://wordpress.com/block-editor/post/takedownreport.wordpress.com/11035

NWCA ANNOUNCES 2020 BOB BUBB COACHING EXCELLENCE WINNER
Manheim, PA – On Tuesday, the National Wrestling Coaches Association announced the Bob Bubb Coaching Excellence Award winner.  This award was scheduled to be presented at the NWCA 2020 Jim Koch Division II Hall of Fame Banquet on the eve of the NCAA Division II Wrestling Championships at the Denny Sanford Premier Center, but the event was canceled along with the Division II Championships due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  The Bob Bubb Coaching Excellence award is presented annually to an outstanding coach who epitomizes the qualities and characteristics of a role model and mentor for developing young student-athletes.  The recipient of this year’s NWCA Bob Bubb Coaching Excellence Award is Shawn Nelson of the University of Findlay.  Coach Nelson is in his 23rd year as head coach was inducted into the NCAA Division II Jim Koch Hall of Fame in 2019. He has coached 11 national champions during his tenure and has won multiple coach of the year awards at the conference, region, and national levels. “It’s an honor to announce Coach Shawn Nelson as the 2020 recipient of the Bob Bubb Coaching Excellence Award,” …. story at https://portal.nwcaonline.com/articles/NWCA_News/NWCA-ANNOUNCES-2020-BOB-BUBB-COACHING-7-4-2020

NWCA Launches Scholastic Wrestling Webinar Series Presented by the US Marine Corps
Manheim, PA – The National Wrestling Coaches Association, is excited to announce the launch of their new coaching development initiative, the Scholastic Wrestling Webinar Series presented by the United States Marine Corps.
“Coaches are currently operating in uncharted waters as they deal with school closings and social distancing due to to the COVID-19 Pandemic. It is our hope that these free webinars will help connect coaches and give them an opportunity for continuous coaching development” Mike Moyer, NWCA Executive Director
The free webinar series is available for any and all coaches interested in learning from the team of NWCA Scholastic Leadership Academy facilitators. Membership is not required for participation. Each one-hour webinar will be offered on Wednesday and Sunday evenings at 7:30 pm ET. …. story and details at http://www.nwcaonline.com/nwca-launches-scholastic-wrestling-webinar-series-presented-by-the-us-marine-corps/?mc_cid=c40241fd14&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b

Two-Time NCAA Champion Mark Perry Joins ASU Wrestling Staff
TEMPE, Ariz. – Arizona State wrestling added another impressive hire to its coaching staff on Friday, with head coach Zeke Jones announcing the addition of four-time All-American and two-time NCAA champion Mark Perry.   
“We just hit another home run coaching hire with Mark Perry,” Coach Jones said. “He comes with a tremendous amount of elite coaching experience as an associate head coach at the college level. He’s a natural-born leader, with a rich family wrestling tradition and just adds another head coach to our room. Not only has he won national championships, but he’s also coached at the world and Olympic level and will be a great addition to our staff.” 
Most recently, Perry has spent his time as a head coach at the Hawkeye Wrestling Club developing post-graduate wrestlers for national and international competition, training most notably 2017 World Silver medalist Thomas Gilman. He returned to Iowa City in 2017, where he has spent the last three seasons before taking the position with the Sun Devils.  
The hire comes just over a week after ASU named Frank Molinaro as an assistant coach last Thursday. The Barnegat, N.J. native and Perry know each other far too well, as Perry coached Molinaro at Penn State in his freshman season in 2008-09.   …. story at https://thesundevils.com/news/2020/4/17/two-time-ncaa-champion-mark-perry-joins-asu-wrestling-staff.aspx?mc_cid=845f982bf2&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b

As a Division II wrestling coach, former Nittany Lion Shawn Nelson keeps proving himself
At seemingly every juncture of his career, Shawn Nelson has set out to prove something. It started in high school when Nelson, then just a kid from the south side of Cleveland, wanted to continue wrestling collegiately in the Buckeye State. Intent on proving that Ohio produced the best wrestlers in the country at the time, the three-time Ohio state champion planned on staying home and making that case. The only problem was the feeling wasn’t mutual — no school in Ohio was seriously interested in Nelson as a wrestler and wanted to take a chance on him. “I wanted to stay in Ohio, because I wanted to prove that Ohio had the better wrestlers as a kid growing up,” Nelson told the Daily Collegian. “But, they just didn’t give me the same time of day.” After being spurned by his home state, Nelson was forced to look elsewhere. Drawing on inspiration from a magazine and a visit from a former Penn State coach while still in high school, he headed east and eventually settled in State College, competing for the Nittany Lions and garnering an All-American nod in 1992 at 126 pounds. “I was in a class and we had some downtime. I went and got a magazine from my wrestling coach’s office and [former two-time All-American] Dan Mayo was on it and it said ‘Beasts in the East: Penn State’ and I thought, ‘Oh that’s pretty cool and that’d be a cool place to go to.’” …. story at https://www.collegian.psu.edu/sports/wrestling/article_08c33010-836b-11ea-b558-db2450aca771.html

COACH’S CORNER: WOMEN’S GOLF AND WRESTLING’S ROBERT FISHER
KUTZTOWN, Pa. – Coach’s corner is a weekly segment where fans get acquainted with Kutztown University head coaches. Our next coach in the spotlight is KU women’s golf and wrestling coach Robert Fisher.
Fisher will enter his 20th season as head coach of the women’s golf team and 21st season in charge of the wrestling team at Kutztown University in 2020-21. In the last three years, Fisher has led each of his teams to Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) championships. In the fall of 2017, women’s golf won its first-ever PSAC Championship to qualify for its first-ever appearance at the NCAA East Super Regionals. Fisher also guided the wrestling program to its first ever team title, earning a share of the PSAC Division II Dual Championship in Feb. 2019.  
Fisher received his bachelor’s degree in special education for the visually impaired from Kutztown in 1995. He went on to serve as a teacher of the blind/visually impaired at the Capital Area Intermediate Unit, in Summerdale, Pa., from 1996-99. 
What makes Kutztown University the destination to be a coach? “Kutztown is home. There is no better place than home.”  
Favorite place on campus and/or in town? “The [Keystone] Pub. I love their barbeque.”  
Why did you get into coaching? “Coaching, teaching and mentoring is what I have always done. Athletics and coaching have given me so much in my life. It’s great to be able to do the same in return for my guys and girls.” …. story at https://kubears.com/news/2020/4/17/coachs-corner-womens-golf-and-wrestlings-robert-fisher.aspx?mc_cid=845f982bf2&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b

Tom Carr Named Head Coach To Lead OKWU Wrestling
OKWU has named Tom Carr to lead the wrestling program following his five-year tenure at Central Christian College. In April 2015, Central Christian College made the decision to add the sport of wrestling and named Tom Carr as the head wrestling coach. In the years since, Carr has laid the foundation for a program that celebrates Christ, both through the athletes’ dedication on and off the mat and their dedication to the community the college serves. In the five years Carr has been at the helm for the Tigers, his wrestlers have shown consistent growth in the classroom and on the mat. During his first year as the Tigers’ head coach, Carr led Devontae Fitzgerald to become the first Tiger athlete to compete at an NAIA tournament, and he has placed eight athletes at the Sooner Athletic Conference tournament since its inception. Carr has an impressive resume in the 12 years since he graduated from Muskingum. He got his start in the coaching profession at Land O’Lakes High School in Florida. There, he served as head coach of a 35-person team that had three state qualifiers, one state champion, and three AAU All-Americans. From there, he moved on to become an assistant coach at Central College in Pella, Iowa. He spent a year at Central College and then took a position as an administrative assistant with the wrestling program at Michigan State. …. story at https://www.okwu.edu/athletics/news/tom-carr-named-head-coach-lead-okwu-wrestling/?mc_cid=eb28f2fdb6&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b

April 29, 2020 - Posted by The TakeDown Report | Uncategorized