Gregg LewisGregg Lewis announced he was retiring as head wrestling coach at University of Wisconsin-Parkside, the school's acting Director of Athletics Steve Wallner announced Wednesday.
UW-Parkside had recently announced its intention of making what had been a part-time position into a full-time job, and Lewis decided to put family first.
"Quite honestly, I need to spend more time with my family," Lewis told the Kenosha Times. College coaching is very demanding. It was an easy decision. I have two kids and a wife I need to spend more time with."
"My son is a high school wrestler who will be a senior, graduate and possibly wrestle in college. And I have a daughter who is a pretty big soccer player and runs track. I want to focus on them and obviously spend time with my wife."
"(The decision has) been overdue," Lewis continued. "The vision was to have the position be full time. Every year, that conversation would happen. When that opportunity came (this year), I knew I couldn't take the position, so I resigned. I'm very excited for the wrestling position to be full time again."
Lewis concludes a long run at UW-Parkside, having started as assistant wrestling coach at the southeast Wisconsin school in 1995. In 2011, Lewis was promoted to head up the Rangers mat program, taking over after Jim Koch, the man who launched the program in 1970, announced his retirement after 41 seasons. (Koch died in March after being struck by a car while in St. Louis to attend the 2017 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships.)
During his six years as head coach, Lewis led the Rangers to a 40-24 record in dual match competition and qualified wrestlers for the NCAA Division II Championship in each of his seasons. He produced 12 All-Americans in his six seasons and had 33 student-athletes named to the NCAA Division II Wrestling Coaches Association All-Academic teams.
One of Lewis' great achievements: to have coached Nick Becker to back-to-back national titles at 174 pounds at the 2016 and 2017 NCAAs. Becker was named the NCAA Division II Wrestler of the Year at the end of this season.
"We appreciate all that Gregg has done for the Wisconsin-Parkside wrestling program during his time as both a head coach and an assistant coach," said Wallner. "His student-athletes achieved at a high level on the mat and in the classroom and he carried on the legacy of success the program has enjoyed."
A search for a new head wrestling coach is already underway.
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