The 2026 Offseason Coaching Carousel (6/30/2026)

Last week, we learned that Pat Santoro had stepped down at Lehigh and his longtime associate head coach Brad Dillon was taking over the Mountain Hawks head coaching position. Yesterday, the Pennsylvania RTC announced that they’ve hired Santoro as their next head coach. Those changes restarted the coaching carousel. 

Another announcement from Monday was that Edinboro has hired Boomer Fechko as an assistant coach. Fechko comes to Edinboro after spending the last year as an associate head coach at John Carroll. Fechko has plenty of DI experience, having stints on staff at Cleveland State, Buffalo, and Bloomsburg.

This is why we call it the coaching carousel. It’s a game of musical chairs that generally goes on for the entire offseason. One opening generally creates another as the first one gets filled. We thought with Timmy McCall’s hiring by The Citadel, that we had our final head coaching change, but Lehigh provided another move. This creates an opening on the Lehigh staff that should be attractive to many potential candidates. 

As you can see from some of the openings below, there are some additional high-profile jobs available, so those might create some more opportunities in the near future.

We’ll update this feature regularly throughout the summer (and potentially fall) as more positions are filling and others come open.

New Hires

Army West Point Associate Head Coach: Mike Macchiavello (Lehigh Valley WC Athlete)

Binghamton Assistant Coach: Luke Welch (The Citadel - Interim Head Coach)

Cal Poly Assistant Coach: Nelson Brands (Iowa City Regina HS Head Coach)

Cornell Assistant Coach: Yianni Diakomihalis (USA Wrestling - Athlete)

Davidson Assistant Coach: Avery Bassett (Lock Haven - Wrestler)

Edinboro Assistant Coach: Boomer Fechko (John Carroll - Associate Head Coach)

Iowa Assistant Coach: Jacob Warner (Hawkeye Wrestling Club)

Iowa State Assistant Coach: Jaiver Maldonado (Little Rock - Assistant Coach)

Iowa State Head Coach: Brent Metcalf (Associate Head Coach)

Iowa State Assistant Coach: Drake Ayala (Iowa - Athlete)

Lehigh Head Coach: Brad Dillon (Lehigh - Associate Head Coach)

Maryland Assistant Coach: Gavin Hoffman (Lock Haven - Assistant Coach)

Mercyhurst Assistant Coach: Qian’te Wagner (Rio Grande - Assistant Coach)

NC State Assistant Coach: Hayden Hidlay (Stanford - Assistant Coach)

Nebraska Assistant Coach: Robert Kokesh

Pittsburgh Assistant Coach: Ethan Laird (Maryland - Assistant Coach)

Rider Assistant Coach: Tyler Klinsky (Rider - Wrestler)

Rutgers Associate Head Coach: Anthony Ashnault (Princeton - Assistant Coach)

SIU Edwardsville Head Coach: Daryl Thomas (SIU Edwardsville - Associate Head Coach)

SIU Edwardsville Assistant Coach: Colton McKiernan (Fort Hays State - Assistant Coach)

The Citadel Head Coach: Timmy McCall (Utah Valley - Assistant Coach)

Virginia Tech Assistant Coach: James Green (Nebraska - Assistant Coach)

Virginia Tech Assistant Coach: Ty Walz (Brown - Assistant Coach)

RTC/Club

Pennsylvania RTC Head Coach: Pat Santoro (Lehigh - Head Coach)
 

Openings

Bloomsburg: Volunteer Assistant

Brown: Assistant Coach

Gardner-Webb: Graduate Assistant

Illinois: Assistant Coach

Lehigh: Assistant Coach

Little Rock: Assistant Coach

Lock Haven: Assistant Coach

Mercyhurst: Volunteer Assistant

Michigan: Assistant Coach

Navy: Assistant Coach

Oregon State: Assistant Coach

Princeton: Assistant Coach

Stanford: Assistant Coach

Utah Valley: Assistant Coach

The Citadel: Assistant Coach

Wisconsin: Assistant Coach