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The 2025-26 season is right around the corner! With a new year comes a new set of faces leading DI wrestling program. We’ll have eight of them this year. Initially, the coaching carousel got off to a slow start, but eventually, there were some shakeups that led to multiple changes on the head coaching front. Even though this group got off to a late start, it will be the season with the most new head coaches out of the last seven years (counting an interim hire). Last year, seven new coaches were added. 2018 is the biggest year in recent memory with 11 new hires (though two were brand-new programs). So, here’s a little bit about each of the new head coaches. The background regarding the vacancy they filled, highlights from their coaching resumes, and a brief overview of their wrestling career. Troy Nickerson (Army West Point) Perhaps the most attractive and competitive opening during the 2025 offseason was at Army West Point. With eight wrestlers returning with NCAA experience and top 25 recruiting classes in four of the last five years, it’s easy to see why this job was so coveted. Ultimately, it was Northern Colorado head coach Troy Nickerson who got the call. Nickerson took the UNC program to unprecedented heights with a national champion in 2023 and two All-Americans in 2025. His wrestlers also combined to win five Big 12 titles over the last four years. Nickerson is also a huge name in-state. He became the first high schooler to win five New York state titles and went on to earn All-American honors four times (including a 2009 championship) for Cornell. Ryan LeBlanc (Binghamton) In early July, Kyle Borshoff stepped down from his post as head coach of the Binghamton Bearcats. That started another chain of events that created another opening late in the game, as Ryan LeBlanc ended up getting named as Borshoff’s successor. LeBlanc comes to Binghamton after five seasons leading The Citadel. He was fresh off a campaign that saw the Bulldogs turn in their best performance in a decade. LeBlanc was named SoCon Coach of the Year after his team finished second in the league and crowned three conference champions. Four wrestlers from The Citadel ended up qualifying for nationals. Like Nickerson, LeBlanc is coming back to his home state. He was a two-time New York state champion for Morrisville-Eaton, which is just over an hour from Binghamton. LeBlanc wrestled collegiately at Indiana, where he qualified for the NCAA Championships on three occasions and advanced to the NCAA bloodround once. TJ Dudley (Campbell) After a tumultuous season that saw Campbell’s athletic department slash funds for wrestling and a handful of other sports, head coach Scotti Sentes stepped down to pursue a position with the Wrestlers in Business Network (WIBN). One of Campbell’s assistant coaches, TJ Dudley, ultimately got promoted to become a head coach for the first time. Dudley joined the Campbell staff just over a year ago, after spending three years as an assistant coach at Brown. During his year at Campbell, the Camels pushed three wrestlers into the NCAA Tournament, one of whom was a SoCon champion. Dudley had an excellent career wrestling for the University of Nebraska. He was a three-time NCAA All-American, finishing eighth, second, and third. In 2016, Dudley made the finals of both the Big Ten and NCAA championships. At the Senior level, Dudley took third at the US Open. He remains one of the best wrestlers to ever come out of South Carolina. Josh Moore (Kent State) 2024-25 marked the final season of Cleveland State wrestling, as their administration followed through with their intentions of cutting the wrestling program. The Vikings head coach, Josh Moore, was quickly scooped up by MAC rival Kent State. The Golden Flashes were looking for a leader as long-time head coach Jim Andrassy stepped down in May after 22 years on the job. This is not Moore’s first rodeo at Kent State. He spent 11 years as an assistant at the school before joining CSU’s staff as an assistant. Moore was later elevated to the Vikings head coach. That’s a role that Moore assumed for the last seven seasons. During that time, he produced 14 national qualifiers, including the program's first MAC champion. Moore was a two-time All-American for Penn State. He made the national finals at 133 lbs in 2004. Even with all of the superstars that have been a part of the Nittany Lions program for the last decade and a half, Moore still remained tied atop the school’s all-time pins list with 53. Jimmy Overhiser (Mercyhurst) The 2024-25 school year was the first for Mercyhurst as a DI institution. They are in the middle of a transition from DII to DI status. With that in mind, the wrestling program looked for a new leader to help spearhead the move to DI status and Jimmy Overhiser is that man. Overhiser came to Mercyhurst after spending the 2024-25 season as a member of Drexel’s coaching staff. Before that, he was an assistant at Army West Point. Overhiser has also coached at Tarleton State, the California RTC, Wisconsin-Whitewater, and Reinhardt. Overhiser has already hit the recruiting trail hard at Mercyhurst and has a handful of commitments from wrestlers in the Class of 2026. Overhiser is the second Cornell alum to get a DI coaching job this cycle. He graduated from Cornell in 2010. Teyon Ware (Northern Colorado) Troy Nickerson’s departure left a vacancy in Greeley and it was one that Teyon Ware ended up filling. This will be Ware’s first head coaching position at any level, but he’s got plenty of experience on the bench and an excellent pedigree on the mat. Ware comes over after spending three years as an assistant coach at his alma mater, Oklahoma. Ware was the only holdover on staff as Oklahoma transitioned from Lou Rosselli to Roger Kish. As the only member of the staff from Oklahoma, Ware was valuable in assisting with in-state recruiting and helped the Sooners to a #3 overall recruiting class in 2024. Before coming back to Oklahoma, Ware spent eight years as an assistant at Wyoming. He was on staff at both OU and Wyoming, as Stephen Buchanan developed into a national title threat. Ware also worked with Wyoming’s two-time NCAA finalist Bryce Meredith. Early in his coaching career, Ware spent time at the Nittany Lion Wrestling Club and Binghamton University. As a competitor, Ware was a two-time NCAA champion and four-time All-American for Oklahoma. After posting a perfect high school record, Ware won his first NCAA title as a true freshman, in an era where very few true freshmen achieved such success. Matt Valenti (Penn) You might have forgotten that this will be Matt Valenti’s first season as Penn’s head coach. That’s because there was a succession plan in place and Valenti was tabbed to take over for the legendary Roger Reina at the conclusion of the 2025-26 campaign. Valenti’s path to the head coaching position is an unusual one. He got his coaching career started at Ivy League rival Columbia, before returning to the Penn bench. In 2015, Valenti took a job in Penn’s athletic administration. He held various positions in the department before returning to focus solely on coaching wrestling in 2023. Valenti remains one of the all-time greats in Penn wrestling. He is their most recent national champion. Valenti finished his collegiate career with back-to-back titles in 2006 and 2007. Valenti got on the NCAA podium three times for the Quakers and remains their career win leader. Luke Welch (The Citadel) - Interim Head Coach Since it was just over a month ago that LeBlanc was named head coach at Binghamton, it was extremely late in the game to start the process of looking for his successor. With that in mind, The Citadel’s athletic department made the correct decision to name Luke Welch the team’s interim head coach for the 2025-26 season. Welch will get a full season to show why he deserves to hold the title on a full-time basis. Welch came to Charleston at the same time as LeBlanc, so he played a huge role in the program’s rise and success during the 2024-25 campaign. The Bulldogs were able to win double-digit duals for a second straight year in 2024-25. The last time they were able to break the ten dual win milestone was in 2014. They were able to accomplish feats like this despite not having a lineup full of high school Big Boarders. The credit for finding diamonds in the rough and developing them into quality DI wrestlers has to go to LeBlanc, but also to Welch, who was very instrumental in the process. Welch was a national qualifier as a senior for Purdue in 2018. He finished fourth in the Big Ten and was a match away from earning All-American honors.