The Cal Poly wrestling program has slowly become one of the better programs in the nation.
Under former head coach John Azevedo, the program boasted 18 total All-Americans and individual Pac-10 Champions in his 10 seasons with the program. But after announcing his plans to retire, the Mustangs were left to search for a coach to further enhance the Cal Poly wrestling tradition.
According to athletic director Don Oberhelman, Cal Poly found him Tuesday.
Oberhelman announced in a recent press conference that Brendan Buckley, the former head coach at Columbia for the past 11 seasons, was named Cal Poly’s head wrestling coach. He went 9-6 last season and led the Lions to a third-place finish in the Ivy League, sending two to the second round of the NCAA Division I National Championship.
“The search was a lengthy process,” Oberhelman said. “I appreciate the patience of our student athletes from the wrestling team as we went through this. It is a stressful time for them, but as I assured them in an email I sent to them the other day, we certainly have the right man for Cal Poly.”
That man accumulated a 71-84-1 overall record in 11 seasons with the Lions. Over the last six years, Columbia boasted 16 all-conference selections, 16 NCAA qualifiers and the first All-American the program has had in 23 seasons.
Buckley also earned Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association (EIWA) Coach of the Year honors after his team finished fourth at the 2005 EIWA Championships, the Lions’ best finish at the meet since 1931.
“It’s a great day to be a Mustang,” Oberhelman said. “Brendan comes to us after a very successful tenure at Columbia University … (and is) highly regarded from his peers as a great teacher of the sport. He brings a very cerebral approach.”
Buckley said he couldn’t be happier to return to California, where he wrestled with Fresno State from 1995 to 1997.
“I really feel Cal Poly is a great fit for me,” Buckley said. “I’ve been fortunate in my past experiences to be at great universities and to be able to continue that and be at a place that is so nationally recognized for education as Cal Poly was always a goal of mine.”
In his tenure, Buckley said he has always made academics a priority in his coaching career. At Columbia, his athletes shined in the classroom last year, accumulating a 3.2917 cumulative grade point average. In every season under Buckley, the Lions were named the National Wrestling Coaches Association Academic Team.
It is a skill Azevedo said will help him with the Mustangs.
“Brendan is a great coach with a lot of experience, and at a university like Cal Poly, there are high academic standards and he understands that,” Azevedo said. “He knows what type of student athlete to recruit — that’s key.”
On the mat, Buckley said he will train his athletes the old-fashioned way; grooming athletes through hours upon hours of tireless effort in the weight and training rooms.
“My philosophy is pretty simple as far as what I want us to do,” Buckley said. “We are going to work tirelessly to produce wrestlers that will be successful in the Pac-10 and the national level. It goes without saying that we will be incredibly well conditioned, but we’ll also spend a lot of time teaching wrestling.”
But as the funding for wrestling programs around the national seems to be shrinking, the future of Cal Poly wrestling is questionable. With the hiring of Buckley, Oberhelman said the future of Cal Poly wrestling is stable and will continue to move in a successful direction.
“I think the hiring of Coach Buckley shows the commitment to wrestling at Cal Poly,” Oberhelman said. “The fact that we conducted a national search I think shows that wrestling is on very stable ground at Cal Poly, and we hope to be successful in wrestling for a very, very long time to come … I would be surprised if we don’t continue to get better.”