 | Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Wrestling |
SIUE Wrestling SIUE Athletics | |
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| Head Coach David Ray
David Ray enters his first year as head coach of the Cougar Wrestling Program. Ray was the head wrestling coach at Montana State University-Northern for 12 years. In his time at MSU-Northern, Ray produced 85 All-Americans and 21 National Champions from 1993-2005. Ray led the Northern Lights to four NAIA National team titles and was named the NAIA National Coach of the Year in 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2004. He was also named the Northern Region Coach of the Year 10 of his 12 years. While coaching at MSU-Northern coach Ray's wrestlers received the "Outstanding Wrestler" Award six times at the national championships and he had a wrestler place in the prestigious Midlands Tournament six times. Ray coached one of only six individual Four-Time National Champions in the 53 year history of the NAIA Championships. In 2004 his team tied a 1958 record held by Mankato State with five individual national champions. One of Coach Ray's most thrilling moments was the development of 2004 "DAN HODGE" recipient Emmett Willson, known as the Heisman of college wrestling. This was the first and only time a non-NCAA Division I wrestler received the "DAN HODGE" award. Ray served three years as the tournament director and coordinator of the NAIA National Wrestling Championships in Great Falls, MT 2002-2004. He served as the president of the NAIA National Wrestling Coaches Association from 2001 to 2003 and also served as Chair for the NAIA National Team and Individual rankings for six years. Ray served two years as an assistant coach at Simpson College and two years as a graduate assistant under Coach Dan Gable at Iowa. He holds a bachelor's degree in education from Simpson College in 1990 and a master's degree in Exercise Science in 1992 from Iowa. In 2008 coach Ray received his Administrative Endorsement from the University of Montana. He began his collegiate career as a wrestler for the University of Iowa and one year for Edinboro University. A member of the All-Time Wrestling Team at Edinboro, Ray was a Division I and Division II All-American in 1986, finishing second at the Division II tournament and third at the Division I tournament. He was 37-7 his final season at Edinboro. Coach Ray had a successful Freestyle and Greco Roman career; twice he was a Junior National Greco Champion and Freestyle runner-up. Coach Ray finished fourth in the US Greco National Championships in 1982 and 1983 and at the age of 21 he finished fourth in the 1984 US National Greco Olympic Trials. Coach Ray is married and has four daughters, a son and granddaughter. His wife Kim is a K-12 Administrator and his children's names are Kathryn, Taylor, Alexiss, Michelle and Brooklyn.
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Assistant Coach Tyron Woodley
| Tyron Woodley begins his second season as the assistant coach for the Cougar wrestling program. Woodley, of St. Louis, Mo., has been involved at Missouri since 2000. He wrestled for the Tigers from 2000-2005 and coached from 2005-2007. As a three-time team captain, Woodley collected several honors and awards. For the 2003 and 2005 seasons, he was a NCAA Division I All-American. In 2003, he claimed Missouri’s first individual Big 12 Conference Championship. The Tigers had never won a individual title since the creation of the conference in 1997. While on his way to earning All-American honors, Woodley collected 110 wins and reached the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships three times. He also helped guide the Tigers to their highest NCAA Wrestling Championship finish in 20 years (3rd) at the time. Woodley has a 5 years old son named Tyron Woodley Jr. |