Special to The Express-Times
STANFORD, Calif. — A wrestling career at Penn State followed by an assistant coaching stint at Lehigh University and two appearances on the U.S. Olympic team turned out to be parts of Kerry McCoy’s ticket to his first college head coaching job.
McCoy on Thursday was named head coach at Stanford, a Pacific 10 Conference school which, like Lehigh, recruits student-athletes with strong academic backgrounds.
McCoy, also a four-time World Cup champion and three-time NCAA All-American, has been an assistant coach under Greg Strobel at Lehigh for five years.
“It will be difficult leaving a program that is a big part of me, “McCoy said in a press release. “Over the years, I have developed strong relationships with the team, with the university and the community. Lehigh is a special place and moving on will be difficult.”
Strobel, who among others previously lost assistant coaches Pat Santoro to Maryland and Joel Sharratt to the staff at Navy, called McCoy’s appointment bittersweet.
“This is almost like your son getting his first job, “Strobel said. “I’m so excited for him, but now he has to leave home. We’re flattered that it was such a tough decision for Kerry to leave us. I’m pleased to have had him as a coach for five years.”
McCoy replaces Steve Buddie, who resigned last month after four seasons to leave the profession. His teams averaged seven dual-meet wins a season and sent 12 wrestlers to the NCAA Tournament. The Cardinal finished fifth in the conference standings last season.
“I’ve always admired the whole Stanford athletic department and the standard that the university has set across the country, “McCoy said. “The opportunity to be a part of that is just awe-inspiring.”
“We’re very excited that Kerry McCoy is joining our staff, “said Ted Leland, Stanford’s director of athletics. “He brings a great deal of experience to Stanford, having succeeded at the highest levels of wrestling.”
McCoy has spent the last five seasons helping Lehigh produce 14 All-Americans, two NCAA champions and four EIWA championships. Among them was Jon Trenge, the 197-pounder from Parkland High School, who scored a school-record 133 career victories and a trio of top-three finishes at the NCAA Tournament.
Over the last five years, McCoy has been Director of Wrestling and head coach of the Lehigh Valley Athletic Club, where he was responsible for conducting clinics, promoting the sport and fundraising. McCoy also has served on Athlete Advisory committees for USA Wrestling and the U.S. Olympic Committee.
Before arriving at Lehigh, McCoy was an assistant at Penn State for three seasons, when the Nittany Lions posted two fourth-place finishes at the NCAA Tournament and produced 10 All-Americans and two NCAA champions.
McCoy was a member of U.S. Olympic teams last year in Athens, Greece, where he finished seventh, and in 2000 in Sydney, Australia, placing fifth.
McCoy won his fifth consecutive U.S. National Freestyle title in 2004 with a dominating performance. He won five straight matches and defeated Steve Mocco, the 2003 NCAA champion from Blair Academy, 3-0 in the final. That victory sent McCoy to the finals of the Olympic Trials, where he defeated Tolly Thompson 5-3 and 8-0 to earn the right to represent his country again in Athens.
At Penn State, he accumulated an impressive 150-18 overall record and won NCAA heavyweight championships in 1994 and ’97. He won three Big Ten Conference titles and won 131 of his last 132 matches at Penn State, including an 88-match winning streak.
He was named the Penn State Athlete of the Year and the Nittany Lions’ Wrestler of the Year in 1994 and 1997.
At Stanford, McCoy will be able to continue with many of the things he worked on at Lehigh, including coaching athletes who happen to be gifted students.
“Coming from a great academic school like Lehigh, “McCoy said, “I understand the importance of time management and the rigorous academic demands placed on the students outside the classroom.
“I’ll try not to look behind, but to look ahead to the great opportunity and challenge before me.”
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