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Past Leadership Academy Participants

  • 2009 Coaches

  • 2010 Mentors

  • 2011 FCA Academy Coaches

  • 2010 Coaches

  • 2011 Mentors

  • 2011 Coaches

  • 2011 FCA Academy Mentors

How the NWCA Leadership Academy Began

In 2009, the NWCA Board of Directors allocated approximately $850,000 into the development and delivery of an innovative CEO leadership Training Academy (Academy) to the college coaching community.   These funds were contributed by a handful of extraordinary business leaders with wrestling backgrounds.  The purpose of the Academy is to ensure the following:

  • Help head and assistant college coaches strengthen their CEO skills (fund raising, marketing, communication, time management/organization, conflict resolution, ethics, sportsmanship, etc.) so they can better entrench their programs.
  •  Strengthen the alignment of our intercollegiate wrestling programs with educational values (improving eligibility, retention, and graduation rates of student wrestlers)
  • Hold our intercollegiate coaches accountable to meeting pre-determined program standards in areas including but not limited to:  graduation rates, alumni participation, community relations, athletic success, social responsibility, fund raising, spectator support at competitions, relationship with administrators, safety, etc.

The Academy offers all coaches the opportunity to participate in a 360 Evaluation, program assessment exercise, and 10 online educational modules.  Upon completion of these pre-requisites, all expenses are paid for the coaches to attend an in-person workshop where a professional facilitator and mentor-coaches help them to customize the general concepts learned in the pre-requisites to meet their unique needs on the respective campuses.  Upon completion of the Academy, each coach is assigned to a mentor (seasoned veteran coach/athletic director) so they can receive ongoing guidance.    

There has never been a more important time for ALL coaches to complete the Academy when you consider the following:

  • There are only 77 NCAA D-I wrestling programs remaining (down from approximately 180 in the early 1970s)
  • The current NCAA minimum sport sponsorship policy only requires an institution to have 6 men’s sports and 8 women’s sports.  Because there is little incentive for athletic departments to sponsor a broad based program,  only the strongest Olympic sports programs will survive future cuts.
  • There are enough factors beyond the coaches control (i.e. lack of conference affiliation, Title IX compliance, lack of facilities, etc.) that can doom a program so it is more important than ever to make sure coaches have a firm grasp on all of the factors they do have control over (academic performance, community service, relationship with administrators, alumni support, safety of athletes, compliance with rules, etc.).  

The NWCA commands the absolute belief that completion of this comprehensive program should eventually be a condition for employment and we are now working with the various governing bodies to work in the direction. In fact, a growing number of assistant coaches who have completed the Academy over the past two years have already landed head coaching positions (i.e. some examples of DI coaches are Teague Moore/American University, Matt Acevedo/Drexel, Glen Lanham/Duke, and Jason Borelli/Stanford).  

The NWCA has already begun the development of the “Program Revitalization” phase of the NWCA CEO Leadership Academy.  Upon completion of the Academy, the NWCA identifies the coaches at the most underfunded programs and helps them to build a corporate team of advisors around the program.  This pilot initiative has already proven to be extremely successful and plans are under way to expand the program to include many more vulnerable teams.   Simply stated, the NWCA in partnership with our college coaches, is committed to transforming coaching from an occupation to a profession.

Growing wrestling together,

Mike Moyer   

Executive Director

NWCA

 

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