Ray Named SIUE Wrestling Coach

[admin]

EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. - Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Director of Athletics Dr. Brad Hewitt announced today that David Ray will be the new head coach for the Cougar wrestling program.

Ray began his collegiate career as a wrestler at the University of Iowa and later at Edinboro. 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.

"I received a personal recommendation from former Iowa coach Dan Gable and also from Terry Steiner, the Women's National Coach for USA Wrestling. David earned high praise from both as a coach, but more importantly as a leader and mentor of young men," Hewitt said.

Ray holds a bachelor of liberal arts education from Simpson College in 1990 and a master's degree in exercise science in 1992 from Iowa. He served as an assistant coach at Simpson College and as a graduate assistant under Gable at Iowa.

His wrestlers received Outstanding Wrestler Award six times at the national championships. He also has had a wrestler place at the prestigious Midlands Tournament six times.

Ray was the tournament coordinator and director of the NAIA National Wrestling Tournament in Great Falls, Mont., from 2002-2004. He also served as the president of the NAIA Wrestling Coaches Association from 2001 to 2003.

The head wrestling coach at Montana State-Northern from 1993 to 2005, Ray has a strong history of developing high-caliber student-athletes. He won four NAIA national team titles, including three in a row. In his 12 years at MSU-Northern, Ray helped guide 85 All-Americans and 21 national champions. He was named the NAIA National Coach of the Year in 2004 and has been tabbed the regional coach of the year 10 times.

Ray steps into the spotlight as the head coach at important time in the history of the wrestling program as it transitions to NCAA Division I status. SIUE holds three NCAA Division II national championship trophies and has had more than 100 NCAA Division II All-American certificates as well as 11 NCAA Division I All-American certificates.

"We are very pleased to add a coach of this caliber to our staff. David has demonstrated a strong sense of the value and ideals that are very important at SIUE," said Hewitt. Much credit and gratitude for this hire goes to our search committee which was comprised of two wrestling alumni, a donor and our administrative staff.

[white knight]

I'll have to agree that Ray will be a great coach, but so was the previous coach who left after one year. Until SIUE gets an AD that is honest and truly cares about all of the sports programs, we may see a number of wrestling coaches come and go. I hope that I am wrong, but I have observed Hewitt in action. This is the same AD that has removed the all-american pictures for all sports from the trophy cases. The only pictures are the current athletes that are all-americans. Could part of this be because the wrestlers had as many all americans as all of the other sports combined. I just have a sour taste about Hewitt and how he seems to treat wrestling.

[cdeboflex]

so does this mean that SIUE not having a program was just a rumor? sorry if i'm a little late on this. haven't checked the boards in a while.