Anyone who is a student at NW knows that NW’s athletics department is excellent, but what many students may not know is that they have recently added one more team to the impressive roster.
NW is widely known for is their standout athletics program. They have 23 varsity teams between men’s sports, women’s sports, combined sports, and the e-sports teams. These teams consistently excel at what they do, both as scholars and as athletes.
This year, one more team has been added to the list: women’s wrestling.
The sport isn’t just new at NW, however, because, as of last year, GPAC added women’s wrestling as an official competitive sport.
After GPAC added women’s wrestling to their sports roster, NW became the 7th college to add a team to their list. This year they hired Luis Rivera-Santiago as the new head coach, and he stated that he thinks that this team was merely a matter of time after the GPAC finally added women’s wrestling to their competing teams.
Coach Luis Rivera-Santiago was named the head coach for this team after serving as an assistant coach for the men’s team for nine years. Coach Rivera-Santiago expressed his excitement saying “I have always wanted to run my own program someday and now I get that opportunity.”
Currently Rivera-Santiago is the only coach, but he is looking to expand the program as it grows. Coach Jake Hergott, the head coach of the Sioux Center High School girls wrestling team, plans to help out on a volunteer basis where his schedule allows. Additionally, Rivera-Santiago is looking for an assistant coach for next year.
While NW has added women’s wrestling, the team itself does not start competing until next school year. This year they are focused mainly on recruiting and building a team that will be prepared to compete for their first full season. Presently, they have two freshmen training for next year, Julieanna Thomas, and Kinsley Johnston, and they are working on recruiting more!
Furthermore they are absolutely open to recruits that didn’t wrestle in high school. In fact, one of the two freshmen on the team this year, Kinsley Johnston, hadn’t wrestled before, and Rivera-Santiago states that she is making excellent progress, and will likely be competitive in her first year. “Women’s wrestling is growing at a crazy pace and I want to help that growth even if it means giving someone who has never wrestled before an opportunity to learn. However, I will hold them to the same standard as all my wrestlers who do have experience.” Coach Rivera-Santiago said, “bring a good attitude, give your best effort, and focus on getting better at practice. [] It’s not an easy sport and they’ll be pushed harder than they’ve probably ever been, but it’s also very rewarding.” NW’s newest head coach looks forward to leading his team well.
