In Search of Olympic Gold

PC wrestler and Hall of Fame coach are making history

In less than three minutes the Blue Hose opened the match with wins by Cassandra Lopez, Jaslynn

Gallegos and Rita Morales. Templeton was filled with fans, media and the flashes from photographers’ lenses for the wrestling dual.

It was a Saturday of firsts.

PC is the first Division I program to sponsor women’s wrestling, and the inaugural home opener last December introduced many in the campus community to the fastpaced, high-action sport.

Though they split the home opener against opponents Limestone College and Life University – defeating Limestone but falling short in a tight battle against Life – Lopez, Gallegos, Morales and 11 other top studentathletes recruited from across the state and country, are making history on the mats in Templeton.

Under the direction of great coaches and a mission to pursue excellence in the sport, the sky is truly the limit for the inaugural class of wrestlers. This 2019-2020 season two Blue Hose, Jaslynn Gallegos and Morgan Norris, earned national championships in Marietta, Ga., at the WCWA National Tournament and will advance to the US Olympic Team trials in April.

Before PC, Gallegos, a freshman, was the first female athlete to place at a boy’s state meet in Colorado. Norris, a freshman out of Nevada, was a six-time All-American, 2018 Women’s National Champion and eighth-place winner at USMC Fargo National.

Overall, a total of five women wrestlers from PC have been selected as All-American Wrestlers.

‘We Are Pioneers’

Lopez, now a NCAA Division I All-American wrestler, was a two-time Wrestling Triple Crown winner in Maryland before becoming the first woman to sign a

scholarship to wrestle at the Division I level in 2018.

She was also a three-time Maryland State Champion and Maryland Public Secondary Schools High School Female State Champion.

“We are pioneers for the sport,” Lopez said of the team. “It feels amazing to know that you are part of the start of a big movement coming to the sport of wrestling.”

Women’s wrestling is one of the fastestgrowing sports at the scholastic and collegiate levels, according to the National Wrestling Coaches Association. The association’s statistics state the number of women who wrestle in high school has grown from 804 to 21,124 (as of 2019), and more than 70 colleges now sponsor a varsity wrestling program.

Growth at the youth and club levels has rolled over to high school and led to quality athletes being recruited by college coaches, according to PC's Director of Wrestling Mark Cody.

Cody leads the women with coaches Dany and Tony DeAnda. The former head coach at the University of Oklahoma, whose career also includes time at Oklahoma State, Nebraska and American, joined PC two years ago to direct the women’s and men’s programs.

“We’re bringing in good people, and that’s our top priority,” Cody said. “I’ve been able to put up national championship stats. A lot of teams have taken home trophies, but they were always really, really good people.”

Learning from the Best

Cody spent six seasons as the head wrestling coach at Oklahoma and led the Sooners to four top-13 finishes, including a 10th place finish in 2014. Under his leadership, the Sooners produced 10 AllAmericans and three national finalists, including two National Champions.

Off the mat, student-athletes there also earned academic honors and served the community. It’s the type of studentathlete that Cody believes can thrive at PC.

The coaches say their athletes are attracted to PC because they value its academics and family community.

“A lot of our female athletes are looking for a closeknit, smaller school, but then they get that Division I experience as well, so I think that’s really unique,” Head Women’s Coach Dany DeAnda said.

Dany, of Kailua, Hawaii, grew up wrestling and started coaching in 2008. She most recently was assistant coach at the University of Providence in Great Falls, Mont., where she helped build the women’s wrestling program.

At PC, she’s been preparing athletes for transitions at the college level. For some, that includes time adjusting after coming from high schools without sanctioned girls’ programs — differences she says are overcome with time on the mat.

Head Men’s Coach Tony DeAnda, originally hailing from South Sioux City, Neb., assists her with the women. He also brings an extensive wrestling background and has coached since 1996, starting with high school wrestling. The two have coached together since 2011.

Men’s Wrestling Returns

Back on the floor in Templeton, Blue Hose fans rallied again in early January for the men’s first home opener. The team returns after more than 60 years, last being active in the 1950s. The program accepted an invitation to join the Southern Conference in 2017 as an associate member beginning this academic year.

“It means a lot to resurrect the men’s program, and you have to give a lot of credit to our administration and our president here,” Tony said. “You’ve got to give a lot of credit to the National Wrestling Coaching Association. It can not only be historical on the women’s front, but it can be historical as maybe starting a new trend on the men’s side. This is important for the sport of wrestling across the board.”

The men’s team started with 22 studentathletes this year and has been working toward a full lineup after some early injuries. Going into 2020, they’ll meet a lot of the top 10 teams in the country.

“We think they’re ready,” Cody said. “I think we’re doing things right. We have several multiple-time state champions on the team. Wrestling is very competitive at this level.”

He doesn’t go without praising the PC administration, either, including new Director of Athletics Rob Acunto, with whom he shares a connection from American.

As eyes look to the program, he’s focused on it being the premier in the country.

“I want this to be a place where men and women wrestlers come, and they’re athletes that everyone on this campus can relate to and everyone around the country can relate to,” Cody said.

“We want a student who’s going to walk out there on the mat and destroy whoever they’re wrestling, and we want them to come off and be kind, considerate people who do well academically and people whom everyone can relate to. That’s what we’re really trying to push here. Those are the best teams that I’ve ever been involved with.”