Mount Saint Vincent to Add Wrestling in 2012
The College of Mount Saint Vincent in Riverdale, NY, will be adding NCAA Division III wrestling for the 2012-2013 season. The school recently announced the hiring of former NYU wrestler and Hunter College assistant coach Ryan Cooley to get the program off the ground. Cooley is also a Program Manager for the Beat the Streets program in New York City. See the link and press release below.
Riverdale, N.Y. – College of Mount Saint Vincent Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students Dr. Dianna Dale has announced that the College will add Men’s Wrestling as its 15th varsity sport for the 2012-13 academic year and has named Ryan Cooley the program’s first head coach. Cooley wrestled for four years at New York University and spent two seasons as an assistant coach at Hunter College.
Cooley served as a team captain as a senior with the Violets and used his talent and wrestling experience with the program at Hunter starting in the fall of 2008. While at Hunter, Cooley assisted with the day-to-day running of the program, including recruiting, scheduling, fundraising and academic support.
On the competition side, Cooley mentored one national qualifier and one student-athlete who advanced to the NCAA Tournament in 2009 and was named the City University of New York Athletic Conference Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
Cooley also has served as a Program Manager at Beat the Streets Wrestling since the spring of 2007. In this capacity he has developed a coach’s education program for middle school coaches and has helped the New York City Public School Athletic League add 24 new wrestling programs from 2008-10.
Mount Saint Vincent’s first head coach also built the Gotham United and Gladiator Wrestling Clubs while with Beat the Streets and also helped organize the organization’s annual gala which raised $900,000 in 2010.
Cooley also added to his resume the first competitive middle school wrestling league in New York City and has seen it grow from 16 teams in 2008 to 36 in 2010. He has also maintained the company’s website since 2009 and has implemented an academic support program for all athletes involved with Beat the Streets.
Men’s Wrestling will become the 15th varsity program at Mount Saint Vincent and will be the eighth men’s sport sponsored by the school. It will join Men’s Swimming as one of the newest programs after swimming was added for the 2010-11 academic year.
Cooley, who graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics from NYU in 2007, currently resides in Brooklyn, N.Y.