2023-24 Dual Record: 8-7 overall, 3-5 GPAC (6th); 5th at GPAC tournament
2024 NAIA National Championships finish: T-35th
Head Coach: Josh Watts (1st season; spent 13 seasons as head coach at Iowa Western CC)
Key Returners: 141 Creighton Baughman; 165 Barret Brandt; 197 Mason Garcia; 174 Garret Moser; 285 Cy Renney; 184 Hunter Weimer; 125 Grant Wells; 165 Tommy Wentz.
Key Losses: 149 TJ Allen; 125 Bryson Bussinger; 174 Stephen Duffy; 149 Jeaven Scdoris.
2024 GPAC All-Conference: Creighton Baughman (Second Team); Tommy Wentz (Second Team); Mason Garcia (Honorable Mention).
Outlook
It’s been an offseason of transition for Concordia University, Nebraska Wrestling, which welcomes the 13th head coach in program history. The athletic department announced Josh Watts as the new leader back in July. Watts brings a strong reputation with him following 13 successful years at the helm of the wrestling program at Iowa Western Community College, where he mentored previous Bulldog head coach Chase Clasen.
Watts now takes the baton from Clasen (head coach for two seasons) in continuing to build up a program that won GPAC dual and tournament championships as recently as 2020. Many pieces are in place for Watts to be able to hit the ground running.
“It’s a new challenge,” Watts said. “I spent a total of 17 years in junior college with Darton College (Ga.) and Iowa Western. The new challenge is exciting. The development for a longer period of time is also exciting. The game might be played different from what I was doing the past couple of years with recruiting and so forth. It’s a highly competitive division. There are some nuances to it that are a little bit different but all in all, it’s wrestling. There’s a circle and a mat and you shake hands and you go.”
The program brings back each of its three national qualifiers from last season – Creighton Baughman, Mason Garcia and Tommy Wentz – from a team that placed fifth at the 2024 GPAC tournament. A former All-American at Iowa Western, Baughman has the opportunity to reunite with Watts. Baughman is one of the leaders in a room that has been infused with new faces. The 2024-25 roster features nine freshmen and seven transfers. Baughman is one of six former Reivers on the roster.
The new arrivals have added buzz to the program. Three of the transfers appeared in the GPAC’s preseason ratings within their respective weight classes: Hagen Heistand (second at 157), Cole Price (fifth at 165) and Collin Schwartzkopf (fifth at 197). Heistand transferred from NCAA Division I Campbell University, where he won a combined 29 matches in two seasons. The mix of Concordia veterans and newcomers has made for a unique dynamic during preseason preparation.
Says the Arroyo Grande, Calif., native Garcia of the additions, “They’re studs. They’re really good. They’re really cool guys and they fit our team dynamic really well. It’s been a smooth transition, which seems like it wouldn’t be when you’re moving almost a whole other team in here, but it was. We clicked right away.”
A two-time NAIA national qualifier at 141 pounds, Baughman has claimed 58 combined wins over two seasons as a Bulldog. He opens the season ranked No. 1 in the GPAC and 10th nationally in his weight class. After getting a taste of the national stage, Garcia (No. 17 in the NAIA at 285) and Wentz (No. 18 in the NAIA at 165) also landed in the preseason national rankings. Garcia has been moved up a weight class from 197 to 285. As just a freshman last season, Barret Brandt (174) broke the program record for pins in a single season (24) and narrowly missed out on a trip to the national tournament. Meanwhile, Grant Wells (133) won 20 matches as a sophomore. In the GPAC ratings, Brandt sits No. 5 at 174 and Wells landed at No. 6 at 133.
Others who appeared in the 2024-25 preseason GPAC ratings include freshman Gabe Lujan (fifth at 125), senior Brent Ward (sixth at 157) and senior Hunter Weimer (third at 184). Seven of the 12 Bulldogs who represented the team at the ’24 GPAC tournament have returned while Concordia graduated seniors such as TJ Allen (149), Jeaven Scdoris (157), Stephen Duffy (174) and CJ Laabs (285). Despite those departures, Watt likes what he has seen since he took on the head coaching role.
“They’re hungry to learn,” Watts said. “They really want to get better at wrestling and really want to learn wrestling. We’re doing quite a bit of teaching. They seem to be really receptive to it. They want to be good and their willingness to work hard has been impressive. This is my first time taking over an existing team. My previous two stops I created teams from scratch, so it’s a little bit of a different dynamic for me, but I’m really happy with the roster we have and the character we have on the roster.”
As Garcia prepares for life as a heavyweight (with fewer eating restrictions), he says the adjustment process with a new head coach has been mostly seamless. When hired, Watts immediately moved to tab former Iowa Western national champion Isaiah Crosby as his top assistant. “It’s extremely structured,” said Garcia of the fall semester so far. “Everything is planned out. Everything is told to us beforehand. That really helps us mentally prepare to show up and do our best. I really appreciate that.”
Of course, many of the team’s wrestlers were already familiar with how Watts operates. Watts used his connections to help put the final touches on the 2024-25 roster. He quickly went to work recruiting impact transfers late in the summer.
“I wanted to bring in some guys who understood my philosophy,” Watts said. “We brought in Cole Price, who was a redshirt sophomore for me last year at Iowa Western. He’s a two-time All-American. We also brought in Blake Boehmer and Collin Schwartzkopf, guys who have been with me. We also got Hagen Heistand, who is a transfer from Campbell. I worked with him as a little kid. Steve Barnes was previously going to school at Iowa State. He was someone who wrestled in my youth club. I wanted to bring in some guys who understood my philosophy and could help relay what I’m saying to the team.”
In terms of expectations, Watts is letting the team hammer out their own goals. Individually, Garcia doesn’t hesitate when asked – he will do what it takes in an attempt to put himself on the podium come early March. Several of his teammates will have similar aspirations within the context of the team goals. Concordia was placed third in the preseason GPAC team ratings behind Doane and Morningside.
The program’s list of All-Americans has held at 18 in number since Maria Ybarra earned such distinction in 2021. Watts will attempt to grow that number in 2025.
“As far as goal setting, that’s an internal thing with the team,” Watts said. “I’m a big believer in the team sets the goals, not the coaching staff. At the beginning of the year, we divide up into three groups and they set their goals for the year. From that point forward, it’s the coaching staff’s job to hold them accountable to those goals. That usually creates more buy-in from the team if they are the ones setting the expectations. We have our day-to-day expectations, academic expectations and standards that we set. On the competitive side, they set their standards and we hold them accountable to them.”
The 2024-25 campaign is slated to get underway with the Luther Hill Invite hosted by Simpson University (Iowa) on Nov. 2. Dual action will get started on Nov. 6 with a matchup at Midland. In total, the schedule includes seven regular season tournaments. The Bulldogs will host a portion of GPAC Day of Duals No. 1 on Nov. 26. Hastings will serve as the host of the 2025 GPAC Tournament. The complete 2024-25 schedule can be found HERE.