How Jeff Breese is rebuilding SRU wrestling program one new wrestling mat and recruit at a time
SLIPPERY ROCK — Seton Hill, Penn State-New Kensington, Northern Illinois, North Carolina State, Buena Vista (Iowa), Lake Erie College and Army.
All of the above have been collegiate wrestling coaching stops in Jeff Breese’s career.
Each had a wrestling team and program in place when he got there.
Slippery Rock did not.
Breese, 42, was hired as SRU’s head coach in the spring. His first day on the job was July 1. His task is to bring back a wrestling program that was eliminated from the school 20 years ago.
SRU’s new wrestling program will return for the 2027-28 season.
“Derek DelPorto was PSAC Coach of the Year and Regional Coach of the Year,” former Rock wrestling coach Steve Roberts said of the program’s final season. “He took seven of his 10 wrestlers to Division I Nationals. Then, it was all gone.
“The alumni have been working on bringing the program back ever since.”
Breese is using that group to his advantage.
“Between the alumni support he’s received and his own passion for the sport ... he’s hit the ground running,” SRU athletic director Roberta Page said.
“I’m a one-man wolfpack right now,” said Breese, who doesn’t plan on hiring any assistant coaches until May. “But I wouldn’t be there if not for them (wrestling alumni organization). That’s where it all starts.”
Breese, Page and Roberts all spoke to the Butler Eagle in July.
John Butch, who wrestled for The Rock in 1968-69, is treasurer of that alumni group and said there are 700 wrestling alumni. The SRU Foundation and alumni raised donations to fund the wrestling program.
“Part of the agreement to bring back the program was for it to be self-sustaining financially for the first three years, then the university would take it from there,” Butch said in July.
The financial needs were met, Roberts said, adding fundraising for NIL, scholarships and assistant coaches is underway.
Now it’s time to construct a program, from the wrestling mats on up.
Breese has ordered mats and other equipment and designed the logo for the singlets. The Rock didn’t have scales as of August, and until the mats arrive they can’t hold fundraising tournaments.
“I have a big vision of where I want to go,” Breese said. “It’s a marathon I’m trying to turn into a sprint.”
While plans are in the works for a wrestling room down the road, the team will first practice “in the pit” at Morrow Field House, Breese said.
“That space produced a number of All-American wrestlers back in the day,” Breese said. “It will be fine.”
SRU wrestling will not return as a Division I program. The Rock will become the ninth wrestling program in the PSAC, in Division II. The conference will comprise half of the team’s 16-match schedule in its debut season.
Breese was a two-time state champion as a McGuffey High School wrestler. He is from Claysville, Washington County, where his family has a farm. He plans to stay at SRU for a while.
“All of my coaching stops have been for two, three, four years. ... I wanted to come home, spend a little time on that farm,” he said. “I want to build a program that is going to last for 100 years.
“If you build something that’s great, why would you leave?”
From that July 1 starting date, Breese hit the road recruiting. He said his prime recruiting area is from Central Ohio to Central Pennsylvania. But he has campus visits scheduled for prospective recruits from California, Illinois, Indiana and Alabama, as well.
He estimates he visited “20 different towns” during his first three weeks on the job.
Breese’s goal is to have 15 incoming freshman wrestlers signed up by November. He figures his initial roster will have 20 to 25 wrestlers.
“I want to build this with freshmen, then look at the portal,” he said. “Being a Division II program will benefit us. We can be competitive quicker. That’s better than being the 72nd-best Division I program and trying to figure out a way to hang with Penn State.”
He’ll scour the WPIAL wrestling scene for recruits and lean on alumni coaching in high school or other colleges.
“If I didn’t believe I could (get WPIAL wrestlers), I wouldn’t have taken this job,” Breese said.
The 2028 NCAA Division II Wrestling Championships are slated for the University of Pittsburgh’s Petersen Events Center.
“My goal is to have at least one national qualifier there, preferably two or three,” Breese said. “It’s imperative. That would be tremendous exposure for us.
“I want us to be a top-10 Division II team within three years. That’s the target.”
Roberts figures that target is realistic.
“Jeff was on the job less than a month, and he’s landed two or three kids already,” he said. “We have the right guy.”
