Slippery Rock University athletics.

Slippery Rock University athletic director Roberta Page said in December it would be around the spring when the university would name a men’s wrestling head coach, and she stuck to the timeline.

SRU has hired Army director of wrestling development Jeff Breese to lead its program when it resumes competition in 2027-28 as an NCAA Division II program. The Rock’s wrestling team folded in 2006, but the university announced its return in November.

Breese will take over in July.

“I am thrilled to be back home in western Pennsylvania working for an institution that not only sees the value in collegiate wrestling, but is invested in supporting the program at a high level,” Breese said in a news release. “Slippery Rock University wrestling has a strong tradition and an enthusiastic alumni group. I am honored to be the coach chosen to bring back the program that means so much to them and carry it into the future.”

Breese has Western Pennsylvania ties. He grew up in Claysville, Washington County, and won two PIAA championships at McGuffey. He went on to start three years at North Carolina State and won the 2004 ACC title with the Wolfpack. His father, Jeff, is a coach on Washington & Jefferson’s wrestling staff, according to SRU.

Breese has had multiple stops during his coaching journey, including at Seton Hill as an assistant, Penn State-new Kensington as a head coach and Lake Erie College as a head coach.

“We are thrilled to add Jeff as the head coach of our wrestling program,” Page said. “He has proven himself both as a wrestler and a coach at the highest levels of collegiate wrestling and we are excited to see what he brings to the relaunch of Slippery Rock wrestling.”

The Rock will compete in the PSAC once again.

The hire comes a week after SRU named Lisa Horton its first women’s flag football coach.