Steven Swinson coached wrestling at Lawrence Central High School for 20 years before taking his position at Manchester as head coach.
Photo by MU Athletics
New Wrestling Coach Steven Swinson Praises Team, Hopes for Success
Gavin Gleason
After the result of a 5-11 season in 2019-20, the 2021-22 Manchester University wrestling team made a few changes for the foreseeable future years, starting with this year’s new head coach, Steven Swinson. Previously a high school wrestling coach for 20 years at Lawrence Central High School, Swinson has been introduced to a fairly young team with only five seniors out of the 26 teammates.
Swinson said that the transition to being the head coach at Manchester was in fact a very smooth and easy adjustment. He is especially impressed with two seniors—Josh Stephenson and Elijah Philips—and he is very excited to see what this season holds in regards to their production to the team. The guys have been good about leadership, pushing each other in practice, having accountability, cutting weight, and relying on the guys to do their stuff.
Tonight the Spartans go to Wabash, who is number one in the conference, to turn around Saturday to go to Trine. Justin Brantley a 125-pound first year, is looking forward to the season. “The team looks good this year and very strong the season should good to compete with the guys,” he said.
There is a lot of good chemistry between the wrestlers. Further, the upper classmen have been taking charge in practice: being strong together, pushing everyone to make weight and get better at practice every day.