Former Pennsylvania high school wrestling champion Jeff Breese has been tapped to revive the intercollegiate wrestling program at Penn State New Kensington. This was announced recently by Dave Murray, director of athletics.

Dormant at the campus for 35 years, wrestling becomes the third new sport to be added to the athletics line-up this year by Murray. Wrestling, as well as men's and women's soccer, will begin competition in fall 2010. 

"Jeff's wrestling background and experience with building a program from scratch make him a good fit to head the campus wrestling revival," said Murray, a former soccer coach at Geneva College.

Breese joins the New Kensington campus athletic staff after two seasons as an assistant coach at Seton Hill University where he helped start the Griffins wrestling program in 2006. The two-time Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA) state champion has a coaching pedigree. His father, Jeff Breese Sr., has been coaching wrestling for more than 30 years and is currently the head coach at McGuffey High School in Claysville, Pennsylvania.

"My goal is to develop student-athletes on the mat and off the mat so that they can earn a Penn State degree and move on to successful careers," said Breese, who has twice coached the state's freestyle and Greco-Roman national teams. "Along the way I want our guys to battle every second of every match."

With less than a year to go before the first match, Breese's priorities are generating awareness of the new sport and filling the 11-man roster. He won't have to venture far for talented recruits as the New Kensington campus sits in the heart of wrestling country in southwestern Pennsylvania. Local high schools Burrell and Kiski Area are the hot-bed of wrestling, and have a proven track-record as fertile ground for Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League (WPIAL) wrestling champions, both team and individual.

"I grew up in the WPIAL, know what type of talent there, and can relate to recruits because I went through the same battles not too long ago," said Breese, a resident of Dormont, Pa. "I have a tremendous passion for wrestling, and the opportunity to start a new wrestling program and give local kids another opportunity is a big honor to me."   

The new coach has already brought in several prospective athletes for campus visits. As the high school wrestling season get underway, he will be a familiar face as most local matches and tournaments.

"Recruiting has been excellent thus far, and I tell students and parents that Penn State New Kensington provides an abundance of opportunities, both academically and athletically," Breese said. "As a part of the Penn State system, the campus is rapidly expanding and our athletes have the chance to really be part of something special in the near future."

The addition wrestling and soccer are a part of Murray's expansion of the campus athletics program. Hired in March as the campus' first full-time AD, Murray is poised to build a program that can sustain ten sports and more than 100 student-athletes.

While campus teams compete in the Penn State University Athletic Conference of the United States Collegiate Athletic Association, the wrestling team will align itself with the National Collegiate Wrestling Association.  Wrestling is an emerging sport for the USCAA and only Penn State DuBois offers wrestling in the PSUAC. Home matches will be held in the Athletics Center, home of the basketball and volleyball teams. The athletic director and coach are currently working on the 2010-11 schedule.

Wrestling was a staple of the campus athletic program in the early 1970s. Under the direction of coach Bob Darby, the team competed in the Commonwealth Campus Athletic Conference, the forerunner to the PSUAC. The program was disbanded in 1975. Darby retired in 2006 as athletic director and instructor in kinesiology at the campus.