Danny Struck of Jeffersonville, Ind. has been named Developmental Coach of the Year by USA Wrestling, the national governing body for amateur wrestling in the United States. The award honors the top coach in the nation working with age-group wrestlers and programs.

Struck has been an active and successful coach for more than a decade with the Indiana State Wrestling Association, USA Wrestling’s state association in Indiana. He has served on the ISWA National Team Coaching Staff for 14 years.

He is a National Coaches Education Program Gold-Level Certified Coach, the highest level of achievement in USA Wrestling’s coaches education program and the only gold-level coach in Indiana.

Struck currently directs Team Jeff, the USA Wrestling club in Jeffersonville, which has been very successful on the state and national levels. The club now has 123 members, and has been recognized as a USA Wrestling Gold Medal Club. It has twice been named Club of the Year in Indiana. Five times, the club has been state Greco-Roman runners-up in the large school division. 

Since Struck has led the club, it has had over 100 state medalists and more than 80 state champions, and has had eight All-Americans at USA Wrestling national events. With his help, there are now over 500 kids from grades K-12 participating in wrestling in his community. In 2005, U.S. Senator Baron Hill honored Team Jeff with a Service Award to the community,

He has been the head wrestling coach for Jeffersonville High School for nine years. His teams have won 254 dual meets, along with four sectional championships and two conference titles.  Struck has mentored 37 individual conference champions, 109 regional qualifiers, 48 semi-state qualifiers and nine state qualifiers. 

Coach Struck served as assistant varsity coach and head middle school coach in Greencastle, Ind. from 1999-2002. The team won its first three sectional titles during his three seasons there. He also started the first USA Wrestling club at the school, and had its first USA Wrestling All-American in Fargo. During his 14 years of scholastic coaching, his teams have won more than 35 team titles, and sent 19 athletes to college on scholarships.

He also spent a year at Doe Creek Middle School in 1999 and one year as assistant coach at the University of Indianapolis in 1998. He mentored four NCAA Div. II qualifiers and one All-American during his season with the Univ. of Indianapolis.

He was a coach with the 2005 U.S. team which competed in the World University Games in Turkey. He has been very active coaching cultural exchange wrestling teams overseas, bringing teams to Canada, Australia, Japan, Turkey, Poland, Mongolia, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, France, Italy and New Zealand.

“I never started wrestling until high school and I didn’t participate with USA Wrestling until my sophomore year. Everything I have done is for the love of wrestling. It is great to see kids develop past what I did as an athlete. If they can reach their goals, it is a success. To be recognized for what you do for kids is awesome,” said Struck. 

This past year, Coach Struck started the Kentucky - Indiana Battle of the Bridge, an All-Star competition featuring athletes from both states. He has run a regional training center for USA Wrestling out of Jefferson High since 2003, which serves athletes in both Indiana and Kentucky.

Struck has been awarded 10 different Coach of the Year honors in the last nine years. These were for his coaching on the state, regional and local levels. One of those honors was the Indiana State Wrestling Association Coach of the Year in 2002.

He is currently serving as Vice President for the Indiana High School Wrestling Coaches Association. He has also served as the NHSCA President for Indiana.

He has been a guest clinician at over 30 wrestling camps including the USA Wrestling Bronze and Copper clinics, the IHSWCA State clinic, and clinics at the University of Indianapolis, Purdue University and Ohio State University.

Coach Struck was a feature writer in the book "USA Wrestling Coaching Guide to Excellence" and gives bronze coaching clinics all over the state to develop new coaches. He is also a certified strength and conditioning coach with Bigger Faster Stronger and USA Weightlifting, and spent nine years as a local football coach at Jeffersonville High and Parkview Middle School.

He attended the University of Indianapolis, where he received a degree in U.S. History and Secondary Education. Struck received his Masters of Secondary Education from Indiana University Southeast.

“We want our team to win the state championships, and we want Indiana to win national titles,” said Struck. “I want to say that my club is part of the Olympic development program. My goal is to one day coach an Olympian. We want to help develop kids on and off the mat. This is the best way to reach kids. I am a teacher. A full education includes academics and athletics.”

Developmental Coach of the Year
1989 - Al Kastl, Michigan 
1990 - Kevin McCleary, Pennsylvania 
1991 - J. D. Robbins, California 
1992 - Tony Jones, Oregon 
1993 - Morrie Geselter, Illinois 
1994 - Jerry Kuntz, Oklahoma 
1995 - Mike Hagerty, Missouri 
1996 - Bob Kopnisky, Indiana 
1997 - John Leone, New York 
1998 - Mike Rial, Iowa 
1999 - Greg Strobel, Pennsylvania 
2000 - John Hohman, Pennsylvania 
2001 - Randy Baker, Minnesota 
2002 - Archie Randall, Oklahoma 
2003 – John Matthews, Arizona
2004 – Sean Bormet, Illinois
2005 – Joe DeMeo, New York
2006 – Russ Cozart, Florida
2007 - Jason Christenson, Iowa
2008 – David Gonzalez, Arizona
2009 – Rick Gumble, New York
2010 – John Grey, Jr., New Jersey
2011 – Danny Struck, Indiana