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Sacred Heart adds new assistant coach, welcomes in 21 new recruits

Will Switzer has been named as the second assistant coach at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield.

FAIRFIELD – Sacred Heart University has added a second assistant coach to the wrestling program. Will Switzer is the newest addition to head coach John Clark’s staff.

Switzer, who wrestled at Lehigh in college, was a top assistant coach at Liberty High School in Bethlehem, Pa., for the past three seasons (2016-19) under legendary head coach Jody Karam.

Karam, 54, adjusted his style in recent years, allowing his assistants to do much of the physical training of the athletes.

In 2018, his Liberty High team went 22-2 and were a top 10 team in Pennsylvania at the 3A level, which includes the largest schools in the state that compete in wrestling. Liberty won the last two Bethlehem Holiday Classic titles and won the 2019 Eastern Pennsylvania Conference.

At Lehigh, Switzer had a career record of 11-12 in three years of action (2013-15). He was 17-8 as a redshirt freshman competing in open tournaments, taking second at the Wilkes (Pennsylvania) Open.

In high school, Switzer was 159-21 at Archbishop Spaulding High in Severna Park, Maryland, where he won a state championship as a junior. He won the National High School Coaches Association’s Sophomore Nationals in 2010 and was fourth and seventh, respectively, as the 2011 and 2010 National Prep School championships.

Sacred Heart, which was 5-7 a year ago, will also be welcoming 21 new wrestlers to the program this fall. Two of the wrestlers are from Connecticut – Wethersfield’s Matt Laurie (125) and New Fairfield’s Hunter Chin (125).

Five wins was the most for the Pioneers since 2003-04 when Sacred Heart had a team-record nine victories. The Pioneers are Connecticut’s lone Division I wrestling program and one of just four collegiate wrestling programs in the state.

Switzer joins the staff that includes Clark and assistant coach Jon Fausey. In college, Fausey wrestled at Virginia where he was an ACC champion in 2012 at 184 pounds. He wrestled in the NCAA tournament four times and was 98-36 on the mat.

Connecticut Wrestling Online has been covering the sport of wrestling in Connecticut and New England since 2001.

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