Pat Popolizio to North Carolina State University

Original article posted by John Hartrick, BU Sports Info.


NSCU Press Release

VESTAL, N.Y. – Binghamton head wrestling coach Pat Popolizio has taken a position as the head coach at North Carolina State, both universities announced today. Popolizio, who spent six years building the Bearcats wrestling team into a top-20 program, will head to Raleigh and begin his new position with the ACC-member Wolfpack.

Binghamton will start an immediate national search for his successor.

“We wish Pat well in his new position,” Director of Athletics Patrick Elliott said. “He’s done an outstanding job here, building our program into one of the premier wrestling programs in the country. I want to thank him for his hard work and commitment to our student-athletes over the past six years.”

Popolizio’s tenure was capped with an outstanding 2011-12 season which ended with his second CAA Coach of the Year honors in the last three years.  His 2011-12 squad went 15-4 to set a program record for win percentage (78.9%), earned the highest national rank in its Division I tenure (18th), finished as CAA runnerup by the slimmest of margins and then showed its prowess at the NCAA Championship. In St. Louis, BU’s five national qualifiers produced 18 wins and crowned two All-Americans.

Popolizio, 81-53 in his six seasons as head coach, churned out 21 NCAA qualifiers and four All-Americans. The 14th-place national finish was the highest of any sport in Binghamton’s 11-year Division I tenure and the highest NCAA finish for a CAA wrestling program in the last five years.

“The last six years have been some of the most exciting and memorable of my career,” Popolizio said. “Binghamton is a special place, not only the administration and student-athletes but the alumni. I’m very thankful for the opportunity to help build the program at Binghamton and appreciate all the support that everyone has given. I’m also excited for the future of college wrestling and for the future for Binghamton. I know big things will happen with this program and I wish them all the success.”

North Carolina State placed fourth at the ACC Championship this past March and sent five individuals to the NCAA Championship, crowning one All-American.

D1 College Wrestling CAA Awards

D1CW did its own conference awards for 2011-2012 and here is how things shook out in the CAA:


2011-12 D1CW CAA Wrestler of the Year: Donnie Vinson (Binghamton) One of the biggest breakout stars of the 2012 NCAA Championships was Binghamton's Donnie Vinson who lost his first round match the proceeded to battle back through the consolations winning seven consecutive bouts to finish in third place. That feat has only happened four times in the last 14 years. It's not as if Vinson came out of nowhere either. He entered the tournament with a 33-4 record and held the #4 seed. In addition to getting onto the All-American podium for the first time, Vinson also won his first CAA Title after finishing as a runner-up his Freshman and Sophomore seasons. 


2011-12 D1CW CAA Coach of the Year: Rob Anspach (Hofstra) In his first season as the Head Coach for Hofstra Rob Anspach crowned for individual CAA Champions and sent six wrestlers to compete at the NCAA Championships. Two of them, Steve Bonanno and Justin Accordino were All-American's placing 8th and 6th respectively. Accordino, a Senior who missed most of two seasons due to injuries, was an unseeded wrestler who made the Semi-Finals at 149. Hofstra placed 23 overall at the NCAA Championships.


2011-12 D1CW CAA Freshman of the Year: Nick Gwiazdowski (Binghamton) Nick Gwiazdowski entered his collegiate career at Binghamton as the top 285lb recruit and did not disappoint. As a true Freshman, Nick won the CAA Championship prior to placing 8th at the NCAA's. Gwiazdowski lost his opening round match to eventual NCAA Champion Tony Nelson before winning five matches in a row to earn All-American honors. Overall in his rookie season, Nick won 30 matches against only nine losses.

Flo Interview with Coach Beasley

Watch more video of 2012 FloNationals on flowrestling.org

BEARCATS SWEEP 2012 CAA AWARDS

Original News Release from the CAA: 

Binghamton Sweeps 2011-12 CAA Wrestling Awards

NORFOLK, VA—Donnie Vinson of Binghamton University has been named the Colonial Athletic Association Wrestler of the Year in a vote by the CAA coaches. Teammate Nick Gwiazdowski was named the CAA Rookie of the Year and Binghamton head coach Pat Popolizio was named the CAA Coach of the Year.

Vinson, the CAA Championships’ Most Outstanding Wrestler, finished third at the NCAA Championships in his 149 pound weight class to earn All-America honors.

Gwiazdowski, the CAA Champion as the second seed, placed eighth at Nationals in the 285 pound weight class to also earn All-America honors.

As a team, Binghamton placed 14^th.

The CAA All-Freshman team featured four members of the Rider University team, 133 Jimmy Morris, 141 Vinny Fava, 184 Clint Morrison and 197 Donald McNeil.

Other members of the CAA All-Freshman team were 125 Vince Rodriguez of George Mason, 149 Pete Baldwin of Old Dominion, 165 Mitchell Wightman of Boston University and 174 Caleb Wallace of Binghamton.

Week in Review

Last week, we took off from practice as a built in recovery phase .  This is our spring break week here at BU and will also have this week off.  Last week the guys lifted three times but had no practice.  This week is completely an off week from training.  A lot of little nagging injuries through the season can heal up for some of the guys over this recovery phase.  Next week, we will start our training back up with wrestling practice followed by a lift everyday at 9AM.  Our coaching staff was at the NHSCA High School Nationals and FloNationals this past weekend.  Several of the incoming recruits did very well.  I am not allowed to comment on most of the recruits specifically yet (per NCAA rules) but when we are allowed to, I will release more information on them.  Also, in August and September, we will do a featured freshman segment to introduce all of the new team members.  What I will say is that we had multiple incoming recruits that reached All-American honors at these events.