Historic Season for Itasca Wrestling

Itasca Community College wrestling team had a historic season this winter. The program had the highest retention/eligibility rate in the country from the first semester to the second going 20 for 20 with STUDENT-athletes on the wrestling team. They had the highest team GPA in program history. Additionally, they had the highest number of community service hours which is at 700 and counting. Athletically, the Vikings had a program history high of 8 national qualifiers of the 10 entrants into the national qualifying tournament. At the national tournament head wrestling coach, Joe Umlauf was recognized as the National Coach of the Year for all the program's success and the turnaround the program has had since coach Umlauf took over as head coach.

Coach Umlauf and the wrestling program have a unique coaching philosophy that is built on what he calls the three pillars of success. Coach Umlauf's coaching philosophy is called "Creating Champions of Life". The three pillars for success are academic, athletic, and social life. Coach Umlauf stresses the importance of the individuals' development in all three of the areas (academic, athletic, and social life) by applying skills to all three areas, such as; work ethic, honesty, communication, having high morals/ ethics, etc. At the end of the day, Coach Umlauf believes in athletics not being the be all end all, "the athletic accolades are always fun and exciting, but the personal growth and development for a lifetime of success and happiness is the most important part".

Coach Umlauf's background was that he was born and raised in Wausau, WI where he was a stand-out wrestler winning national and state titles on his way to being a highly sought-after division one recruit. Umlauf went onto North Dakota State University where his athletic career was hindered by numerous injuries teaching him at an early point that athletics will come to an end at some point. Umlauf went on to get two degrees while at North Dakota State University, Bachelor's degrees in Physical Education and Health Education with a minor in psychology and a coaching certification. He also got his personal training license in nutrition consulting and strength & conditioning training. This summer, Coach Umlauf will be finishing up his master's degree from the University of Florida in Sport Management with an emphasis on high-performance training & administration which he will look to continue to propel his career. For work experience, Coach Umlauf has been coaching all levels from youth through college for over 10 years, been a freelance personal trainer for 3 years, was a schoolteacher for 3 years, and worked as an at-risk adolescent trauma counselor for a year in college. Currently, Coach Umlauf works at the college full time as a STEM outreach coordinator, as well as his athletic duties.