Garett Kiley elevated to Head Assistant Wrestling Coach at Northern Colorado

Graphic courtesy of University of Northern Colorado Athletic Communications.

GREELEY, Colo. – Head Wrestling Coach Troy Nickerson elevated Garett Kiley to the position of Head Assistant Wrestling Coach after his strong first two seasons working with Northern Colorado. He has made an impact in three key components of coaching: training, recruiting and academics. Over the past two years, Kiley's helped send eight wrestlers to the NCAA Championships, sign a top five ranked recruiting class and have five NWCA Scholar All-Americans.
"Coach Kiley has grown to become an integral part of our wrestling program and his abilities have proven to be superior," Nickerson said. "He is committed to being with us for the long haul and is very deserving of the title change. I look forward to him continuing to push me and the program to new heights."
In his first season at UNC, Kiley coached up three Bears to the NCAA Championships in Rico Montoya, Chris Sandoval and Jacob Seely. He assisted in the recruiting efforts of a top five ranked recruiting class that included Andrew "Boo" Alirez and Mosha Schwartz who would go on a qualify for the NCAA's their freshman season. Two Bears earned NWCA Scholar All-America status in Montoya and Seeley. Montana was also the Big 12 Wrestling Scholar-Athlete of the Year and a CoSIDA Academic All-American.
Kiley helped raise the bar for the program in 2019-20 as UNC qualified five wrestlers to compete in the NCAA Championships before the COVID-19 pandemic canceled it. Three of the five wrestlers who qualified earned NWCA All-America honorable mention honors in Mosha Schwartz, Andrew Alirez and Dalton Robertson. He played a key role in the transformation of Robertson from wrestling at 174 lbs when Kiley arrived at UNC to qualifying at heavyweight two seasons later.
That trio automatically qualified for the NCAA Championships and was a big part of the Bear best-ever finish at the Southern Scuffle. Three Bears earned NWCA Scholar All-America status in 2019-20 in Jacob Seely, Alan Clothier and Jace Koelzer.