"We're grateful for Coach Mance's years of service to Appalachian as a student-athlete and coach and wish him nothing but the best in his future endeavors," ASU director of athletics Charlie Cobb said. "We are very excited about Coach Bentley taking the reins of the program and look forward to him leading us to more championships in the future."
Bentley arrived at Appalachian in 2006 after spending three years as the head coach at nearby Watauga High School. In his final season with the Pioneers, he led the squad to a third-place finish in the North Carolina state championship and coached three individual state champions. He began his coaching career as an assistant at Davidson in 2002-03.
Bentley was a three-time Atlantic Coast Conference champion wrestler at North Carolina from 1997-2001. He was the ACC Wrestler of the Year as a senior and a University Nationals freestyle all-American as a junior. He graduated from UNC with a bachelor's degree in communications in 2001.
Under Mance's direction, ASU won eight Southern Conference championships, the last coming in 2003.
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