Brendan Buckley"We wish Brendan the best in his future endeavors," said Oberhelman. "During his five years at Cal Poly, he has changed the culture of the program for the better and the academic side of the program is as good as anyone else in the country."
During his five seasons with the Mustangs, Buckley guided eight wrestlers to the NCAA Division I National Championships. Boris Novachkov placed third at 141 pounds while Ryan DesRoches was eighth at 174 pounds, both in the 2012 national meet.
Buckley also mentored a pair of Pac-12 champions -- Dominic Kastl at 165 pounds in 2012 and Devon Lotito at 133 pounds in 2013 -- and four runners-up. In addition, both Kastl and Lotito were named Pac-12 freshmen of the year.
"I want to thank Don Oberhelman for the opportunity coach the Cal Poly wrestling program and to President Armstrong for the opportunity to work at this remarkable university," said Buckley. "Both of these men were terrific allies and incredibly supportive.
"In addition, I want to thank our alumni that I was fortunate to work with and build relationships with over the last five seasons," Buckley added. "While I am indeed going to miss the many great young men on this team as well as Coaches (Scotti) Sentes and (Mike) Evans, I look forward to being an ardent supporter of the Mustangs and will enjoy watching them taking many teams by surprise next year when we return the entire roster (including many stellar freshmen).
"Lastly, I fully intend to continue working on finishing this recruiting class and working with my team until I depart for New York in five weeks," Buckley said.
Buckley's first recruiting class at Cal Poly was ranked in the top 25 by two publications. In addition, the Mustang wrestling program raised over $100,000 in private donations each year Buckley was head coach.
Oberhelman said a national search for Buckley's successor will begin immediately, adding that he will attend the NCAA Division I National Championships next week at Madison Square Garden in New York.
"I will be meeting with members of the wrestling community and to meet candidates and identify our next leader while in New York," Oberhelman said.
It was Buckley who brought outdoor wrestling to Cal Poly. Three highly successful dual meets were held in the University Union plaza over the last three years, capped by a 23-15 victory over Boise State in February.
Buckley was head wrestling coach at Ivy League member Columbia University in New York for 11 seasons before he was named Cal Poly's head wrestling coach on June 21, 2011.
Buckley's accomplishments at Columbia include five years of nationally ranked recruiting classes, 20 NCAA qualifiers and a school-record eight EIWA placewinners in the 2006-07 season. He was named EIWA Coach of the Year in 2005 and received the Bob Bubb Coaching Excellence Award for NCAA Division I in 2011.
In the last six years under Buckley's guidance, Columbia earned 26 All-Ivy League selections, 16 NCAA qualifiers and the program's first All-American in 23 years. Matt Palmer finished eighth in the 2005 and 2007 NCAA Championships at 165 and 174 pounds, respectively, and the Lions were ranked in the top 25 in 2007. In the 2008-09 season, Buckley coached Columbia's first EIWA champion in 13 years.
Off the mat, Columbia shined in the classroom as well, ranking third nationally with a 3.2917 team cumulative grade-point average. The Lions were named to the National Wrestling Coaches Association Academic Team each year under Buckley's guidance and ranked in the top 10 in five of those 11 years.
While at Columbia, Buckley raised funds to create three endowments totaling $3.25 million.
Buckley was the top assistant coach at Virginia from 1998 to 2000 and was the chief assistant coach at UC Davis as well as at Sacramento City College in the late 1990s. Buckley coached three all-Americans, one an NCAA finalist, at Virginia and the Cavaliers twice finished in the top 25 at the NCAA Championships.
Originally from Long Island, Buckley was a high school All-American and Florida state champion at 135 pounds for Lake Howell High and then starred at Clemson, where he made the freshman All-American team his first year and reached the NCAA Round of 16 as a 142-pound sophomore.
When Clemson dropped wrestling after the 1994-95 season, Buckley transferred to Fresno State, where he was a Western Athletic Conference champion and earned All-America status with a seventh-place finish at the NCAA Championship at 142 pounds in 1997.
Buckley graduated from Fresno State in 1997 with a bachelor's degree in speech communication and completed his master's degree in sports management at Columbia.
Beat the Streets is a non-profit program whose mission is to expand wrestling in America's urban centers, helping at-risk kids through discipline and structure while developing wrestling from youth through the Olympic level. Goal of the program is to provide opportunities for boys and girls in the activity of wrestling, building lifelong skills.
Over 200 programs have been developed in 18 major cities across America, beginning in New York. Los Angeles and San Francisco are recent additions to the list of cities currently offering Beat the Streets program.
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