Jason Peters (left) at the 2016 NCAAs (Photo/Tony Rotundo, WrestlersAreWarriors.com) Hours after the University of Pittsburgh announced midday Thursday that Jason Peters was no longer head wrestling coach, details have been revealed as to why the coach is no longer affiliated with the school.
"On the morning of January 13, the Pitt athletic department became aware of an incident that took place during the wrestling team's trip to Illinois for a competition on December 29-30," Pitt athletics spokesman E.J. Borghetti told WTAE-TV, the ABC affiliate in Pittsburgh. "An investigation was immediately launched and, while the details of that process will remain private, the university was compelled by its findings to make a change in the program's leadership."
The Pitt Panthers competed at the 2016 Ken Kraft Midlands Classic at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. just outside Chicago on those dates.
Both WTAE and The Pitt News student newspaper reported essentially the same story -- with slight differences in details -- concerning the incident.
The Pitt News reported late Thursday that Evanston Police Department Commander Joe Dugan shared details of an incident report from Dec. 31, stating that a 911 call came in from someone inside the Hilton Garden Inn at about 2:30 a.m. According to an employee at the hotel's front desk, the Pitt wrestling team was staying at this hotel at the time.
The report went on to state that a 22-year-old man, who police said was not cooperative, told them a friend had been robbed.
That 19-year-old friend told officers that three women had stolen $100 from him, but he did not want to press charges.
A third man, also 19, told investigators the group had contacted the women through the internet on Backpage.com, but did it as a joke.
The men told investigators they were in town from Pennsylvania for a wrestling tournament. The police report did not include the names of the men. No one was arrested.
Now that Peters is no longer at the helm, assistant head coaches Matt Kocher and Drew Headlee will act as co-head coaches for the remainder of the 2017 season, according to a Thursday Pitt press release. Jason Peters' biography has been removed from the official Pitt wrestling website.
Peters had been the head coach since 2013, when he took over for long-time coach Rande Stottlemyer. He served under Stottlemyer as an assistant coach for 10 years, including nine as his top assistant.
Prior to Pitt, Peters spent four years as head assistant wrestling coach at Princeton University, as well as one season as an assistant coach at his alma mater, East Stroudsburg University in Pennsylvania.
Under Peters, Pitt had compiled a 7-2 overall record so far this season, and was currently ranked No. 23 in the nation by InterMat.
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