Eric Juergens (Photo/Steve WoltmannEric Juergens, head wrestling coach at Augustana College, announced Wednesday he will be stepping down from the position he's held for a decade at the Rock Island, Ill. NCAA Division III school to spend more time with his young family.
"I've always talked about wanting to be there when they started to become involved in sports and other activities," Juergens, a two-time NCAA Division I champ at University of Iowa and father of a three-year-old and a six-year-old, told the Quad City Times. "I didn't want to find myself in the situation where I had to choose between going out recruiting or going to one of my kids' activities."
"This was a hard decision," Juergens said. "I love the sport of wrestling and enjoy helping young men develop both on and off the mat. However, we have two young children and my wife and I thought it best to step away from the day-to-day duties of running a top-flight college wrestling program. "
"I'm beyond grateful for my experience at Augustana," said Juergens, a native of nearby Maquoketa, Iowa. "It was a lot of fun taking this program to the point where we are a perennially solid team that is a contender in the conference and in the region every year."
"The time just felt right," the long-time Vikings coach added. "We have everybody coming back. On paper, next year's team has a chance to be the best team I would have ever coached at Augustana. I've always wanted to leave this program in a good place for the next guy.''
In the official announcement of Juergens' departure, the man who has coached the Vikings since 2007 -- first as an interim head coach for one season, then in an official capacity since 2008 -- said has an interest in staying involved with the program in some capacity.
"I plan on staying committed to helping student-athletes in the program as much as I can but in a different role," he said. "I always told our wrestlers that our program was a family and things come and go and life changes but our family is always there for us."
"Eric has done a tremendous job leading the Augustana wrestling program the last 10 years," said Director of Athletics Mike Zapolski. "We are grateful for his dedicated effort to build our level of competitiveness and roster size. Eric's intensity and work ethic has become an important part of the program's culture and he leaves this team in an outstanding position to make continued improvement."
The Augustana wrestling program made significant strides with Juergens at the helm.
In his first three seasons, the Vikings compiled an 11-30 dual record and placed no higher than third in the College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin. However, in the past seven seasons, Augustana has finished with a winning dual record and combined for a 67-39 mark.
The Vikings won the CCIW championship in 2014 and have finished second in the conference on three other occasions since 2011, including in this year's CCIW finals.
Juergens coached 13 CCIW individual champions and four NCAA Division III All-Americans during his tenure, including third-place finisher Adarios Jones and seventh-place finisher Christos Giatras during the 2016-17 season as the Vikings finished 17th at the NCAA Division III Wrestling Championships.
Eric Juergens' on-the-mat career was impressive. At Maquoketa High, he was a four-time Iowa state champion, compiling a perfect 144-0 record. As an Iowa Hawkeye, Juergens won NCAA titles in 2000 and 2001, and was a four-time NCAA All-American. As a senior, he was named team captain, and was voted the school's Male Athlete of the Year.
Juergens started his collegiate coaching career at Iowa's Loras College as a volunteer assistant coach for two seasons, then came to Augustana as a volunteer assistant coach in 2006. He is also owner of the Young Guns Wrestling Club.
Augustana, a private four-year college with approximately 2,500 students located in Rock Island, Ill. (one of the Quad Cities on either side of the Mississippi River), has already launched its search for a new head coach.
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