“I am extremely pleased to announce that Lee Miracle has accepted the position of head women’s wrestling coach at Campbellsville University. His experience in the sport, and his numerous contacts, should help him build a championship team in a short period of time,” said Rusty Hollingsworth, CU athletics director.
Miracle first caught wind of the addition of a women’s wrestling program at CU while coaching the All-Navy Team at the Military World Championships last winter, and inquired about the job.
“Starting a women’s program from scratch is a wonderful opportunity, and I’m blessed to have it. I get to build it the way I want, and I get to recruit the student-athletes that I want, and I think we’ll be successful in a fairly short period,” Miracle said.
“The university sold itself just on the people. I’ve coached every level from club teams to all-star teams to the All-Navy Wrestling Team, but being a part of a women’s program has always been a big goal, so I’m excited … One of the biggest things about Campbellsville is the support of the administration. This is one of the rare places where I feel there is complete support for a program.”
Miracle began his recruiting search immediately, gaining a verbal commitment for 2014 from his daughter Kayla, a junior at Culver Academy (Ind.), and has several “high-caliber” student-athletes already expressing interest in the program. Kayla Miracle is a 2012 silver medalist at the World Championships and became the first female wrestler to compete in the Indiana State Championships in 2012.
“My phone has been blowing up,” Miracle said. “In my limited experience, if you can get a girl to come here on a visit, then that girl is going to come here and come to school. I loved it, and my daughter loved it. To quote Kayla, ‘I couldn’t find one thing wrong with the school,’ and she was looking.”
Miracle’s first recruiting trip will be March 28-31 at the USA Wrestling Women’s Folk Style Nationals in Oklahoma City.
His goal is to have a roster of 15 to 20 student-athletes for the 2013-2014 season, and hopes to plan to grow the roster to at least 25 members in 2014-15.
A Navy veteran of more than 20 years, Miracle has also spent the last 20 years coaching wrestling at all levels. He joined the USA Women’s World Team in 2011 as a volunteer coach for the team’s trip to the world championships in Hungary and became assistant coach for the 2012 championships in Azerbaijan.
He also coached both freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling as head coach of the All-Navy Team since 2011, a team that features active Sailors within the Navy to compete at the Armed Forces tournament and Military World Championships.
Wrestling runs in the Miracle family. A native of Sidney, Ohio, Miracle wrestled one year at Heidelberg College before joining the Navy. In addition to Kayla, his oldest son, Shawn, is a wrestler at Army, while his two youngest, Hope (10) and Cale (8), also are active youth wrestlers.
In addition to his national coaching work, Miracle has also worked to begin youth organizations in Indiana and Washington D.C., most recently with the Hoosier Elite Academy in Bloomington, Ind.
Campbellsville University women’s wrestling will become the university’s 25th intercollegiate sports program and will compete in the Women’s Collegiate Wrestling Association beginning in 2013-14.
Campbellsville University is a widely acclaimed Kentucky-based Christian university with more than 3,600 students offering 63 undergraduate options, 17 master’s degrees, five postgraduate areas and eight pre-professional programs.
CU athletics competes in the Mid-South Conference of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) and the National Christian College Athletic Association (NCCAA). CU is an NAIA Champions of Character Five Star Institution.
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