Scott Goodale coaching at the NCAA Championships (Photo/Tony Rotundo, WrestlersAreWarriors.com)PISCATAWAY, N.J. -- Rutgers University and reigning NCAA Tournament Coach of the Year Scott Goodale have come to terms on a contract extension that will keep the head wrestling coach matside at the RAC through the 2023-24 season.
The winningest coach in school history with 173 career dual victories "On the Banks" since his appointment in 2007, Goodale led the Scarlet Knights to their first ever Top-10 finish at the national tournament this past season, which included the program's first individual national champions in Nick Suriano and Anthony Ashnault.
"Scott has been relentless since his arrival 'On the Banks' in pursuing excellence for our wrestling program," said Director of Athletics Pat Hobbs. "Last year was a special year on our path to national prominence and this extension ensures that we will have Scott's leadership here long into the future."
"It's a privilege to be the head wrestling coach at Rutgers and there's no place I'd rather be," Goodale said. "My family and I have dedicated the last twelve years of our lives to this University and community. We always believed that you could win at Rutgers and I've been blessed to have assistant coaches and staff who could see the vision before it was reality. Wrestling is a sport that teaches you so many lessons, it rewards effort and resilience. I'm lucky to have coached some of the toughest, hard nose kids who always accepted the challenge to wear the Block R. Their accomplishments give the next group of wrestlers a standard to live up to and we will never let the bar drop!
"I'd like to thank Pat Hobbs and his staff for believing in this program and giving us all the resources we need to reach our goals. There is so much excitement surrounding not only our wrestling program, but our entire athletic department, and I look forward to coaching at the RAC in front of the best fans in the country for years to come."
During Goodale's 12-year tenure, RU has produced two individual national champions, 10 All-Americans in the past six seasons, multiple All-Americans at the last four NCAA Championships, and since 2009, have earned two Top-10 finishes and eight Top-25 finishes in the USA Today/NWCA Division I Coaches Poll.
Rutgers has also produced five individual conference champions (four Big Ten, one EIWA), 70 NCAA Championship qualifiers, 27 Big Ten Conference Championships placewinners and an impressive 173-68-1 dual record over the past 12 seasons.
Home attendance for wrestling under Goodale is also amongst the nation's best. The Scarlet Knights finished fifth nationally in average attendance for the 2018-19 season with 5,038 fans per home dual. In total, a record 40,306 fans watched RU wrestle in Piscataway this past season.
It was the fourth consecutive season the Scarlet Knights finished within the Top 5 in home attendance, as the team sold a program-record 3,022 season ticket packages for this year's campaign - the fourth-straight year it sold the most season tickets in its history.
Thanks to Goodale's success, Rutgers Athletics continues to invest in the wrestling program. The new RWJBarnabas Health Athletic Performance Center opened earlier this month, which is the new home for the program. The state-of-the-art facility on the Livingston Campus features three regulation practice mats, a 30-person team locker room as well as offices for coaches and support staff.
RU returns four national qualifiers this season, including Matthew Correnti, Joseph Grello, Peter Lipari, Jordan Pagano. The Scarlet Knights also feature an incoming 2019 freshman class ranked No. 4 in the country by FloWrestling. The group includes three 2019 NJSIAA state champions - Sammy Alvarez, JoJo Aragona, Robert Kanniard - as well as highly-regarded prospects Gerard Angelo, Devon Britton, Jackson Turley and Ryan Vulakh.
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