2009-10 Coaching Staff
 

Drew Black - Head Wrestling Coach

(860) 685-2907 - dblack@wesleyan.edu

      Drew Black enters his 12th year at the helm of Wesleyan wrestling in 2009-10 as an adjunct associate professor. Drew also serves as strength and conditioning coach as well as fitness center coordinator at the college. He is certified through both the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) and USA Weightlifting as a Level I club coach.
    Drew served as president of the NEWA coaches association for five years and is a six-year veteran board member of the National Wrestling Coaches Association. In addition he is Connecticut's national team director with USAWCT for freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling.
A 1992 graduate of Syracuse University (Syracuse, N.Y.) who went on to earn his Master's degree at Kent St. University (Kent, Ohio) in 1994, Drew Black took over as head wrestling coach and strength and conditioning coach at Wesleyan in 1998-99. A four-year varsity wrestler for the Orangemen and a team co-captain as a senior, Drew was a two-time runner-up at the N.Y. state collegiate wrestling championships, seventh-place finisher at the 1991 Midlands Tournament and a fifth-place finisher in the E.I.W.A. Tournament in 1992.
     Before coming to Wesleyan, Drew was the head wrestling coach, fitness center coordinator and strength and conditioning coach at Phoenix (AZ) College. There he directed his squad to a no. 6 National Junior College Athletic Association (N.J.C.A.A.) ranking and an 11-3 dual-match record in 1997-98. One of his grapplers won a national title while another finished third.
     Prior to enrolling at Syracuse, Drew was a 1987 state champion at 108 pounds while a senior at Mahwah (N.J.) High School. He also placed third in the state his junior year.
     Drew directed the Wesleyan wrestling team to its winningest season in history in 2001-02 with a 17-2 mark and six winning seasons over the past nine years with a 93-69-2 cumulative mark over that span. Wesleyan has sent a representative to the NCAA Division III Tournament three of the last four years, most recently sending NEWA 125-pound champion Dan Bloom and 174-pound runner-up Greg Hurd in 2009.  Drew is looking to have a consistent winning program by attracting quality student-athletes who have a solid commitment to both academics and wrestling. Year in and year out, the Wesleyan wrestling team competes nationally for wrestling and academic recognition. The team has earned scholar All-America status in eight of the last nine years (2001, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009).
     Drew and his wife Jennifer reside in Middletown with their two children, a son Sean (10) and a daughter Leah (5).
 
Joe Gaboury - Assistant Coach
 
    Joe Gaboury, a 1997 graduate of Springfield College, returns as Drew's assistant coach for a seventh year during the 2009-10 season. He had served as an assistant coach from 1999 through 2005 before taking a four-year hiatus to serve as head coach at Rocky Hill (CT) High School.  A two-time New England College Conference Wrestling Association (now the NEWA) champion at the heavyweight division, Joe earned All-America honors at the NCAA Division III championships in 1998. Joe also received scholar all-America honors from the National Wrestling Coaches Assocation three times during his tenure at Springfield. Joe received his M.S. in industrial organization psychology from Springfield in 2000 and is employed as a report writer for Conning & Co., an asset management firm. In 2007 , Joe was inducted into the NEWA Hall of Fame for his outstanding collegiate career.
 
Gary Solomon - Assistant Coach
 
 
Steve Bilheimer - Assistant Coach