Shannyn Gillespie is back on the college scene, says Lakeland is “an untouched diamond”
PLYMOUTH, Wis. – – Shannyn Gillespie has returned to the helm of a college women’s wrestling program—this time at NCAA DIII Lakeland University. When it comes to recent new hires for women’s wrestling programs, Coach Shannyn may arguably have the most tenured history in the sport as a coach on the women’s side.
That tenure includes an 8-year role, from 2004-2012, as the head women’s coach at the United States Olympic Education Center at Northern Michigan University. The USOEC program had a mix of college and high school age wrestlers on scholarship.
Coach Shannyn will leverage all of his experience coming back. “I feel like there’s a lot of things that could be done on the women’s side in college coaching, and I think I was able to do some of those things very early on,” he said. One of those things is international exposure. “We traveled all over the world with the USOEC and we were a collegiate team for the most part, and those high school kids traveled with us . . . you have international and cultural exchanges all the time at every age group, but I don’t see that so much on the women’s side since the USOEC disbanded.”
Some of the wrestlers from the USOEC program still actively compete and coach today—Jenna Burkert and Erin Golston wrestle on the senior level; Carlene Sluberski, Brandy Green, Dany DeAnda and Allene Somera all coach at the collegiate level.
But when the USOEC dropped scholarships for the women’s program in 2012 the wrestlers spread out to programs across the U.S. and Canada, and the best decision for the Gillespie family was the move back to Illinois. Because of the travel and mobility for college coaches, Shannyn said the deal with his wife as they left Marquette was that when their daughters went to college, he could go back to coaching college as well. He’s a year ahead of that arrangement with only one daughter in college, but the proximity from Plymouth to his wife and youngest, a senior in high school, is enough to allow for a year of flexibility.
The Lakeland women’s wrestling program has seen early individual success. Wisconsin native Jayden Laurent won the 155-pound bracket at the 2019 Women’s Collegiate Wrestling Championships and placed runner-up at the WCWA’s, and inaugural NCWWC, in 2020. Teammate and fellow Wisconsinite Maddie Ruckdashel was another NCWWC All-American for the Muskies in 2020, placing 6th.
“Lakeland is an opportunity that is an untouched diamond,” said Coach Shannyn. “Until you shape that diamond up it doesn’t look like a diamond, but it’s still a diamond . . . you chisel away, and you get the facets right and now it’s shining, and I believe that’s the case with Lakeland.”
Coach Shannyn noted communication—listening and tone—as a huge part of coaching and education. He’s been in contact with the team virtually and is looking to build team chemistry and culture from the start. “Getting to know the athlete is the most important thing,” he said. “Once they get to know you, and you get to know them, they can understand what the goals are and that goes back and forth, and then you can start to develop the buy-in. Without the buy in I think you’re always skating on thin ice because you haven’t built any rapport or trust.” He’s looking to build that through “communication, bonding exercises and through things that aren’t necessarily x’s and o’s in wrestling, but they’re as big a part of team building as anything.”
Lakeland, now one of four, was the first collegiate women’s wrestling program in Wisconsin. But early program highlights aside, it’s been a rocky situation with turnover on the coaching staff. “I don’t think it’s an anomaly in women’s programs for there to be high turnover in the beginning of this whole collegiate scene with women’s wrestling,” said Shannyn. “A lot of women’s wrestling coaches have never coached women before, and they’re going through some of the same struggles that I went through in my first two-to-three years . . . so, anytime a new program comes up you may see a wavy pattern in terms of turnover.”
The other two areas Coach Shannyn pointed out have actually been remedied by his hiring—a standalone head coach for the women’s program, and someone dedicated to the mastery of freestyle wrestling. He said, “When you have a dedicated coach just for the women’s team that makes it a much better scenario.”
The most interesting thing about Coach Shannyn outside of wrestling? He’s self-proclaimed crazy. But in a good way. “I’m crazy about the sport, I’m crazy about teaching, I’m crazy about coaching, I’m crazy about development and I’m crazy about getting women the opportunity to have the same opportunities that I had and more because everybody isn’t,” he said. “Outside of wrestling too. I spend so much time reading and studying and trying to figure out how the mind works—if I wasn’t coaching wrestling, who knows, maybe I wouldn’t be so crazy.”
As a long-time champion for women’s wrestling, he says “Women deserve the same opportunity as men, right now. Not tomorrow. Not next week. Not next year. Today, right now. If more states can actually sanction girls wrestling state tournaments, we will add to the population of wrestlers. Whatever we do in the States the world kinda looks at it. So not only will we be helping ourselves grow the sport, but we’ll be helping the world grow the sport.”
Since 2012, Shannyn coached at Overtime School of Wrestling, Lincoln College and, most recently, at Homewood-Flossmoor High School for three consecutive seasons.
Fans can follow along with the Lakeland women’s wrestling program on Instagram and on the Muskie’s home page.
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