CSC returns to campus with a new sport

Jeffery joins the Eagles coaching staff as head women’s wrestling coach and brings his own coaching and competing experiences from the mat.

Chadron State welcomes a new addition to its athletics’ program, women’s wrestling, and with it comes a new coach. 

Chadron State College announced June 17 that women’s wrestling would be added to its athletics’ program. CSC now sponsors 14 sports, eight of which are women’s sports. 

Following behind that announcement came another, Friday, Aug. 6, to announce the new program’s head coach, Alijah Jeffery. 

“I’ve been here a little over a month and everyone’s been super friendly,” Jeffery said. “All the coaches and staff have been willing to help and show me how things run here. It’s nice to be a part of the Chadron family.” 

The women’s wrestling schedule will be released soon, since they will begin competing this year as a winter sport. 

“This first year, I really want to help establish Chadron State Women’s Wrestling as a family and build the culture,” Jeffery said. “For the years to come, this will really be a staple for women’s wrestling, especially in the region.” 

Nebraska currently doesn’t have any other NCAA women’s wrestling programs; the closest program is Colorado Mesa. 

“Giving this region a women’s wrestling program and building it into a program that can compete for top finishes in the nation and produce All-Americans and National champions eventually,” Jeffery said. 

Jeffery has been working to recruit for the program with the short time frame he was given, with the start of the season being this year. 

“Recruiting has been different than anything I’ve ever had to do before,” Jeffery said. “It’s been a challenge, but it’s been a great and fun challenge.” 

The wrestlers he has been searching for are athletes that can establish themselves as leaders in their first year, that can be the face of the program and that can be the leaders that the incoming freshman can look up to for the following years. 

“It’ll be a small team, but we’ll be ready to go to some opens, compete across the country and really show what we can do in year one,” Jeffery said. 

Jeffery had two years of experience as an assistant coach for both the women’s and men’s wrestling program at Indian Hills Community College in Centerville, Iowa. There, he coached three individual national champions and 12 All-Americans in the 2020-21 women’s wrestling season. 

“I think it’s very apparent that women’s wrestling is growing rapidly,” Jeffery said. “For so long, girls had to wrestle against the boys; that was really the only option. Now, girls get the opportunity to wrestle in their own division and compete for state championships and national championships.” 

Before his coaching careers, he competed collegiately at NCAA Division I Northern Illinois University and remained on the starting lineup all four years. 

At Linn-Mar High School in Marion, Iowa, he wrestled and won a state championship at 120 pounds in 2014, and he finished third, third and fifth in his other three high school seasons. 

He was also a USA Folkstyle national champion and a Fargo Freestyle Nationals All-American. 

“It’s so important for wrestling in general to accept girls and women wrestling,” Jeffery said. “Just for college athletics, it really shows what the sport is growing into and what the next steps are.”