Frostburg State Adds Men's and Women's Wrestling, Women's Rugby

Frostburg State University recently announced the addition of two new sports, women's wrestling and women's rugby, as well as the return of men's wrestling.

"We are excited to be able to continue the university's commitment to growing opportunities that create greater equity across our department and intercollegiate athletics overall,” said Frostburg State Director of Athletics Troy Dell. "We have truly enjoyed the process of supporting the NCAA Emerging Sports program through the addition of Acrobatics & Tumbling. Women's Rugby gives us the opportunity to continue our support of female student-athletes on our campus. The alignment of the addition of Women's Rugby with the 50th Anniversary of Title IX makes this announcement even more special for our university."

Jeff Horton will serve as the Bobcats' first women’s rugby coach. Horton comes from Division III Guilford College, where he led the Quakers for a year. Before coaching at Guilford, Horton was the head coach of the women’s rugby team at Division I Youngstown State. He also was the head women’s rugby coach at Kent State from 2009 to 2017. He was named the Director of Rugby for the University during that time.

"I am beyond excited to embrace the challenge of building the women's rugby program at Frostburg State.", said Horton. "The University's commitment to investing in the development of NCAA Emerging Sports is truly admirable and I am humbled to be part of the process. This University has a rich history of being a high-performing academic and athletic institution. Because of this, I am confident in our ability to build a successful and sustainable rugby program for many years to come." 

Breonnah Neal will be the first head coach of the new women's wrestling program. She comes to Frostburg after two successful years at Gannon University. The Golden Knights finished the season 10th overall as a team at the NCWWC National Championship. In just two seasons, Neal coached 17 national qualifiers, 8 All-Americans and 16 Scholar All-Americans. Before taking over at Gannon, Neal made her firs stop as a head coach at Ferrum College. Under her direction, the Panthers had their first female wrestler named an All-American.

"I want to thank Troy Dell and the search committee for choosing me as the first Head Women's Wrestling Coach for Frostburg STate Unviersity," said Neal. "I'm excited for this new venture and what will come from it."

Josh Hutchens will lead Frostburg State’s men’s wrestling program. Hutchens has a vast amount of coaching experience, with his most recent being a seven-year stint as the head coach at Division II Ashland University. He led this team to a record of 58-38, and he also had three NCAA Division II individual national champions. Before coaching at Ashland, he coached at Division II Colorado School of Mines and Division I James Madison.

On being hired, Hutchens stated, "I want to thank Troy Dell, (Assistant Athletic Director for Engagement) Nicole Higgins, and the hiring committee for selecting me to be Frostburg's Head Men's Wrestling Coach.  I also want to thank all of the coaches and staff that took the time to meet with me during my interview.  Throughout the interview process, it became clear to me that the culture at FSU matched my philosophy and that I wanted to be part of this community."

The Bobcats originally added a men's wrestling program in the 1962-1963 season. Currently the Mountain East Conference has seven member institutions with men's wrestling. FSU will join Alderson Broaddus as the second MEC school to add women's wrestling. There are currently 23 NCAA Division II schools that offer women's wrestling.

The addition of the women’s rugby team now raises the number of sponsored sports at FSU to 25. The men's and women’s wrestling season, as well as the women’s rugby season, will begin in the Fall of 2023.

The last sport Frostburg State added was acrobatics & tumbling in 2019. Since adding A&T it has grown from an NCAA emerging sport with 30 teams competing to having the 46^th institution announce the addition of the sport earlier this year.