In late December of 2022, The Evergreen State College introduced their first Men and Women’s wrestling teams. Along with the newly installed team also came new coaches Fan Zhang, head coach of the Women’s team, and Greg Ford, head coach of the Men’s team. Both Zhang and Ford share a longstanding career in wrestling, beginning in their youth; Zhang began at 8 years old, following family tradition, and would acquire 7 national championships in each division he wrestled in while in China. He eventually went on to wrestle for China’s national wrestling team for a decade before retiring in 2004. Afterwards, in 2006, his career in coaching began, training other wrestlers to compete for China’s national team until 2008, when he moved to the U.S. He eventually became a coach for the women’s wrestling team at Grays Harbor College in Washington, earning 2 national championships. Before he was able to make another successful venture as a coach in California, plans were unfortunately disrupted by the Coronavirus pandemic, leading to his recent recruitment here at Evergreen this past December. What brought Zhang to Evergreen was not only his career as a coach, but also his personal pursuit of bringing more awareness to women’s wrestling, bringing to fruition a women’s wrestling program that is offered to students from states that do not have a women’s wrestling team for any college in their area. While he aims for athletic success for the team, Zhang also wants his wrestlers to not lose sight of their academic success. “We want to build the students not just a successful wrestling career, we want them to achieve more academic goals too.”
For Coach Greg Ford, his athletic skills spanned over many fields, but found most success through wrestling, going on to win national championships and even competing internationally. He would later take on the role of head coach of his high school wrestling team, being able to earn a state title with his students. As far as what brought him to Evergreen, he feels that the college “has always been a very unique school with endless opportunities given the platform to work.” What makes this upcoming team exciting to both Coach Zhang and Coach Ford is that, not only is this the first intercollegiate sport coming to Evergreen, but this addition favors student athletes as well, with Evergreen becoming the first college in Washington state to be a 4 year college that offers wrestling as a sport. Coach Zhang and Coach Ford hold the same passion to lead their teams to championship wins and to build towards winning a national championship in the future.
Zeb Hoffman, assistant director of Evegreen’s athletic department and head coach of the track and field team, elaborated on Evergreen’s decision as to why the college specifically chose wrestling as a new sport to bring in, “Our department had been annihilated by the pandemic, and budget cuts, and the idea of adding another team, or two teams, and more students to serve when the track and field team were really underdeveloped, it’d typically make sense to me.” He also emphasized being a representative for the student athletes, a role that he felt was overshadowed during his time at the college being a student athlete. “I remember being a student athlete here and feeling pretty underrepresented, and so part of my job is to advocate for student athletes, and I feel that student athletics bring a lot to the table, so it was kind of this perfect opportunity to bring in wrestling.” While bringing in this sport helps benefit student athletes who are already enrolled, and students out of state who wish to continue wrestling during their college years, it also provides a wider opportunity for students in-state who are closer to Evergreen. Evergreen’s placement in the Southwest side of Washington, which is the more rural side of the state, and wrestling usually tending to be “very popular in rural communities”, as Hoffman explained, provides more opportunity for student enrollment. This benefits students’ ability to stay in state instead of having to go out of state to gain both academic and athletic success, and benefits their families as well, allowing them to show up and support students at nearby matches. Hoffman also explained that this helps the school gain a better reputation as an athletic school, adding that, “Evergreen will always be the funky liberal arts college in the woods, that’ll never change. I just want us to be the funky liberal arts college in the woods with a solid athletic program that the South Sound can be proud of.”
The Evergreen State College Wrestling season begins in October of 2023.
