OWENSBORO, KY – Chris Freije has become the first wrestling coach at Kentucky Wesleyan College as announced by Director of Athletics Rob Mallory on Monday. Freije comes to Wesleyan after a short run at Cloud County Community College in Concordia, Kansas.  Kentucky Wesleyan announced the addition of wrestling, its 19th sport, in October.
 
"We are thrilled to have Chris Freije on board as the first head coach of the Kentucky Wesleyan wrestling program," said a delighted Director of Athletics Rob Mallory.  "As we moved through the search process, we quickly found that Chris possessed all of the traits we were looking for in a coach to start and lead this program. He was an extremely successful Division II scholar-athlete, he has extensive coaching experience both at the Division II level and in this region, and he has built a college program from the ground up. More importantly, his coaching philosophy and character align perfectly with the mission of Kentucky Wesleyan College and Panther Athletics."
 
Freije has been at Cloud County CC since October of 2016, where he was introduced as the program's first head coach. He currently coaches over 20 student-athletes.
 
"I am honored, and beyond excited for the opportunity to lead the wrestling program at Kentucky Wesleyan College," commented Chris Freije. "I want to thank Mr. Rob Mallory, and everyone on the search committee that I had the pleasure to meet while visiting KWC. Having the chance to meet everyone from the Admissions and Student Life staffs, to the coaches, administrators, and personnel within the Athletic Department, to Dr. Dehn and Dr. Armstrong. I felt that the vision for KWC, and the principles of the Wesleyan Way were shared universally. The energy on campus was contagious and somewhere I felt would be a great fit not only for myself, but for the sport of wrestling. I love coaching, mentoring, and wrestling. I think that when you feel that way about your profession, coupled with hard work, positive things happen. It was clear to me that those values were mirrored by all I had the pleasure to meet while on campus with regards to their respective careers."
 
Before starting the program at Cloud County, Freije was an assistant coach at Lindsey Wilson College from 2014-16. He helped designed and implemented a year-round strength program while also coordinating the program's community involvement.  Seven wrestlers from Lindsey Wilson reached the NAIA National Tournament during Freije's tenure
 
From 2010-2014 he worked at Colorado Mesa, a NCAA Division II school in Grand Junction Colorado. He was the program's head recruiter while providing individual instruction and workouts for certain weight classes. Six times in three seasons, wrestlers achieved All-America status while Freije assisted in the development of a National Champion in 2014.
 
"Aside from that, Owensboro is in a region of the country with a lot of nearby wrestling talent," continued Freije. "It is also a region that is hungry for more collegiate wrestling opportunities, especially at the Division II level. I feel strongly that both Owensboro and Kentucky Wesleyan offer something unique that not only student-athletes from the Midwest, but student-athletes from across the country will recognize. I am excited to get to work and start the process of finding well-rounded student-athletes to begin building the tradition of the Kentucky Wesleyan College wrestling program.
 
In his career, Freije has helped coach three conference championship teams (two NCAA II, one NAIA), and eight individual conference champions (six NCAA II, two NAIA). Thus far in his coaching career, Freije has coached a total of 28 national qualifiers, 12 All-Americans and two National Champions between the NCAA Division II and NAIA ranks.
 
On the mat, Freije was the 2004 Arizona Class 5A state champion his senior year in high school at 152 pounds. He wrestled his freshman year at Arizona State University before finishing collegiate career at Western State University, helping the Mountaineers to a RMAC Championship in 2009. Freije won the RMAC Super Region 4 championship and finished as the NCAA DII runner-up at 149 pounds that same season.