EMAIL THIS PAGE

Mark Cody   Position: Head Coach Alma Mater: Missouri '84 Experience: 1st Season

American University named Mark Cody Head Coach in July, 2002. The announcement, made by Director of Athletics Tom George, ended a two-month long nationwide search.

Cody replaces Rob Puzio, who resigned his position in April to pursue outside business opportunities.

Cody comes to the American after spending the past two years as an assistant coach at national powerhouse Oklahoma State, a program that has won the most NCAA Championships of any school in the country. As an assistant, Cody helped Oklahoma State to a Big 12 Championship and a fifth-place finish at this year’s NCAA Championships, where the Cowboys crowned an individual national champion and four All-Americans.

In addition to its success on the mat, Oklahoma State was just as proficient in the classroom. The squad earned recognition from the National Wrestling Coaches Association (NWCA) as a Top-25 academic team, and two Cowboys were named Academic All-America by the NWCA. Nine wrestlers were also named to the Academic All-Big 12 team.

Cody joined the Oklahoma State program after 12 years as the upper-weights coach for the University of Nebraska. During his time in Lincoln, he was responsible for bringing in some of the nation’s top recruiting classes. While at Nebraska, Cody coached two Huskers to national titles, heavyweight Tolly Thompson in 1995 and 197-pounder Brad Vering in 2000. Cody also coached 23 Cornhuskers to All-America honors.

“I am very excited for this outstanding opportunity and would like to personally thank President Ladner, Tom George, and Alan Meltzer,” said Cody. “This is a great challenge and I welcome it with open arms. I am extremely impressed with the level of support for the program that I have seen through the interview process.

“We are going to take it one day at a time and begin to build a program that will compete at a high level in the years to come. It is my goal to bring student-athletes to American University that are serious about both their academic and wrestling careers,” he said.

Before joining the Nebraska staff in 1987-88, Cody spent a season in Stillwater, Ok., as an assistant coach at Oklahoma State in 1986-87. He also worked as an assistant at Bloomsburg University in 1985-86 and for the University of Missouri in 1984-85.

Cody helped develop Rulon Gardner, who captured a Greco-Roman gold medal at heavyweight at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, and trained with 2000 Olympic Greco-Roman silver medalist Matt Lindland.

As a student-athlete, Cody was a three-time All-American. He spent two years at the State University of New York at Delhi before transferring to Missouri in 1982. He graduated from Missouri in 1984 with a bachelor of science degree in business. A member of the New York Athletic Club, he was a 198-pound finalist at the 1988 U.S. Olympic Trials.

A native of Binghamton, N.Y., Cody is married to Holly Joy Sano in August. The couple plans to reside in the Washington, D.C., metro area.

In April, American University President Benjamin Ladner announced plans to reinvigorate the wrestling program by making a renewed commitment which included increased support, launching a search for a nationally prominent head coach, and seeking an affiliation with a competitive athletics league for wrestling.

American has applied for admission to the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association (EIWA), the nation’s oldest wrestling conference. Members of the association include prestigious academic institutions such as Army, Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, Lehigh, Navy, Pennsylvania, Princeton, and Rutgers. The Patriot League, AU’s athletics conference, does not sponsor wrestling as an intercollegiate sport.

This past winter, the University made significant upgrades to Bender Arena, AU’s multi-purpose athletics facility which hosts wrestling competitions. Improvements include chair-back seating for 1,600 spectators and a state-of-the-art video display board, making it an ideal wrestling venue.