Men's Wrestling

Jason Kutz
Jason Kutz

Jason Kutz ’96 returns to his alma mater as head coach of the Lehigh Valley Athletic Club, a position which allows the former EIWA Champion to serve as a volunteer assistant coach for the Mountain Hawks. Kutz coached at Lehigh for three seasons, before serving as head coach at East Stroudsburg University for the 2006-07 season. He returns to the Lehigh Valley and to the LVAC with hopes of making a run at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

 

In his three years coaching at Lehigh, Kutz mentored the Mountain Hawks’ lightweights, including Cory Cooperman ’06, who became a three-time All-American under his guidance. Lehigh won three EIWA team titles and posted three top ten NCAA finishes with Kutz on Greg Strobel’s staff.

 

Kutz placed second in the 2003 U.S. World Team Trials and retired from competition following the 2004 trials.  He was ranked as high as second in the USA senior freestyle rankings as 132 lbs as recently as April 3, 2002, while competing for the U.S. Army team in Fort Carson, Colorado.  Kutz held a rank of staff-sergeant in the Army and in August 2003 won a gold medal in freestyle at the World Military Wrestling Championships. He placed second in 2000.

 

In 2002 he placed third in the U.S. Team Trials and was sixth in 2001. At the U.S. Senior National Open he placed sixth in 2003, to go along with a third place finish in 2001 and sixth in 2000.  He finished first and second in the Dave Schultz Memorial International the past two years and came in second in the Henri Deglane Challenge in France.

 

As a Lehigh student Kutz had an impressive career, going 46-8 over his last two years.  He was captain his senior season, finishing with a 33-1 record and winning an EIWA title at 126 lbs. His efforts earned him a sixth seed at the NCAA, and his only loss was to a four-time All-American who was a member of the Japanese national team. That loss snapped a 24-bout dual meet win streak dating back to his sophomore year, one of the top such streaks in Lehigh history.

 

Kutz and his wife Christen reside in the Lehigh Valley with their daughters Payton and Emerson.