Coleman Scott Returns as Cowboy Wrestling Associate Head Coach
STILLWATER – Coleman Scott is joining the Oklahoma State wrestling staff as associate head coach, head coach John Smith announced today.
Scott spent the last eight years as head coach at North Carolina and comes off a 2023 campaign in which he led the Tar Heels to a 12th-place national finish, UNC's best since 1995, and coached Austin O'Connor to his second NCAA individual championship.
Scott guided UNC to top-20 national finishes in each of his final five seasons for the most successful five-year run at North Carolina since 1986-90. He coached 13 Tar Heel All-Americans and nine ACC individual champions and led O'Connor to become just the second multiple-time NCAA individual champion in UNC wrestling history.
During Scott's eight years as head coach, North Carolina compiled a 75-49 overall dual record that included a 23-17 mark in the ACC.
As an Oklahoma State wrestler, Scott earned a spot as one of only 15 four-time All-Americans in program history and was a 2008 NCAA individual champion. He was part of OSU national championship teams in 2005 and 2006 and was the Outstanding Wrestler as a freshman at the 2005 Big 12 Championships.
"Coming back to Oklahoma State and having the opportunity to serve Coach Smith and this program means the world to me," Scott said. "I'll be forever grateful to North Carolina for believing in me at such an early stage of my career but I'm a Cowboy at heart and when the opportunity to return came up, I had to take it."
Scott originally came to OSU as one of the top recruits in the nation after winning both the Dave Schultz High School Excellence Award and the Junior Wade Schalles Award as a senior at Waynesburg Central High School in Pennsylvania.
He went on to become a four-time member of the United States Freestyle World Team and won bronze at the 2012 London Olympics.
After the Olympics, Scott broke into coaching with two years as a volunteer assistant at OSU before getting a full-time assistant position at North Carolina for the 2014-15 season. After one year as a UNC assistant, he was elevated to head coach.
He and his wife Jessica have three children: daughter Leighton and sons Stetson and Cash.
"Coleman is a champion and one of the brightest young coaching minds in our sport," Smith said. "Success has followed him wherever he's gone, and we're excited to have him and his family back home with us at Oklahoma State."