Cowley County Community College choose Head Coach

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Vest to coach new Cowley College wrestling program

Mark Palmer
Mark Palmer, InterMat Senior Writer
3/15/2017
mark@intermatwrestle.com, Twitter: @MatWriter

Beau Vest, who built a new wrestling program at Midland University in Nebraska, will take on that challenge all over again ... this time at Cowley College, the Kansas-based community college announced Tuesday.

Beau VestVest launched the Midland wrestling program in 2010, leading the Warriors to an eighth-place finish at the NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics) Wrestling Championships in that first season. In seven seasons at the Fremont, Neb. school, Vest coached two wrestlers to individual national titles.

Prior to coaching at Midland, Vest served as head wrestling coach at Topeka High School in Topeka, Kan., for six years where he coached 11 state medalists, three state finalists and two state champions. He was also a member of the Team Kansas Cadet Freestyle/Greco National Coaching staff.

Vest seeks to replicate that success at Midland with the new program at Cowley, which will take to the mat for the first time this fall.

"We want to be as competitive as possible right off the bat," Vest said. "We want to bring in tough, quality kids that will set a good foundation for year two of the recruiting class."

"I chose to come to Cowley because of the history of wrestling in that area, my ties to Kansas and Oklahoma, and the potential to do something special here," Vest added.

Vest wrestled at Topeka High, then at Missouri Valley College, where he was a four-time NAIA Wrestling All-American, three-time National Finalist and 1996 National Champion at 118 pounds. He also attended Oklahoma State University.

"I have got a lot of connections in that part of the state and am proud to have grown up wrestling in Kansas," Vest said. "I have always known about the great wrestling high school and kids clubs programs in Arkansas City [home to Cowley College] and hope to be able to expand that to the college level."

Cowley College athletic director Shane Larson is happy to have found a coach with experience that will benefit the launch of the new program at the two-year Kansas school.

"Beau has competed at the highest level at every institution he has been at and the fact he was interested in starting a wrestling program at Cowley goes to show the potential there is," Larson said.

"We are excited to finally have this process done," Larson added. "Beau Vest has a great resume and is the perfect person to lead the program."

As InterMat reported in October 2016, Cowley College officially announced it would be starting a new wrestling program in the fall of 2017, after having launched a feasibility study in January 2016 which pointed out the popularity of wrestling in southern Kansas which would help attract high school wrestlers to the college.

Located in Arkansas City, Kansas just south of Wichita, Cowley County Community College got its start in 1922 as the Arkansas City Junior College. For the first 30 years of its existence, the school was located in the basement of the Arkansas City High School. The school gained its own campus in 1950, and was renamed Cowley County Community College and Vocational-Technical School in 1965. According to the school's website, Cowley has approximately 5,000 students.