Coaches

Trent Paulson

RTC Head Coach

Trent Paulson comes to Charlottesville from Ames, Iowa where he served as member of the Iowa State University wrestling staff and the Cyclone Wrestling club in various capacities since 2009. In addition to being one of the most decorated folkstyle wrestlers of his era, Trent spent many years on the senior level freestyle circuit. His vast international experience and relationships around the globe uniquely position the Cavalier Wrestling Club and our senior level athletes for continued success.On the senior level circuit, Paulson focused on the freestyle discipline, where he was a four-time member of the United States National Team, US Open national champion and earned a spot on the 2009 world team. Paulson added several international titles to his resume, winning the 2008 Dave Schultz Open, 2011 Sunkist Open and 2010 NYAC Open. The Council Bluffs, Iowa, native is one of the most decorated wrestlers in Iowa State history, wrestling to a national title, three All-America honors and 116 career victories. Paulson is one of just 11 in Cyclone history to achieve all three milestones in a Cardinal and Gold singlet. Paulson also picked up two Big 12 titles, as well as a pair of titles at the University National Championships in 2005 (Greco) and 2006 (Freestyle). As a coach, Paulson got his start as a volunteer at Nebraska from 2008-09 before joining the Iowa State support staff. He coached the Cyclones for four years before being named the head coach of the Cyclone Wrestling Club in 2012. Paulson worked with the club’s senior-level athletes for a year before making his return to the Iowa State program as one of four former world-team members on staff. Read more

Travis Paulson

RTC Coach

Travis Paulson, a three-time All-American at the NCAA Division I level, is in his first season as an assistant coach with the Virginia wrestling program. Paulson joins the Cavaliers after spending the last eight seasons at his alma mater Iowa State. He served as an assistant coach for the Cyclones from 2009 through 2017 before being named the interim head coach at Iowa State in February after the resignation of then-head coach Kevin Jackson. “Travis has succeeded at every level in this sport,” Garland said. “His accomplishments, both on and off the mat, and as both a coach and competitor, are impressive. But, that’s not the most exciting thing about him. What drew me to Travis was the reputation he has in the wrestling community, especially with his student-athletes.” “I was first interested in the opportunity at Virginia because of Steve Garland and what he represents as a leader,” Paulson said. “I had an opportunity to hear him speak at an FCA event during the NCAA Championships and was blown away. After visiting Charlottesville and seeing what UVA offered academically and athletically, it was an opportunity I could not pass up. I’m excited to get settled and hit the ground running.” In his time at Iowa State, Paulson coached the middleweights and had a key role in the development of several wrestlers for the Cyclones. He served as the individual coach for two NCAA champions in Jon Reader in 2011 and Kyven Gadson in 2015, and helped develop five NCAA champions in his time as an assistant coach. Paulson coached 15 All-Americans with the Cyclones, including coaching All-American Mike Moreno to the biggest turnaround in Iowa State history. Moreno went from a 4-17 record in 2012 to All-America honors in 2013 with a sixth-place finish at the NCAA Championships and a 31-10 record. A tireless recruiter, Paulson brought in the third-ranked recruiting class in 2016 and the second-ranked recruiting class in 2017 at Iowa State. “The young men he has mentored truly love him and believe in him,” Garland said. “That type of impact is what we want in our program. We aren’t just bringing in a world team member who can help our wrestlers technically. We are bringing in a mentor and leader they can look up to. He is someone they will have a relationship with for years to come.” Prior to his coaching position at Iowa State, Paulson spent a season as an assistant coach at Nebraska. During that 2008-09 season, he helped develop four All-Americans and one NCAA Champion in Jordan Burroughs. Paulson also helped coach Nebraska to the Big 12 championship that season and a fourth-place finish at the NCAA Championships. A four-year letterwinner at Iowa State, Paulson redshirted during the 2002-03 season. He was a three-time All-American for the Cyclones, a U.S. Open National Champion and a senior level World Team member. Paulson also earned first-team Academic Big 12 Conference honors, first team Academic All-America honors and was named to the Dean’s List. Following his collegiate wrestling career, Paulson was twice selected as an alternate to the U.S. Olympic Team (2008, 2012) and was a four-time National Team member. He served as a freestyle coach for the University World Championships and was a two-time coach for the U.S. freestyle FILA Cadet Team in the Pan Am Games in 2014 and 2015. Read more

Steve Garland

RTC Coach

Steve Garland is the current Head Wrestling Coach at The University of Virginia. Coach Garland had been the head coach for the past ten seasons. His teams won the ACC tournament championship in 2010 and 2015. In 2010 he was named the ACC Coach of the Year. Garland started his coaching career in 2000 at Cornell University, where he was named the 2006 NWCA national assistant coach of the year. As a student athlete at The University of Virginia he was a 2000 NCAA All American (2nd), was named the 2000 ACC Wrestler of the Year and won an ACC individual championship in 1997. Read more

Miles Bassett

Scholastic Club Coach

Coach Miles wrestled for Bucknell University. He is from St. Louis, Missouri and has a passion for coaching and mentoring youth wrestlers.

Jim Harshaw

CWC President

Coach Harshaw wrestled at UVA, where he was a 3x ACC Champion and an NCAA All-American. Harshaw was also a 2x ACC Scholar Athlete and an Academic All-American. He currently stands in the top 5 on UVA’s Career Wins, Season Wins, Matches Competed (Career & Season), Pins (Career & Season). After college, he served as the assistant coach at UVA for two seasons before taking over as head coach at Slippery Rock University in PA. He returned to Charlottesville in 2004 to head up the Cavalier Wrestling Club. He previously worked at the Virginia Athletics Foundation at UVa. Currently, he the Founder of The Harshaw Group. He is married to Ali Harshaw, and they have four children: Jesse, Wyatt, Elliana, and Isla. Read more

Robert Swope

CWC Vice President

Lindsey Paulson

Scholastic Director/ Kids Club Liaison

English Garland

CWC Event Coordinator

Get in Touch

We’d love to hear from you!

Address

210 Emmet St S, Charlottesville, VA, 22903

Phone

(402) 630-2729

E-Mail

paulsonwrestling@gmail.com