<?xml:namespace prefix="st1" ns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"?>Nebraska head wrestling coach Mark Manning announced the hiring of Tony Ersland as an assistant coach to the Husker staff and the promotion of Mike Greenfield to head assistant coach.<?xml:namespace prefix="o" ns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"?>
“We are very excited about the addition of Tony to our staff,” Manning said. “His ability to recruit top-level student-athletes and his commitment to excellence in all facets of our program will be a real asset to the University of Nebraska. We look forward to him and his wife Carolyn joining the Husker family.”
Ersland comes to Nebraska after serving as an assistant wrestling coach for the Cyclone Wrestling Club last season. From 2000 to 2005, Ersland was the head assistant coach at NorthwesternUniversity. Ersland was also an assistant coach at Northern Illinois for one season and began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Central Michigan.
“We are pleased that we were able to get a great coach with proven experience,” Manning said.
Ersland will build on his coaching experience in three conferences which followed an illustrious competitive career. He was a letterwinner on three national championship and four Big Ten Conference championship teams at Iowa.
A 1997 NCAA qualifier, Ersland was also accomplished in the classroom as a four-time All-Big Ten honoree and the 1997 winner of the J. Donald McPike award, given to the senior Hawkeye wrestler who had the highest grade-point average. Ersland graduated from Iowa in 1997 with a degree in psychology, and later earned a master’s degree from Central Michigan with a degree in athletic administration.
“I believe Tony will come here and have an immediate impact within our program,” Manning said.
Ersland fills the vacancy at assistant coach left by the promotion of Greenfield to head assistant coach. Greenfield, in his fifth year in the NU program, filled the vacancy left by the departure of Charles Burton, who left to pursue a career in medical sales.