Former national champion and Olympic team member Cary Kolat has been named head wrestling coach at Campbell University. Kolat joins the Fighting Camel staff after serving since 2010 as associate head coach at the University of North Carolina.
"This is a milestone announcement for the Campbell wrestling program," said director of athletics Bob Roller. "Nationally and internationally, Cary Kolat is synonymous with wrestling for the past three decades, and I am confident he will build a program for CU that will be known throughout NCAA Division I. We welcome Cary, Erin and their family to Campbell."
During Kolat’s tenure at Chapel Hill, he was involved in all phases of the UNC program and helped improve the team’s national ranking from 57 to 22. In addition, he was head coach at the Olympic regional training center in Chapel Hill where he trained Olympic level athletes.
Kolat has also served on wrestling staffs at Lehigh, Wisconsin, West Virginia and his alma mater, Lock Haven.
"I’m extremely excited that Bob Roller and Campbell University have given me the opportunity to lead this program," said Kolat, a native of Rices Landing. "But the success of this program is not going to happen overnight. It will be determined by our guys doing the small things right over and over every day, consistently wanting to improve and taking the program to the next level."
A two-time NCAA Division I wrestling champion, Kolat was a four-time All-American who went on to compete in the 2000 Sydney Olympics. A three-time World Cup gold medalist, he also won World silver and bronze medals.
His career also includes three U.S. Open championship medals and a pair of Pan-Am Games first-place finishes. Kolat was a member of the U.S. National Team from 1991-2002. In the summer of 2011, Kolat returned to competitive wrestling, was a finalist at the U.S. Open and competed in the 2012 U.S. Olympic Trials.
