Women’s wrestling gets coaching reboot

Lourdes University Vice President for Athletics Janet-Eaton Smith has announced the removal of the interim tag and promotion of Louis Piszker as head women’s wrestling coach for the Gray Wolves.  Piszker has been in the interim role since January.

“His commitment to both Lourdes University and the sport of wrestling has been shown since the men’s program began and now, I am excited to see this growth and passion on the women’s side.  He has a strong reputation in the wrestling community which I believe will help him flourish in this new role,” Eaton-Smith commented. 

Piszker began at Lourdes on the men’s side as an assistant coach prior to the inaugural 2016-2017 season.  He will also remain in that role.

Piszker has been a part of a men’s program that has produced four NAIA All-Americans.  He helped a school-record six wrestlers qualify for the NAIA National Championships in 2022 after the program produced five qualifiers in both 2019 and 2021.  In all, while a member of the staff, Lourdes has had 21 total NAIA National Qualifiers.

In the Gray Wolves’ first season as a member of the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference in 2020-2021, Lourdes had one conference champion and three Second Team All-WHAC selections.  The program repeated those accomplishments again this past year.Lourdes produced the Sooner Athletic Conference Wrestler of the Year in 2020 as well as the SAC Newcomer of the Year in both 2018 and 2019.  Another grappler registered the most falls at the SAC Championships in 2019.  

Piszker previously coached wrestling at Kenton High School and Bowling Green High School. Piszker wrestled three seasons at Ohio Northern University, where he was a member on three Ohio Athletic Conference championship teams.