Former Iowa Hawkeye All American Wes Hand has been named as the new head wrestling coach at Pleasant Valley.
Hand joined the Pleasant Valley program as an assistant coach this past season. Pleasant Valley is a 3A school located in Riverdale, Iowa in the Quad Cities.
Wes was a two-time All American for the University of Iowa at Hwt where he was an NCAA National Runner-up and Big Ten champ in 2000 and placed eighth in 1998.
The University of Iowa won an NCAA team title in all five years of Hand’s career as a Hawkeye (1996-2000).
After college Hand was an Assistant Coach at Virginia Tech and at the University of Iowa.
Originally from Tama, Iowa Hand was a 1995 2A state champ at Hwt. for South Tama High School.
I was able to watch Wes Hand’s career for all four years of high school at South Tama as well as at the University of Iowa. South Tama and University of Iowa Wrestling are tough people. His background and influences from coaches and teammates are now being passed on.
Wes Hand:
“I have been influenced by two Hall of Fame coaches. Jay Hoskey at South Tama and Dan Gable at Iowa. Hoskey and Gable always wanted you as a wrestler to feel good when you left the program. I want to do that here at Pleasant Valley.
I have also been influenced by the assistant coaches at South Tama and as well as Jimmy Zalesky. I want to use my background to teach the next generation of wrestlers.
Maybe the most important thing is to have our wrestlers look back at their career and be proud of their experience and that it will help them move forward in life.
I had the support of my family in my career and they never told me no when it came to wrestling. They always supported me every step of the way.
Our family of my wife Maggie and our kids Victoria (8) and George (4) live in the Pleasant Valley school district. I am excited about being the head wrestling coach at Pleasant Valley.”
Best of luck to Wes Hand as the new head wrestling coach at Pleasant Valley.
It is great to be an Iowa Wrestling fan.
Go Hawks!
