Perry Meridian RTC tonight welcomes Indiana Tech and Mike Ester

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Perry Meridian RTC at 6 pm tonight.

 

Indiana Tech coach Mike Ester

 

Head Coach Mike Ester just completed his second season at the helm of the Indiana Tech wrestling program after an impressive inaugural season in 2011.

 

Under the direction of Ester, in their inaugural season the Warriors finished the season ranked 17th in the final NAIA Wrestling Coaches' Top 20 Poll and placed 16th at the NAIA National Championships. Tech qualified 11 wrestlers to the championships and placed two on the All-American podium.  The 2012-13 Warriors continued the programs early success by Crowing 2 NAIA East Region champions and again placing 16th with 8 national qualifiers which the Warriors completed the tournament with at 15-16record in individual matches and 4 of 8 wrestlers competing in the round to all-American two of which finished 7th place.

 

Coach Ester's Warrior wrestling team also has excelled in the classroom. In 2012 Tech received NAIA/NWCA All-Academic Team honors by having a team grade point average of 3.34, the second best GPA in the nation. Six wrestlers were also recognized for their hard work as NAIA/NWCA All-Academic Individuals for having qualified for the national tournament and having at least a 3.25 GPA or being an All-American with a 3.0 GPA.  In 2013 the Tech wrestlers repeated the feat by finishing runner-up academically with a 3.35 team GPA narrowly behind U. of Great Falls (MT) 3.37 with 4 individuals garnishing NAIA/NWCA All-Academic honors.

 

From 2006 to 2010, Ester was the head assistant coach at Trine University which was only in its second year of competition when he arrived. His responsibilities included planning and running practices, technique development, strength and conditioning development and recruiting.  Ester had the pleasure of helping the program grow to national prominence, eventually landing the program as high as #16 ranking in the NWCA DIII polls with as many as seven nationally ranked wrestlers at one time. While at Trine, Ester helped the program to two NCAA Midwest Regional team runner-up finishes, and one NCAA qualifier.

 

From 1998 to 2006, Ester led his alma mater (Ft. Wayne) Snider Panthers to eight SAC conference titles, eight IHSAA sectional titles, one team regional championship, one team semi-state championship, and 2002-2003 team state finalists. In his tenure at Snider there were 26 individual state finalists, 18 of which were medalists, three IHSAA State Champions, and one IHSAA Mental Attitude Award winner. Ester’s teams produced six IHSAA Academic All-State wrestlers while adding five other honorable mentions as well.

 

As a competitor Coach Ester was a 2x IHSAA State finalist finishing 3rd his senior season (1992).  In college Ester competed under the tutelage of Hall of Fame wrestling coach Tom Jarman at Manchester college where he was a 4 year letter winner (1992-'96), Manchester college's first ever champion of the prestigious Midwest Classic invitational, 3x conference champion, finished 3rd and 2nd in the DIII Midwest regional and 1996 NCAA DIII national qualifier.  Ester was a 2 year captain for the Spartans, and graduated with B.S. in secondary education and licensed to teach in K-12 Physical Education, Adapted P.E. and 6-12 Health and Safety. 

 

Coach Ester went on to obtain a Master's in Education from Olivet Nazarene University (IL), currently lives in Ft. Wayne with his wife (Tami), and children (Brittani, 15 and Brady, 12) where he teaches Adapted Physical Education in FWCS.