“(Assistant coach) Mark DiSalvo originally approached me with the job offer and I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to, still needing to finish up a little bit of school,” said Dwyer, who graduated in December. “He let me know the job was open and they were interested in me.”

Upon graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in business administration, Dwyer was named to the coaching staff on Monday to work with DiSalvo and head coach Tom Borrelli.

“Steve’s a great addition to our staff, and rarely do we have a full-time second assistant, so having him join has had an impact over the past two or three weeks,” DiSalvo said. “He’s going to help tremendously from 165 to heavyweight.”

As a Cornhusker, Dwyer qualified for the NCAA Championship four times, placing in the top eight spots and earning All-American honors twice. He finished fourth as a 174-pound senior and eighth as a 165-pound sophomore.

The Rockford native racked up a 106-35 collegiate record, making him only the 18th wrestler in school history to reach 100 wins. He earned bonus points in more than a third of his victories, racking up 11 pins, six tech falls and 26 major decisions.

“A lot of the coaching staff has been up through (CMU’s) program, but this way maybe I can offer outside views and different ways things can be done,” Dwyer said.

The addition of Dwyer breaks a streak of former Chippewa wrestlers taking over as assistant coaches that dates back at least five seasons. DiSalvo hopes that bringing in someone from outside the program might give the team a competitive edge.

Familiarity

While the majority of the wrestlers are getting to know their new assistant coach, redshirt freshman Kyle Waldo is familiar with Dwyer. The 125-pounder was Dwyer’s teammate at Nebraska during the 2009-10 season before transferring to CMU.

“Stephen’s a really big asset to this program,” Waldo said. “Last year he had a big influence on me, not only my attitude but wrestling him and watching him execute the technique that the coaches would teach us really helped.

“(He) brings experience - he’s been to the national semifinals and he’s wrestled the top guys in the country. He can relate that to us better than the other coaches because he’s been through that recently in the past few years.”

Following CMU’s 21-12 loss to the Michigan Wolverines Sunday, Tom Borrelli pinpointed the young team’s lack of leadership in the practice room.

Dwyer said there are two types of leaders: those that lead by example and those that are vocal and can encourage people. As a coach, he said it will be his responsibility to let those guys emerge by themselves and then put them into leadership positions as they take on those rolls.

“I’m here on a year by year basis, and I’d love to be around here again next year,” Dwyer said. “I’m really excited about a chance for me to come into a coaching program that’s been consistently in the top 15 in the country, coming into a new facility and all the benefits that have been brought to this program.”

The team will travel to East Lansing to take on Michigan State at 7 p.m. Friday.