When associate head coach Ryan Ludwig first came to NIU to assist head coach Dave Grant’s rising wrestling team, he felt that the job was a good fit for him. Six years later, Ludwig has become a key part of NIU wrestling and its reform to become a nationally recognized program.

Northern Star: How did you first become interested in wrestling?

Ryan Ludwig: Wrestling is a sport that takes a lot of physicality and as a kid I was always a pretty physical kid. I played football, I really liked baseball and I found that basketball wasn’t quite my gig, and I had some buddies who wrestled and thought I might be pretty good at it. So I went out to a couple practices and enjoyed it so I stuck with it.

NS: When you first started, did you think it would become such a big part of your life?

RL: No, I honestly didn’t. I started pretty late by the standards of guys who usually get to a high level of wrestling. I started in eighth grade and by the time I was a senior in high school I won a big championship. I advanced really quickly and between my junior and senior year I made really huge strides in wrestling in high school. That is when I really started experiencing success and it became an important part of my life and after my state title I decided to get into it a little more.

NS: After you finished your collegiate career, did you anticipate becoming a coach?

RL: After I finished college I really liked the coaching aspect of wrestling and enjoyed being around the sport. I actually redshirted in college, so I stayed my fifth year and helped coach as a student assistant. After that I went out and worked in the real world for a little bit and actually went to law school for a year but I kept feeling a calling back to the sport. I went and coached at my alma mater for a year [University of Findlay] and eventually ended up pursuing other coaching opportunities and I found that it just felt right and kept going with my heart and decided to make a career out of it.

NS: What brought you to NIU?

RL: I was completing my master’s program at MSU-Mankato and I was actually recruiting at the Minnesota State High School Tournament and I had been looking online at jobs to explore and had seen a post by NIU looking for an assistant coach and I ran into Dave Grant at the tournament. We were both recruiting out there and we sat down and I talked to him a little bit about the position. We really hit it off in that first conversation and I ended up coming out to DeKalb a couple weeks later to visit and I received the position. It’s been great ever since.

NS: How have you seen NIU’s program progress since you first started here?

RL: This program has definitely progressed and I think Dave Grant has done a great job of bringing this program back from the brink of extinction when he first got here. He’s established some All-Americans and things like that. In the time that I’ve been here, the biggest thing that I’ve noticed has been our ability to land more nationally-ranked recruits, upgraded facilities and things like that. I think the program has great expectations right now and we have some young guys that are coming in and really working their butts off to do some big things. We have had a chance to expand our recruiting base nationally so that has really helped us out.

NS: Since you have been at NIU have you noticed more recruits are familiar with the program?

RL: Yeah we have gotten our name out their nationally and when you’re making the rounds on the national tournament level circuits more and more people are aware of what we’re doing up here and the more we can get people to the campus here in DeKalb, the more they realize what a great place this is. Around the Midwest, people tend to think Big Ten, but when they come here they realize how nice this school is and how many opportunities they have here and word spreads fast so things have been going great.

NS: What would you say has been your best moment since joining the NIU coaching staff?

RL: I would say every year at the National Tournament is my best moment. We are always looking to set team goals that are always national level goals and it’s always an extremely exciting time out there at the NCAA Championships and we are looking forward to getting a guy on that All-American stand soon.

NS: In general, what would you say is your favorite part of being a coach?

RL: I love the physical work you get and being able to watch young men develop from freshmen into seniors and seeing them mature not only physically, but mentally. A really nice moment is watching guys when they really start ‘getting it,’ when they start breaking through, when they start turning the corner and when they start figuring out that they can really wrestle with anybody and become a good wrestler and national level competitor. You can almost see certain moments where he has breakthroughs and I think those are the most rewarding moments in coaching.