John Smith joins Cowgirl Wrestling club as volunteer assistant coach
- Weston Wertzberger, Staff Reporter
- 22 hrs ago
The Oklahoma State Cowgirl Wrestling Club announced on Sunday that Smith, the legendary former OSU wrestling coach, will join the club as a volunteer assistant coach.
Smith retired as head coach of the Cowboys after 33 years leading the program. During his tenure, he guided OSU to five NCAA team titles, 33 NCAA individual titles and 490 dual wins.
"This season I am gonna work with Cowgirl wrestling," Smith said in a video released by the club's X account. "A lot of people have been involved in making this happen, making this work. We've got several women here, not just from Oklahoma, but from across the country.
"I look forward to the days I'm gonna work with them and looking forward to getting back in the room and working with young women that are very hungry to wrestle."
Smith will be alongside former OSU All-American and current Cowgirl head coach Izzak Olejnik. During his college career, Olejnik was a two-time MAC champion and one-time NCAA All-American at Northern Illinois before transferring to OSU.
In Smith's final season as head coach, Olejnik earned a seventh-place finish at the NCAA championships.
For years, Smith has been an advocate for women's wrestling and has talked about the importance of growing the sport at the collegiate level.
"I think if we create a better system of opportunity for our women, like wrestling in college, I think we can close that gap," Smith said in a video released by the club's official X account at the 2017 Women's World Championships.
"They've done their work for a lot of years. You've got to give the women wrestling respect. They put themselves in this position, and we're in talks of NCAA expansion, possibly in the future. Now we have an opportunity to try to help."
Smith holds a legendary resume as a wrestler, winning three Big Eight Conference championships and two national championships at OSU in 1987 and 1988 while having a record of 154-7-2.
The Hall of Famer also won four World Championships in five years from 1987 to 1991, and was a two-time Olympic champion at the 1988 Seoul and 1992 Barcelona Games.
During Smith's 33-year coaching run with the Cowboys, he produced 153 All-Americans, 23 team conference titles, 132 individual conference champions and two Hodge Trophy winners.
