Mendoza Becomes New Head Wrestling Coach

Mike Mendoza comes to Northeastern in the fall of 2017 as the head coach.

Prior to Northeastern, Mendoza was the head coach at Boise State, and prior to that, six seasons at CSU-Bakersfield.

While at CSU Bakersfield, he took over the Roadrunners' program in 2010-11 after spending eight years (2002-10) as the head assistant coach for the Roadrunners. Mendoza guided a program that went 3-7 in his debut season to the top 25 of the USA Today/National Wrestling Coaches Association Division I Coaches Poll in 2015-16, the school's first ranking in 15 years.

During his six years as head coach, Mendoza produced 17 qualifiers to the NCAA Championships and four individual Pac-12 champions.

Under his watch, CSU Bakersfield also excelled in the classroom, finishing three seasons ranked in the NWCA Division I All-Academic Top 30. Two of his wrestlers, Dalton Kelley in 2014 and Ian Nickell in 2016, were named Pac-12 Scholar-Athlete of the Year. Kelley was also named second-team Academic All-America in 2014, the first Roadrunner student-athlete to earn the accolade since the program joined Division I.

Additionally, 23 of his student-athletes garnered Pac-12 All-Academic accolades and nine were named NWCA All-Academic, and his teams recorded perfect single-year scores of 1,000 in each of the last two releases of the Academic Progress Rate.

During his time as head assistant coach, CSU Bakersfield produced five All-Americans, six Pac-12 champions and 38 qualifiers to the NCAA Championships.

A four-year starter while wrestling for CSU Bakersfield during his collegiate career, Mendoza, who was team captain and a member of the Pac-12 All-Academic Team in 1999, qualified to the NCAA Championships three times (1996, 1998-99), one of only 14 wrestlers in school history to accomplish the feat. He was a member of a pair of conference-championship teams (1996 and 1999), and his 1996 squad finished third at the NCAA Championships.

Prior to rejoining his alma mater, Mendoza worked as a graduate assistant at Adams State in Alamosa, CO. He helped produce four Division II All-Americans and a national champion during his two seasons with the Grizzlies (1999-2002).

In addition to his bachelor's in public administration (CSUB, 1999), Mendoza also earned a master's in health, physical education and recreation from Adams State in 2001. He and his wife Lori have two children, son Isaac and daughter Alexa.

Coach Mendoza adds, "NJC Wrestling has a rich history of success that goes back and I am looking forward to being a part of its future and the rebuilding process. There is an impressively strong alumni and community support along with a great administrative support, which was evident when the program was resurrected last year after a 37-year hiatus. That support system is important for building a successful program and was an attraction for me and I am thankful for the opportunity that I have to help these Plainsmen wrestlers achieve their academic and athletic goals in the future."