| Les Gutches |
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 | Position:
Assistant coach
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| Experience:
3rd year
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World champion and two-time NCAA champion Les Gutches joined Oregon State's wrestling staff as an assistant coach in July, 2002. Gutches, 31, is one of OSU's all-time wrestling greats; he spent a season as a volunteer assistant with the Beavers after retiring from competition. He was also a full-time assistant at OSU from 1996-99.
Gutches won NCAA titles at 177 pounds for OSU in 1995 and 1996, was a three-time Academic All-American and won the 1997 World Freestyle Championship at 187.3 pounds.
"We're fortunate to have Les on our coaching staff on a full-time basis," Wells said. "He's been involved with wrestling at the highest levels in the world, and our athletes benefit from the experience he brings into our room. And he's demonstrated the ability to coach wrestling, to get his point across clearly to another athlete and make him better."
Gutches was an assistant coach on the United States National Team at the 2002 Freestyle World Cup; the U.S. won the team title at that meet. Gutches is a USA Wrestling-certified coach at the Bronze level and has worked at a number of elite camps and clinics across the country.
Gutches was also a five-time U.S. Open (all ages) Freestyle Champion, the gold medalist at the 1998 Goodwill Games, the bronze medalist at the 1999 World Championships and a member of the 1996 U.S. Olympic Team. He was inducted into OSU's Athletic Hall of Fame in 2003.
Gutches earned the Dan Hodge Trophy as the nation's outstanding collegiate wrestler in 1996. He went 134-10 during his Oregon State career and was named the Outstanding Wrestler at the NCAA Championships as a senior.
Gutches earned a bachelor's degree in Physical Anthropology at OSU. Gutches' wife, Jennifer, is a former OSU basketball player; they have a daughter, Alexis (1).
