Northern State University Men's Wrestling

Nolan enters his second season as the Wolves assistant coach in 2016-17 after spending a year at Wayland Baptist University in Plainview, Texas.  Josh helped lead the Wolves as a graduate assistant coach in 2012-13 and 2013-14. With Northern State, Nolan coached national qualifiers Anthony Bruno and Matt Meuleners. His success continued at Wayland as he coached two University National Champions, three University All-Americans, five WCWA All-Americans, three NAIA national qualifiers, and a team seventh place standing. At NSU, Nolan earned his Master of Science in Sport Performance and Fitness and Leadership. For the San Francisco State Gators, Nolan was a three time national qualifier and three time All Rocky Mountain honoree. As a team captain in 2011, Josh earned All-American status at the NCAA Division II national championships. Nolan received his Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology and Physical Education from San Francisco State.   His experience goes beyond the collegiate ranks working with the Legends of Gold Wrestling Training Camp (Beresford, S.D.) and Creighton School of Wrestling (Palo Alto, Calif.). He coached a 2012 California State place winner at Creighton and multiple SD USA Wrestling state place winners at Legends of Gold. Josh and his wife Theresa reside in Aberdeen. 

Burkett brought the program to a new standard. Academically the Wolves finished the 2015-16 season ranked 14 th nationally in NCAA Division II, being honored with NWCA All-Academic. In addition the team worked to jump their GPA from a 2.6 in the spring of 2015 to a 3.14 in the fall of 2015. Burkett and the Wolves tallied two nationally ranked wrestlers throughout the season in Tyler Stenberg at 149 pounds and Joe Gomez at 197 pounds. Gomez was crowned the NCAA Super Region III Champion and went on to earn his second straight NCAA All-American honor as the National Runner-up.  Burkett has spent the previous three seasons as the head wrestling coach at Aberdeen Central High School, where he led the Golden Eagles to two Eastern South Dakota Conference titles (2014 and 2015), two Region 3 titles (2014 and 2015), and the 2014 South Dakota State Wrestling Tournament team title. Rocky coached 28 state place winners, most notably four state champions in his three seasons in Aberdeen. Burkett was named the 2014 and 2015 South Dakota Region 3 Wrestling Coach of the Year, and the 2014 South Dakota High School Coaches Association Coach of the Year. Burkett returns to the NSU coaching staff after two stints with the Wolves as a graduate assistant from 2005-07 and an assistant coach from 2007-11. In his time with the Wolves, the Rochester (IN) native, helped coach ten wrestlers to NCAA Division II National Tournament appearances, two NCAA All-Americans, and one NCAA National Champion.  Burkett began his coaching career at Rochester High School in Rochester, Indiana. Rocky coached three Zebras to the IHSAA State Tournament, with two place winners. His experience goes far beyond the high school and collegiate ranks, with a laundry list of camp experiences. Since 2006, Burkett has worked at the Northern State University, Dakota Wesleyan University, and most notably the J Robinson (University of Minnesota) wrestling camps, while organizing and running the Aberdeen Central camps.   As a collegiate wrestler at Manchester College in North Manchester, Indiana, Rocky earned two Mid-States Wrestling Conference Championships (2002 and 2003), two NCAA Division III Academic All-American nods (2003 and 2004), and appeared in the 2003 NCAA Division III National Tournament.  Burkett earned his Bachelors degree in Elementary Education with a Middle School Social Studies Endorsement from Manchester College in 2005. He then went on to receive his Masters degree in Health, Physical Education, and Coaching from NSU in 2007, while serving as a graduate assistant coach.  Rocky and his wife, Jennifer, reside in Aberdeen with thier children Ryder and Becca.