Southern Oregon University Men's Wrestling

Joel Gibson, an All-American during his wrestling days at Southern Oregon University, enters his sixth season as the Raiders’ head men’s wrestling coach in 2025-26. Gibson led SOU to a Cascade Collegiate Conference championship in 2024-25 and was subsequently voted the CCC Coach of the Year. The campaign culminated in a ninth-place finish at the NAIA Championships that marked SOU’s best in eight seasons. In his four full seasons as SOU’s head coach – excluding his COVID-abbreviated 2020-21 debut season – the Raiders have placed ninth, 11th, 19th and 25th nationally and gone 49-16 in dual matches. The 2024-25 team set a school record for dual victories in a season with a 19-3 record. The Raiders have turned in nine NAIA All-America performances under Gibson’s watch. He has also produced the only four NAIA Scholar Teams in program history. After finishing his collegiate career with the Raiders in 2007, Gibson spent a total of eight seasons on Mike Ritchey's men's wrestling staff, and he served as SOU’s head women’s wrestling coach from 2019-22 – leading the Raiders to second- and fifth-place finishes at the NAIA Invitational. Between stints at SOU, he was Phoenix High School's head wrestling coach from 2014-17. A product of North Medford High, Gibson was initially a wrestling letterwinner at Oregon State University, from which he earned a bachelor's degree in liberal studies with an emphasis in history. He competed for SOU at 165 pounds during the 2006-07 season, serving as a team captain and receiving SOU's Dan Speasl Most Inspirational Award after a seventh-place finish at the NAIA Championships. Gibson collected another degree in health and physical education from SOU and in 2011 graduated magna cum laude with a master's degree from the same department. He began his coaching career under Ritchey in 2007 while continuing his schooling. With the Raiders, he's contributed to 10 individual NAIA national championships and 31 total All-American performances. While at Phoenix, he produced two girls state champions, eight boys state placers, and six freestyle and Greco-Roman state placers. A freestyle coach for the 2019 Oregon Women's Cadet and Junior National Team, Gibson has earned Copper and Bronze coaching certifications from USA Wrestling. Gibson married SOU alumna Ricci (Coultas) Gibson, a former Raider softball player, in 2013. The couple reside in Medford with their four children.

Ritchey, one of the most respected figures in small-college wrestling and the longtime heartbeat of the sport at Southern Oregon University, begins his 22 nd season as the Raiders head coach in 2016-17. In his 33 rd year as a competitor or a coach for the perennial NAIA powerhouse, Ritchey also added Assistant Athletic Director and Director of Wrestling to his title in 2015. Since becoming the schools first four-time NAIA All-American during his wrestling days, Ritchey has guided the Raiders to a dual record of 203-79 (making him the second-winningest coach in program history), 12 conference or regional titles and 11 top-five team finishes at the NAIA Championships. The eight-time regional coach of the year has overseen 22 of SOUs 35 individual national titles, including those of Brock Gutches, who in 2015 became the seventh four-time champion in NAIA history and the first to do it at 174 pounds. Since Ritchey took over as head coach in 1995, SOU has extended its active record-setting streak of consecutive winning seasons to 46, and he has guided 129 NAIA All-Americans and 17 national academic all-stars. Ritcheys crowning career achievement to date came in March 2001 when the fifth-ranked (and darkhorse) Raiders captured the schools fourth NAIA team championship, and he became only the second coach in school history to earn NAIA coach-of-the-year kudos in the process.  Ritchey also led the 2009 squad to the program's first-ever NWCA National Dual Meet Championship and also back-to-back second place finishes at the NAIA National Championships in 2009 and 2010. The Raiders were back-to-back runners up again in 2012 and 2013, and Ritchey was the NAIA's coach of the year for the third time in the latter season. In 2015, he led the Raiders to their fifth runner-up finish in seven seasons behind six All-America performances and titles for Gutches and Taylor Johnson. Ritcheys teams regularly take on the nations best, and his teams have defeated 13 NCAA Division I opponents in dual encounters. The NAIA regional meet was discontinued in 1998 season (and reborn in 2002) after the school had won three straight titles for only the second time in its tradition-rich history, the 1999-2000 team won a Northwest Conference title. His 1998-99 team produced two national champions, seven All-Americans and amassed 133 team points for third-place enough to win a team title any other year. In 1997-98, Ritchey piloted SOU to an NAIA District II crown, and the next year, two Raiders won national individual titles. The 1995-96 edition spent six weeks as the No. 1 team in the NAIA rankings and finished with a 9-2 record. After earning his bachelors degree in 1990 and following a stint as a congressional aide for Rep. Bob Smith in 1990-91, the Salem native served as an assistant coach for his predecessors, Bob Riehm and Bob Bergen, for five seasons. Ritchey competed at 126 for Riehm from 1985 to 88, and is one of only four SOU student-athletes to earn four-year All-American status. As a senior, he was voted Most Inspirational and led the team to a 15-0 record and a third-place national finish.  

Champion was named the first head coach in the history of Southern Oregon University womens wrestling in February of 2015, a few weeks after the school announced the addition of the sport. Champion, who was a three-time national champ in his wrestling days at Portland State, served as the head coach at Ashland High the previous three years. A member of the Portland State Athletics Hall of Fame, he was a part of two NCAA Division II title teams and an All-American four times At Ashland High, he brought five female wrestlers onto the team last season and started this season with seven. Among the 2013-14 group was Sadie Bailey, who won a state championship and is currently a wrestler and soccer player at Southwestern Oregon Community College. "I think getting this job is an absolute great honor, and I'm very humbled by it," Champion said. "I also think SOU is a spot that can be a springboard for women's wrestling. There's definitely a market and I believe it's going to expand exponentially in the future." Among other schools in the region that have recently added women's wrestling are Menlo (Calif.), Pacific (Ore.), Simon Fraser (B.C.) and Warner Pacific (Ore.). Women's wrestling is not yet an NAIA-sponsored activity but is one of the fastest growing sports in intercollegiate athletics. "I've taken the same mentality that I use to train boys and implemented it with females," Champion said. "They appreciate being given that same respect, especially in what's been such a male-dominant sport. In my experience, they've all felt like they have something to prove and usually work harder than most of the boys because of it." Champion said he hopes to get 12 to 15 wrestlers on the roster in his first year and up to 30 a few years down the road. Champion also works as a commodity broker at ICCI in Medford. He is engaged to be married to Sami Jo Hile and has two daughters: Madison, a sophomore at the University of Missouri, and McKenzie, a senior at Archbishop O'Hara High in Kansas City, Mo. Tony Champion was named the first head coach in the history of Southern Oregon University womens wrestling in February of 2015, a few weeks after the school announced the addition of the sport. Champion, who was a three-time national champ in his wrestling days at Portland State, served as the head coach at Ashland High the previous three years. A member of the Portland State Athletics Hall of Fame, he was a part of two NCAA Division II title teams and an All-American four times At Ashland High, he brought five female wrestlers onto the team last season and started this season with seven. Among the 2013-14 group was Sadie Bailey, who won a state championship and is currently a wrestler and soccer player at Southwestern Oregon Community College. "I think getting this job is an absolute great honor, and I'm very humbled by it," Champion said. "I also think SOU is a spot that can be a springboard for women's wrestling. There's definitely a market and I believe it's going to expand exponentially in the future." Among other schools in the region that have recently added women's wrestling are Menlo (Calif.), Pacific (Ore.), Simon Fraser (B.C.) and Warner Pacific (Ore.). Women's wrestling is not yet an NAIA-sponsored activity but is one of the fastest growing sports in intercollegiate athletics. "I've taken the same mentality that I use to train boys and implemented it with females," Champion said. "They appreciate being given that same respect, especially in what's been such a male-dominant sport. In my experience, they've all felt like they have something to prove and usually work harder than most of the boys because of it." Champion said he hopes to get 12 to 15 wrestlers on the roster in his first year and up to 30 a few years down the road. Champion also works as a commodity broker at ICCI in Medford. He is engaged to be married to Sami Jo Hile and has two daughters: Madison, a sophomore at the University of Missouri, and McKenzie, a senior at Archbishop O'Hara High in Kansas City, Mo.