Chris Basford is in his second season as Associate Head Coach with the Glenville State Wrestling program in 2026-27. He was hired in October of 2025 by head coach Dylan Cottrell.
In Basford's first season at Glenville State, the Pioneers won 18 dual matches, captured their second straight NCAA DII Super Region 3 Championship, had three individual MEC Champions, two individual Super Region 3 Champions with Zachary Parker and Nick Johnson, six National Qualifiers, tied the program-high in All-Americans with four and finished 7th at the NCAA DII Wrestling Championships. Nick Johnson was a National runner-up at 197 pounds and was the MEC Wrestler of the Year while eight grapplers earned NWCA All-American honors.
Basford comes to Glenville with an immense amount of experience and knowledge at all levels of collegiate wrestling. The Grafton, W.Va. native wrestled at West Liberty, where he graduated in 2003 before taking his first coaching job as an assistant at the University of Nebraska Omaha, where he spent seven seasons with the program. From there, Basford was an assistant at Maryville University for eight seasons and Limestone for one before getting his first head coaching gig as the interim at Limestone.
Most recently, Basford was the head coach at Wilmington College in Ohio for three seasons where he also served on the NCAA DIII Rankings Committee. During his 20+ year coaching career, Basford has coached an astounding 113 National Qualifiers, 75 All-Americans and 17 individual National Champions. He's been an assistant on six National Championship teams and four third-place squads as well as four Academic National Championship teams.
"Chris brings a wealth of knowledge and experience. He has been a part of six DII National Championship teams and I feel that he has really resonated with our wrestlers since getting to campus," said head coachÂ
Dylan Cottrell. "I am excited for Coach Basford to help Glenville State Wrestling continue the build into a DII powerhouse program!"
