Former National Champion Powell Fills Out Ducks Wrestling Staff

The Oregon wrestling team opens the season November 9th with a dual meet against Wyoming in Laramie, Wyoming.

Jason Powell Photo: goducks.com

EUGENE - Three-time All-American and former national champion Jason Powell has been hired as an assistant coach and will join the staff for the upcoming season, head coach Chuck Kearney announced Thursday. Powell, a national champion for Nebraska at the 124-lbs. weight class in 2004, takes the place of Jeremy Ensrud, who has left the program to become the head wrestling coach at Canby High School, in Canby, Ore.

“I am very excited to add Jason to this coaching staff,” Kearney said. “He brings a wealth of experience as a national champion as well as the work ethic of a training athlete.”

Most recently, Powell was the volunteer assistant coach at Nebraska and assisted in the daily workouts of the wrestlers as well as a national recruiting effort that resulted in Nebraska’s top-10 recruiting class.

“There is a certain automatic credibility with the athletes that bringing in a national champion as an assistant coach has,”

Kearney said. “We hope that Jason will be able to assist all the players in their daily workouts and also give our lower weight class wrestlers the benefit of his personal experience in training and wrestling at that level.”

Powell is also currently in training for the 2008 United States Olympic team at the 121 lbs. (55 kg) weight class and feels that his work with the collegiate athletes wil help him in his personal development as well.

“I am excited that coach Kearney has given me the opportunity to be a part of this up and coming program,” Powell said. “This program is on the rise and can be one of the elite programs in the nation and I feel that I can be a key part of that.”

In addition to his coaching duties at Canby, Ensrud will also teach biology

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