Admissions counselor and assistant wrestling coach Nick Mitchell is packing his bags and heading to Des Moines as he takes a new path in his coaching career.

Mitchell has coached at Wartburg for eight years and worked in admissions for five. Mitchell is taking a position at Grand View College to help the Vikings start up their wrestling program. 

Wrestling will be back in the Des Moines area after being on hiatus for about 15 years. In the 1992-93 season Drake dropped their program and left Des Moines without college wrestling.

“I’m from the Des Moines area originally,” Mitchell said. “It’s always kind of been my goal to be a full-time head wrestling coach so I looked into it and it looked like it would be a good fit for me, so I decided to pursue it.”

On March 5, Grand View officially announced Mitchell would be their head wrestling coach. Grand View has never competed in varsity wrestling.

“It’s hard enough going in to start with a new program but it’s different starting from scratch,” Mitchell said. 
“It’s exciting because the people I’ve been talking to talk about having a chance to be the first everything: first All-American, first national champ ... I think the kids are excited about that too,” Mitchell said.

Mitchell reflects on years at Wartburg
He said he will especially miss the people at Wartburg.

“I have connections all over campus between being a student here, a coach here and working in the admissions office. I’ll definitely miss all those people for sure,” he said.

Mitchell will be taking his years of experience coaching under Jim Miller to the Vikings and said Miller has been a big influence on his coaching career.

 “If you are going coach there’s not a better person to learn from than Coach Miller,” Mitchell said.

Mitchell’s collegiate career at Wartburg included three Iowa Conference championships and three All-American awards. 

Mitchell finished his career as a Knight with 114 wins, which puts him at number seven on the all-time wins list for the Knights.

Mitchell made his presence known at Wartburg as an athlete, a coach and as an admissions counselor.