Tony DeAnda took over as the first women’s wrestling coach at Northern Michigan University in 2020.
In 2022-23, its second season of competition, the Wildcats women's wrestling team made tremendous strides. In the NCWWC Northwest Regional Qualifier, the Wildcats qualified seven for nationals, with two winning their weight class, and DeAnda being named the Regional Coach of the Year. As a team, the Wildcats took third of nine squads. Under DeAnda at the NCWWC Championships, Diana Dzasezeva finished fourth in the country in the 136 class and Lydia Krauss took fifth in the 155 group as they each earned All-American honors. Seven wrestlers competed at the NCWWC National Championships, the Wildcats finished 12th out of 37 competing squads. Under DeAnda, five student-athletes were named to the NWCA Scholar All-America Team.
For a brand new program, DeAnda recruited 10 student-athletes in his first year and has continued to see the program grow. During the 2022-23 season, the Wildcats were ranked as high as 15th by the NCWWC.
Prior to Northern Michigan, DeAnda was the women’s and men’s wrestling coach at Presbyterian College in Clinton, South Carolina from 2018-20. At Presbyterian, he coached five WCWA All-Americans and two NCWWC All-Americans including two National Champions. The team finished 4th at the 2020 WCWA Nationals and also had two Olympic team trial qualifiers that season. In the classroom, DeAnda coached five Southern Conference Academic and ten Big South Conference Presidential Honor Roll honorees.
DeAnda had two head coaching stints before his time at Presbyterian, coaching at the University of Providence from 2017-18 and at the University of Jamestown from 2011-17. At Providence, he coached a WCWA All-American to a runner-up finish and saw two place winners at the 2017 UWW Under-23 Championships. At Jamestown, DeAnda had 16 WCWA All-Americans and six WCWA scholar-athletes. The team also had six Olympic team trial qualifiers during his tenure.
DeAnda has previous experience in Marquette. He was an assistant coach with women’s wrestling at the United State Olympic Education Center from 2005-2011 and participated in the resident athlete program. DeAnda was ranked in the top 10 in the United States, was a Real Pro National Champion, and was a three-time national place winner. He was also a five-time National Champion in Mexico and competed at the World Championships in Turkey. DeAnda received NCAA All-American and NWCA Academic Honorable Mention honors during his training time at the Olympic Training Center.
Deana graduated from the University of Nebraska with a B.A. in Spanish and a minor in Latin American Studies.
