Parkside Athletics

Corey VanGroll was named the Parkside head wrestling coach in August of 2017 and enters his fourth season as head coach in 2021. 

VanGroll, a UW-Parkside wrestling alumnus, led his team to an amazing finish in his first year at the helm of the program. As a team, the Rangers would have taken home the best finish in program history with third place at the 2018 NCAA Championships, but due the conference sanctions Parkside did not receive a team score. 

The 2019-20 season ended with disappointment, as the NCAA II Championships were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Parkside sent Joe Arroyo, Airk Furseth and Shane Gantz to the NCAA II Championships after Arroyo was crowned as the Super Region V Champion and Furseth/Gantz finished third and second, respectively. As a team, Parkside finished 7-6 overall and ended the duel season winning four of its last five.
 
In 2018-19, VanGroll led his squad to a 6-5 overall record and earned two wins over top-12 opponents in No. 11 Tiffin and No. 12 Indianapolis. All five of the Rangers’ duel losses came against ranked opponents, including four teams ranked in the NWCA top-5. At the end of the season, Connor Price and Pernevlon Sheppard punched their tickets to the 2019 NCAA II Championships while Price and James Lehman were each named to the NCAA II All-Academic Team.  

Five Rangers became All-Americans in 2017-18, including Nick Becker winning his third consecutive NCAA Championship at 174-pounds. Along with Becker, VanGroll saw Frank Yattoni IV (third), Matt Halverson (third), Airk Furseth (sixth) and James Lehman (eighth) earn All-American honors. 

Parkside also dominated at NCAA Super Regionals in Findlay, Ohio in VanGroll's first season, but the team did not receive a team score due to the same sanctions. Becker, Furseth and Yattoni IV all won their regional while three others earned trips to nationals. 

VanGroll also saw James Lehman, Connor Price and Brett Scoles named Academic All-Americans following the season. 

Before coming to Parkside, VanGroll spent five seasons at Concordia-Wisconsin where he coached his squad to three consecutive conference championships in 2013, 2014 and 2015. He coached the program’s only individual national champion (Greg Sanders) and saw a total of nine All-Americans with the Falcons. He started his coaching career as an assistant coach at Iowa Lakes Community College, where he coached the school’s first national champion.

While wrestling for the Rangers, VanGroll earned All-American honors in 2009 at the 165-pound weight class. VanGroll attended Denmark High School and placed twice at the WIAA State Championships.

The Maribel, Wis., native graduated from UW-Parkside in 2009 with a Bachelor of Science degree in fitness management. He earned a master of education degree from Iowa State in 2011 and a doctor of education degree with a sport psychology emphasis in 2015.