The Measure of a Man: USA Wrestling Coach’s Corner feature on Zach Wood

Photo: Zach Wood (right) pictured with Northern Michigan University coach Adam Wilson.

Editor’s Note: This USA Wrestling Coach’s Corner feature was published on April 1, 2026.

By Tristan Warner

Zach Wood grew up in a wrestling household. As he puts it, he was the kid we’ve all seen at a local youth tournament running around in his diaper covered in Cheetos. He was there, first, to support his older brothers, but got his start in the sport at age four in his home state of Michigan.

Joe Wood, Zach’s older brother by 11 years, was decorated in Greco-Roman, having placed at Fargo in high school before enrolling at Northern Michigan University. Joe also went on to become a highly successful coach, even being tabbed USA Wrestling’s Greco-Roman Coach of the Year in 2014.

Zach says from as early as he can remember, he wanted to get into coaching, too. His older brother’s influence on him as his own coach inspired him, as did the mentorship from folks like Dave Beazley, who was an instrumental Michigan USA Wrestling coach and leader.

“I wanted to be a coach forever,” Zach said. “My older brother coached me since he was 11 years older. He wrestled at the USOEC at Northern Michigan, and once he came back, it was he and I. I wanted nothing more to be like my brother, Joe.

“Dave (Beazley) was the first guy that showed me it is not about what you say but how you make people feel. He had a superpower in match preparation. My brother Joe always made sure I had great people around me. It was such a privilege to be around great people early in my career, which helped me fall in love with process of coaching.”

After Zach’s competitive career concluded at Lake Erie College in Painesville, Ohio, the start of a young but already very promising coaching career was officially underway.

“Going into my fifth year of college, my fire burned out competitively, so I started as a director of operations at Lake Erie for that last academic semester,” Zach said.

The youngest Wood brother went on to serve as a high school assistant and later head coach at Holly High School where he had four state champions in two seasons. Not bad for a school that had only ever had 12 state champs in the history of the program.

From 2021-23, he helped longtime friend Adam Wilson (now at NMU) start up the program at Albion before serving as the women’s head assistant in 2025-26 at Siena Heights University.

But once his daughter was born, he planned to step away from coaching, at least for the time being. That is when the head coaching job for Cleary University’s men’s team (Cleary does not have a women’s team yet) in Howell, Mich. opened up, which Wood explained is about 20 minutes from his house.

“Cleary aligns with my family needs and what I want out of my career. I want my daughters to be really proud of me.”

Heading into his first season as a collegiate head coach, Wood has already hit the ground running, putting decades of experience as a student-athlete, coach and mentor into action. His assistant coaches at the school are the same guys he has coached alongside for years at MI-REV Wrestling Club (Michigan Revolution) in Mario Flores and Ben Whitford, which further aids the transition.

His first task as head coach? Identifying the mission.

“I did a lot of soul searching,” Wood said. “I thought about it from a very fundamental level. Becoming a more successful team means getting these guys to buy into the idea that we are going to use wrestling to become future husbands and fathers who are successful in society.”

“As a father of a one-year-old, I am picking who my daughter will look up to in time. I want these guys to look in the mirror and be okay with themselves. If that is my standard, I have to be identifying guys I need in my program who add value in other things outside of sports. We want to be incentivizing guys to be contributors in the classroom and to be leaders on campus.”

Wood has already familiarized himself with the many unique resources Cleary has to offer.

For example, the program’s athletic trainer is USA Wrestling certified and travels to World-level events.

When it comes to recruiting, Wood believes in shaping the culture of his program through bringing on board well-rounded, studious and hard-working athletes who have bigger goals than just winning wrestling matches.

“How you do one thing is how you do everything,” he said. “They need to be good students because that means they can be professionals outside the sport.

“I need guys who are willing to do the hard things right when nobody is watching. Going to class and practice is what everybody does … you have to do extra to achieve things you’ve never achieved before. If their room is dirty, they’re probably not doing what they need to.

“I want guys to walk away from my program understanding they have to do it anyway. You have to do it when you’re tired and when you don’t want to or when minor inconveniences come up. I don’t want their first run-in with that concept to be when they have their first kid.”

And above all else? As Wood alluded to, as a father to two daughters, shaping high-quality men to be effective husbands, fathers and leaders is paramount.

“Too many guys walk away from the sport lost because they don’t know how to get that self-worth after they’re done competing. They need to put their value in the habits. If this sport doesn’t go the way we want it to, we can still look ourselves in the mirror and be OK because of our effort.

“Everybody walks away with a bad taste in their mouth to some degree. When it comes to being future husbands and future fathers … winning matches doesn’t matter. My daughter is not going to care if I ever became an All-American or not, but she will care if I don’t take care of her.”