Head Coach Matt Burlingame

Position: Head Wrestling Coach
Alma Mater: Virginia Tech
Date of Hire: September 2006
Years Coaching: 12

Matt Burlingame enters his first year as the head coach of the Manchester College wrestling program.  Last year he served as the assistant wrestling coach at Manchester and helped coach the Spartans to a 3rd place finish at the Midwest Regional.  Additionally, two of his wrestlers qualified for the DIII National Championship and one became Manchester 's 22 All-American.  Matt has nine years of coaching experience as well as a Division I wrestling background.  

Prior to joining the Manchester program, Matt coached high school in Kansas, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania.  In his coaching career, he has coached 5 individual state champions, 7 state place winners, and numerous state qualifiers.  He has also help coach these teams to league and regional championships, and two top ten finishes in the state tournament.

Matt graduated from Virginia Tech in 1995 with a B.S. in Fisheries Science.  While at Virginia Tech, Matt was a four year starter and 3 year co-captain for the Hokies’ wrestling program.  During his tenure, Matt was a Virginia Intercollegiate League State Champion and 3-time place winner, a 4-time Colonial Athletic Conference place winner, and graduated 10th on the Hokies’ all-time win list.

Following graduation from Virginia Tech, Matt received a M.S. in Biology from Kansas State.  Matt and his wife, Julie, and their three children Emma, Elijah, and Isaiah reside in Fort Wayne.

Name: Ben Sprunger
Position: Assistant Wrestling Coach
Alma Mater: Purdue University
Date of Hire: September 2007
Years Coaching: 2 

Ben Sprunger wrestled for Bluffton High School in Bluffton, Indiana and was a 3-time state place winner and a state champion for the Tigers. Following graduation, Coach Sprunger attended Carson Newman College and earned NCAA DII All-American honors as a freshman. Coach Sprunger then transferred to Purdue University where he spent 3 years wrestling for the Boilermakers. After a red-shirt year, he spent two seasons competing for Purdue at 141 pounds.

Most recently Coach Sprunger returned from Nalchik, Russia where he coached and competed at the international level for Athletes in Action. This experience provided Coach Sprunger the opportunity to train with and compete against some of Russia’s finest wrestlers.