Texas Wesleyan’s Athletic Department is set to hire a new coach for the men and women’s wrestling team this week, Athletic Director Ricky Dotson said Tuesday.

“We hope to make a decision by the end of the week and of course they will have to go through background checks and all of that stuff, but we are hoping to have somebody named in the next couple of weeks,” Dotson said.

Five coaches initially applied for the position, and as of Tuesday, Dotson said, the department was down to two applicants. The addition of the program was announced in November.

The coach that is hired will have a full-time assistant and then has the option to choose a coach for either the male or female team and take the other, or the coach can handle both teams and have the assistant help with both, Dotson said.

“We are really going to leave it up to the coach and talk through that whole process to see what the best way is to handle it,” he said.

Because the high school wrestling season ends at the end of February or early March, Dotson said he wants the coach to start recruiting right away. There have already been a number of students from all over the country who have shown interest in the wrestling program.

“We are holding those names and when we get a coach we will pass it along,” he said. “The way we understand it, I think our admissions people have already been in contact with a lot of those individuals.”

Dotson said temporarily, the wrestling team will practice temporarily at the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Tarrant County, which is located on Avenue G less than two blocks from campus.

“We have talked to them and they have been very accommodating. We have had a really good relationship with them in the past,” he said.

Wesleyan’s Student Government Association President Alyssa Hutchinson said she is excited to see wrestling come to the campus.

“My brother wrestled in high school, so I was always around the atmosphere,” Hutchinson said. “I always thought it was weird that we didn’t have it and so now that we do, yay!”

Hutchinson said that since there are not many colleges in Texas that offer wrestling, it seems like a good move for Wesleyan, just like eSports was.

SGA Vice President Lynzie Moore, who is also a part of the women’s soccer team, said that the addition of men’s and women’s wrestling is wonderful and extremely beneficial to the athletic program as a whole.

“A vast majority of the student population here at Texas Wesleyan are student athletes, thus adding a new sport could potentially lead to more students,” Moore said. “I know wrestling is big in the Metroplex, so I think Texas Wesleyan would benefit from adding this program.”

SGA Secretary Alison Baron said that although she does not know much about wrestling, she is excited to see the university grow.

“The addition of the football program brought so many wonderful students to our campus, and I can’t wait to see our Ramily grow again,” Baron said.