Bio

Associate Head Coach Clay Nagel
Phone: 218-299-4436
E-Mail: cnagel@cord.edu

Clay Nagel is in his eighth season as a coach for Concordia College wrestling program. He was the team's head coach for seven seasons before moving to Associate Head Coach in the summer of 2013.

He was hired in August of 2004 as the co-head coach for the Cobber wrestling team, and was then named as full-time head coach in December of 2004.

During his six years at Concordia he has taken the Cobber wrestling program into the national spotlight. He has produced eight NCAA All-Americans including a program record three each during the 2009-10 and 2010-11 seasons. The ultimate goal for Nagel's program was achieved in 2010 when he guided Phil Moenkedick to a National Championship at the NCAA Division III National Meet. The combination backed that feat up by winning the national title again in 2010-11.

Nagel, and his son Matt (Cobber Associate Head Coach Matt Nagel), topped their record-setting season of 2009-10 in 2010-11 when they took a school-record six wrestlers to the NCAA National Meet. Concordia went on to finish seventh at the national meet which upped the school record by two places. The Cobbers were also ranked in the top 20 of the nation for the second straight season and climbed all the way to No.6 in the nation. CC also had a record-setting six wrestlers ranked in the top 10 of the DIII individual rankings. The 2010-11 season also saw Concordia defeat perennial national power Augsburg in a dual meet.

In 2009-10 Nagel helped Concordia place ninth at the National Meet - the highest national finish in school history. The Cobbers were also ranked in the top 20 of the nation for the entire season.

Nagel is a well-traveled wrestling veteran that brings a wealth of top-level experience to the program. For the past 17 years he has been the head coach at Frazee High School. While under the tutelage of Nagel, the Hornets won three Minnesota state championships and 13 section titles. He was named the Minnesota State High School Class "A" Coach of the Year in 1999. He has also been named the Region Coach of the Year seven times and the Sub-Section Coach of the Year on six different occasions. In 1999 he was elected the President of the Minnesota Wrestling Coaches Association.

During his high school coaching career he has compiled a 314-69-2 record in dual matches. He has coached 137 state entrants, 64 state placers, 32 state finalists and 17 individual state champions. He has coached seven high school All-Americans and three of his wrestlers went on to become college All-Americans.

Before coaching at Frazee, he was the head coach at Beach High School in Beach, N.D. During his tenure at Beach, the team won the region title in 1987.

A native of New Salem, N.D., Nagel attended Bismarck Junior College and Dickinson State where he flourished as a collegiate wrestler. He was a two-time All-American and the NAIA region champ in 1980-81. While at Bismarck Junior College, Nagel competed as a member of the 1979 Jr. Pan-American team that wrestled in Ecuador.

After graduating from Dickinson State in 1979 with a degree in Physical Education, Health and Recreation, he went on to take the head job at Beach High School.

Besides his outstanding high school record, he has also coached on the national and international level. From 1996-98 he was the assistant coach of the Minnesota USA Cadet Freestyle and Greco-Roman National Teams. In 1999-2000 he was the assistant coach of the junior Greco-Roman National Team. He then went on to become head coach of the junior Greco-Roman team from 2002-04.

Besides his coaching duties at Frazee, he was also taught physical education and social studies teaching staff. He was nominated for the Frazee/Vergas Teacher of the Year five different times and won the award in 2001.