Ruben Chavez, enters his first season as an assistant coach with the UW-Oshkosh women's wrestling program in 2026-27.
Chavez came to Oshkosh with more than 22 years of coaching experience across the youth, high school, club, collegiate, national and international levels. Throughout his career, Chavez has helped develop more than 200 state qualifiers, 100 state placers, 35 state champions and 40 collegiate All-Americans. He has also coached NCAA and NAIA national champions, World Team members, World medalists and World champions in freestyle wrestling.
Prior to joining the Titans, Chavez served as the head women's wrestling coach at Wesleyan College (Ga.) from 2025-26. Tasked with building the new NAIA program ahead of its inaugural 2026-27 season, Chavez established the program's recruiting and operational foundation while developing a recruiting pipeline of more than 150 prospective student-athletes. He also oversaw scholarship allocation, roster development, budgeting, scheduling, fundraising and community outreach.
Chavez served as the interim head women's wrestling coach at Friends University (Kan.) during the 2024-25 season. With the Falcons, he oversaw day-to-day program operations, athlete development, practice and competition preparation, recruiting and roster management.
Before entering the collegiate coaching ranks, Chavez spent more than a decade as an assistant wrestling coach at Iowa City High School from 2012-23. He helped develop numerous Iowa state qualifiers, state placers and state champions while also coaching a U20 World Champion and World silver medalist and assisting in the development of eight NCAA Division I student-athletes.
Chavez's national-level coaching experience includes serving on the Team Texas USA Wrestling staff at the Fargo National Championships and National Duals as well as working with USA Wrestling Women's National Team training camps at the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Training Center and in Iowa City. He has worked with Senior National Team athletes, World Team members, Olympic hopefuls and age-group national champions throughout his coaching career.
A former member of the University of Iowa wrestling team, Chavez competed for Hawkeye squads that placed second, fifth and fourth at the NCAA Division I Championships. He later served as a resident athlete and college athlete mentor with the Hawkeye Wrestling Club from 2008-11.
(September 16, 2026)
