Jeff Breese - Director of Wrestling Development - Wrestling Coaches

Jeff Breese

Title:
Director of Wrestling Development
Email:
jeffrey.breese@westpoint.edu
Phone:
3123

Jeff Breese was hired as Director of Wrestling Development in July 2022. In his role, Breese is responsible for overseeing all team operations and processes. He has served under both current Class of 1972 Head Men’s Wrestling Coach Troy Nickerson as well as previous head coach Kevin Ward.

Breese’s four years on staff have been marked with success on that mat. In 2025-26, Army was 5-5 in duals with a schedule which featured three duals vs. Big Ten Conference opponents, and an additional two meets vs. other ranked opponents. Army finished 5-1 in EIWA duals, including a signature 19-18 win in the Star Dual at Navy secured by a 2-0 decision by Brady Colbert at heavyweight in the final bout. Army’s win of Navy was its third in a row and eighth over the past 12 years.

Nine Army wrestlers made the podium at the EIWA Championships in 2025-26, with Ethan Berginc (133 lbs), Gunner Filipowicz (165 lbs) and Brady Colbert (285 lbs) earning automatic berths to the NCAA Championships, held in Cleveland, Ohio. Additionally, Braden Basile (141 lbs) made the NCAA Championships as an at-large.

Berginc and Colbert each recorded wins at the NCAA Championships, with Colbert picking up a first round championship bracket victory and going 2-2 overall at the event.

During the regular season, Colbert and Filipowicz each won EIWA Wrestler of the Week accolades. Filipowicz also earned his third trip to the Southern Scuffle finals on January 4, as Army sent six to the podium at the signature mid-season event in Chattanooga, Tenn.

Army finished third as a team at the annual Black Knight Invitational on November 23, with Basile earning the tournament championship 141 lbs. Additionally, Breese helped spearhead the hosting process for the 2025 Black Knight Open on November 16, as Army won four of the individual titles.

The 2024-25 season saw seven Black Knights qualify for the NCAA Championships, the most since 2021 and tied for the second-most in program history.

Army finished third overall at the EIWA Championships, and won the star dual over Navy for the seventh time in 11 years. Trae McDaniel also captured the EIWA championship at 149 lbs, to go along with Ethan Berginc’s 133 lb title at the Black Knight Invitational, and Gunner Filipowicz’s 165 lb and Army’s team title at the Southern Scuffle.

The 2023-24 season was one of Army’s most storied in its recent history. Seven wrestlers placed at the EIWA Championships, with six qualifying for the NCAA Championships. The year culminated in Kansas City, Mo., with Ben Pasiuk becoming the 20^th All-American in Army history, with an eighth place finish at 174 lbs in the NCAA Championships. Pasiuk also became just the fourth four-time NCAA qualifier in program history.

Breese spent the previous four seasons leading the wrestling team at Lake Erie College, an NCAA Division II program in Painesville, Ohio. Throughout his coaching career before arriving at West Point, Breese coached 45 NCAA Qualifiers, including one National Champion, and 10 All-Americans. He's also had a hand in four top-30 national recruiting classes, including one ranked in the top-5.

In his Lake Erie tenure, he coached a total of 10 national qualifiers, three All-Americans, and 40 Scholar All-Americans. Breese led the Storm to a Great Midwest Athletic Conference Championship in the 2018-19 season which was the fourth conference title in program history. Breese also led the Storm to a Top 5 finish for the Scholar All-America Team in the 2021-22 season. The Storm finished in the Top 20 of the Scholar All-America standings three out of four years since Breese's arrival in 2018. In dual contests at Lake Erie, the Storm had 24 wins.

Before Lake Erie College, he was the head coach for four years at NCAA Division III Buena Vista University in Storm Lake, Iowa. He also served as the director of operations at North Carolina State, was on the coaching staff at Northern Illinois, and was the first head coach in program history at Penn State New Kensington. He began his career in the coaching field in 2006 at Seton Hill University where he spent two years assisting in starting up the university's wrestling program.

A 2006 graduate of North Carolina State University, Breese was a three-year starter for the Wolfpack and a member of their 2004 Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) championship wrestling team.