Kaylynn Albrecht recently made the 26-hour move from Colorado to Pennsylvania.
That is just the latest step in the wrestling world for the Trophy Club Byron Nelson graduate. Albrecht was named an assistant coach for the Lehigh University women’s wrestling team in Bethlehem.
Coach Brazel Marquez announced the hiring of Albrecht and Justin Cliotta, who will be the director of operations for the Mountain Hawks.
“Kaylynn brings a ton of passion and empathy, along with a drive to be great and a desire to pour into those around her,” Marquez said. “She has a strong foundation in knowing who she is and is willing to find out more about herself. She uses wrestling and having a team to do so and fill her cup. Kaylynn is going to train for 2028 here and she’s going to give her all to our women who also have the same dreams and desires. I’m excited to see all that she brings to the table.”
Albrecht was part of the U.S. National Team in 2025-26, taking true third in the 72 kg bracket at the Final X. She’s also a three-time U.S. Open placer and owns four gold medals in international competition.
In addition, Albrecht was a NAIA National Champion at Baker University.
Albrecht was a two-time all-stater in high school and a state finalist in the UIL 6A finals in 2019.
She’s spent the past three years at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. Albrecht talked to WrestlingTexas.com about the new gig, what’s left and more.
“I kind of have known for a long time that Colorado wasn’t supposed to be my permanent home, but I think the one thing missing at the training center is that team environment, which I’ve had some being on Team Texas, and then at Wayland (Baptist), and then a little bit at Baker, and again at McKendree,” she said. “I wasn’t ready to leave the training center yet, and just kind of this year, I felt like I was missing out on a lot of that. I still felt isolated. There were a lot of my teammates facing injuries, recovering from surgeries and moving on to different chapters of their lives. So trying to figure out where I kind of had a place in the mat room.”
Looking ahead
Albrecht said she started to look to her future after graduating from McKendree. She saw the College of New Jersey was looking for an assistant coach, but there wasn’t a full fit.
She said she still wants to keep her wrestling career going — and she will on Oct. 4 in the Claw-Star Classic in Leesburg, Virginia.
She also wanted to earn her master’s degree, while working eventually toward a doctorate.
Albrecht said she initially reached out to Marquz on Facebook about an open position but did not get a reply.
She noticed the coach was more of an Instagram-type of person and tried there.
It worked.
“She said, ‘Do you think you can handle this? Still be an athlete and a coach?” We had a conversation, and I felt like I was ready for it. And I was already visiting Pennsylvania because my boyfriend lives out here, and we set up a time for me to come and visit.”
She got a tour of the campus, had breakfast with a few of the wrestlers and the role fit her more.
“I’m still wrestling,” she said when asked. “I’m not ready to leave my career behind. I don’t feel like I’m finished yet, and I’ve only gone for one Olympic run, so I definitely want to make it two, and then, and then we can come back to. Am I ready to decide that or not? I definitely haven’t even tried coaching, and then I don’t have my degree yet. Like life preparation-wise, I’m not in a position where I feel like I’m ready to walk away from sport. And then also, just I love wrestling. I still love competing and training. So definitely, we’ll still be doing all of that.”
The career path
Albrecht has done clinics — she was part of one that started on Aug. 6 in Pennsylvania — in Texas throughout her college career. She still felt like she wasn’t meant to be a coach.
She called herself stubborn and hardheaded about that desire. She thought if she ever did, it would be at the collegiate level.
Albrecht got a slight look at that while competing at Wayland Baptist. She was unable to wrestle the second semester of the college season, but in a way became an impromptu coach for teammates.
She said they picked up what she was teaching — and how — quickly.
Then she got a chance to do some coaching at the Olympic Center when younger wrestlers came in to train, whether U17 or U20.
“I feel there’s too much opportunity around it for me to say no to it, just because I haven’t had the best experiences coaching. I am really passionate about giving back to the sport,” she said. “And I know it’s taken some maturity out of me to have that willingness even more so. Just being able to recognize how much that is going to be a gift to me from the girls at Lehigh, and then the gifts that I’ve been able to receive with all the tools that the Olympic Training Center has given me. I can now give to them and know that I could help them a lot with their careers.”
She added, “It started to line up, and then I feel like God has been walking me down this path where it was like, maybe it’s time to get out of Colorado.”
Leaning on mentors
When the Lehigh position became an option, she called two of her coaches in Texas. Her high school coach, Carlos Ornelas, and her club coach, Travis Clark.
“What do you guys think?” she said, recalling the conversation with the two. “You know me. You know the kind of decisions I make. You know me as an adult. Knew me as a kid. You know me as an athlete. You know me off the mat and my family. Like these are things I’m considering. You know, these are things I’m struggling with. This is what I believe is going to be a good opportunity for me and some of the benefits I’m going to get there. Like, let’s spitball ideas off of each other because you guys are definitely people that I respect highly and I want your opinion but also want your support. If this is something that you feel like you could continue to support me in, then I absolutely want to do it. But if it’s something that you feel like I should walk away from, even though I am an adult, it’s like I feel like those are cues for me that tell me that this might not be a good decision for me. I’ve had nothing but good things and support come from all of my mentors and family members that I’ve called about this decision.”
