Cody Thorn
One of the pillars who helped grow the Tarleton State wrestling program has left.
Last month, Drexel University announced the hiring of Jimmy Overhiser as an assistant coach for the 2024-25 season.
While he never officially coached in a match for Tarleton State, Overhiser joined head coach Grant Leeth in building the foundation of a program from scratch.
He left the Army program to come to Stephenville a year ago.
“We didn’t have a team, we didn’t have kids, we didn’t get to do the most fun and fulfilling parts of coaching,” Leeth said of Overhiser’s exit.
During his time at West Point, Overhiser helped coach three Black Knights to the NCAA tournament. The 2023-24 freshman class was also ranked 17th in the country by Intermat and 21st in the nation by Matscouts.
Prior to Army, Overhiser had stints at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and Reinhardt. A 2020 graduate of Cornell University, Overhiser was part of the wrestling team there.
“Jimmy was a pretty seasoned college coach and was a phenomenal recruiter,” Leeth said. “We divided up because it was two of us. He was responsible for recruiting, as well as putting together a season schedule, and he knocked both out of the park. He brought in amazing kids. We’ve got a great schedule for this coming season, even being an NWCA team.”
Leeth moved quickly to fill the void, bringing in Dalton Brady.
The former Arizona State wrestler will make the transition from high school coach to college coach with this move to the Lone Star State.
He most recently was an assistant at Chandler High School in Chandler, Arizona for the past six years. He was a four-time state champion at Chandler before going to Utah Valley University and ultimately ended up at Arizona State, where he was a PAC-12 champion.
He was ranked in the top 15 in the country and was a member of the Cadet World Team, but a neck injury forced him to retire from the sport.
“He is an unbelievably great wrestler and he’s hungry to learn,” Leeth said. “His roles are going to be similar to Jimmy’s roles. I have him a large part in the recruiting process for now, while I continue to focus on the administrative and fundraising side. But as we go on, my ultimate goal is to create a coaching tree where guys get coaching opportunities and better opportunities down the road. So I’ll have him involved in every piece of the program eventually. But for right now, his sole focus is their practice plan, recruiting and little things that come up here and there.”
Brady will also start a youth club out of the new wrestling room at Tarleton State, focusing on kids from Stephenville and the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area.
