ROYE OLIVER BRINGS OLYMPIC EXPERIENCE TO LPU WRESTLING
SAN DIMAS, Calif. – As Life Pacific's Wrestling programs face a transition in leadership, Roye Oliver has been hired as the Director of Wrestling here at Life Pacific University. In this time of social distancing, Coach Oliver will begin virtual recruiting immediately. Coach Oliver comes to LPU with a vast amount of experience from all levels spanning across the globe including time spent with the U.S. Olympic Wrestling Team.
Athletic Director, Tim Cook, on the hiring of Roye Oliver:
"We are extremely pleased with the hiring of the Director of Wrestling position. Coach Oliver brings an incredible resume and acumen of 30+ years in the wrestling community. He has honors including working with the US Olympic team, wrestling at the NCAA D1 level at Arizona State, and he brings an unbelievable sense of strong Christian leadership. He will continue the foundation of excellence that has started here for LPU in wrestling, and we look forward to him and the staff taking it to another level. We want to welcome Coach Roye Oliver and his lovely wife Carolyn to the LPU family."
Roye started his Wrestling career in 1964 at the North Omaha Boys Club. This National Junior Olympic Champion compiled a 105-4 record and won a State Championship before graduating from Technical High School in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1974. He was inducted into the Nebraska Wrestling Hall of Fame in 1981.
While wrestling at Arizona State University, Roye was a 4-time NCAA Division 1 Qualifier and 3-time NCAA D1 All-American. He won two Western Athletic Conference titles at 150 pounds in 1976 and 1977, helping ASU to just their second team championship in program history. Oliver placed 5th in the NCAA Championships in both of those seasons, along with an 8th place medal at 158 pounds in 1979, which made him ASU's first 3-time honoree. His collegiate record was 81-21-1, and he was inducted into the ASU Sports Hall of Fame in 1982.
After college, Roye was an alternate on the U.S. Olympic Wrestling Team in 1984. He was the Head Wrestling Coach at Palomar Junior College in San Marcos from 1986-1992, where his 1988 team won the California Community College Championship. He was also named the California Community College Coach of the Year.
During this period, he started a youth wrestling program at the Escondido Boys' and Girls' Club, enhancing the number from 12 to 85 wrestlers. Many of the wrestlers excelled in high school, including 3 CIF State Champions and 8 State Placers among 12 State Qualifiers.
Oliver returned home to serve as an Assistant Wrestling Coach at the University of Nebraska Omaha from 1998-2003. He was a member of the 1996 U.S. Olympic Wrestling Coaching Staff, and he also served as a USA Wrestling National Developmental Coach at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs from 1993-1998.
After coming back to California, Roye was named Head Wrestling Coach at Fallbrook High School from 2003-2008. He followed that term with two years as an Assistant Coach at California Baptist University in Riverside from 2008-2010. Since then, Oliver has been the Head Wrestling Coach at Army and Navy Academy in Carlsbad. He was selected as the Coach of the Year in 2017 after revising their program and leading ANA to their first two CIF State Qualifiers and first State Placer. The team was the runner-up in their CIF Divisional competition.
Roye won National Veterans Freestyle Championships in 2004 and 2007. Oliver also won a gold medal at the 2007 Veterans Freestyle World Championships and was the team leader of the World Team in Istanbul, Turkey. Oliver organized and administered 10 annual national wrestling camps/clinics. He was inducted into the California Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2015, and in 2019, inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
Q & A with Coach Oliver
Roye Oliver on his new opportunity:
"I want to share that I come into the position with the grace and love from my Lord and savior who is first in my life. My belief has been a strong blessing in my life and inspires me to be more in all aspects of my life, including being the new Director of Wrestling. I am very grateful and thankful for this opportunity to be able to participate in this segment of your lives. My goals are to help make the student-athletes, your sons and daughters, strive to be the wrestlers and individuals they can be. As I've stated many times, God is the first priority in life. The second priority is my uncompromised belief that our student-athletes are students before they are wrestlers and that academics are essential to the success of our program. My goal is to create and support a healthy balance between education and wrestling."
What is your reason for coaching?
"To help make student-athletes, your men and women, strive to be the best wrestlers and individuals they can be. I have wrestled since I was 8 years old and you will see from my bio that wrestling is my passion."
Share a little bit about your testimony.
"My philosophy of life plays a large role in what propels my work as a wrestling coach. I have many years of experience in coaching, and I bring with me a tremendous amount of love and respect for the team sports that are offered by the schools I have worked at. There is no greater reward than working with student-athletes in the Athletics world who thrive under my coaching. The skill and ability to help athletes maintain a healthy balance of sports and education is my goal." ?
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