Bruce Wasem - Head Coach
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Office Phone: 276-328-0208 |
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Bruce Wasem will guide the University of Virginia’s College at Wise football program for the sixth year and attempt to build upon the team’s best season under his direction.
Wasem earned his first Mid-South East Coach of the Year honors in 2006 when UVa-Wise posted an 8-3 record and second place finish in the East Division, the highest finish since joining the league in 2002.
The longtime Highland Cavaliers’ coach has been one of the architects of the football program. The head coach is in his 17th-year with the program and is the only person to have seen all 162 games the team has played. Wasem has seen UVa-Wise go from not owning a single football in March of 1991 to today when its facilities are arguably the best of any small college in the nation.
Wasem has helped see the program from its inception, through two NAIA playoff runs and the building of Beaty-Richmond Field at Carl Smith Stadium complex.
The veteran football coach has led the Highland Cavaliers to an improvement in the win column in each of the past two seasons including doubling from 4-7 in 2005 to 8-3 last year. The eight wins were the most for the program since 1996’s 10-1 campaign. The Cavs finished the season ranked 24th after making it as high as 16th.
Over his tenure, the coach’s teams have produced 34 All-Mid-South Conference selections including 15 on the first team as well as 16 Academic All-Mid-South athletes. UVa-Wise had 11 Don Hansen’s Football Gazette All-Americans, two Daktronics NAIA All-Americans and a NAIA Scholar-Athlete.
Wasem joined his long-time mentor Bill Ramseyer, the founding head coach of Highland Cavalier football, in the early spring of 1991 to start the program. He was the team’s Defensive Coordinator for the first 11 years where he helped UVa-Wise reach the national playoffs in 1995 and achieve an undefeated season and another playoff berth in 1996.
Upon Ramseyer’s retirement in 2002, Wasem assumed the head coaching duties and helped initiate the Cavs’ transition into the nationally-recognized Mid-South Conference.
Before coming to the Cavs, Wasem coached under Ramseyer at Wilmington College of Ohio for 17 years, serving as the Defensive Coordinator as well as the Head Baseball Coach for six years and Director of Intramurals.
The head coach has served as American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) chair of the NAIA Assistant Coaches Committee for two different terms as well as working on the AFCA’s football rules committee.
On the UVa-Wise campus, Wasem is a teacher and advisor in the physical education major. He also chairs the Student Publication Committee.
The Ohio native played college football for Bluffton College and later obtained his M.A. from Ohio State University.
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