Lansing’s Lapresi leads new program at Utica

Lansing has a proud wrestling history, with athletes like Kyle Dake dominating the global stage in their professional careers. But one wrestling alum is making history in the coaching realm.

Recently, Utica University announced that Connor Lapresi would become the first-ever head coach of the women’s wrestling team. Lapresi, who was a New York State champion in 2012, spent the past eight months serving as the head women’s wrestling coach at Ferrum University, a Division III school in Virginia. Not only is Lapresi excited to be back in his home state, but he’s also ecstatic about leading a brand-new program.

“It’s good to be back with that feeling of [being a] part of history, and now I’m creating history and taking my past as sort of a springboard forward into the future,” Lapresi said. “There are some things that just make sense, and this just happens to be one of those cases, and it feels right. I’m excited to be at the Windsor Christmas tournament again and all these other venues and places that I won’t remember exactly, but I know the second I walk into the gym, I’m gonna go, ‘Oh yeah, I know this place,’ and all those other memories that come from really growing up in the area. It is truly an honor to return.”

Lapresi first found out about this opportunity on Twitter when he saw that Adam Greene was named the first-ever men’s wrestling head coach at Utica in early December. In the past, Lapresi actually wrestled against Greene’s brother Dustin at the Chenango Valley Duals. Once David Fontaine, Utica’s director of athletics, reached out to Lapresi about the women’s wrestling opening, it felt more like a formality. While the inaugural season doesn’t start until next winter, Lapresi is already hard at work.

“I’m super excited because I know that they want to get the season rolling and they want to hit the ground running,” Lapresi said. “I’m already on the recruiting [trail and] trying to talk to people about growing New York State and becoming the premier program in the area and be a beacon for young programs and young girls to rally behind.”

Lapresi has plenty of coaching experience already under his belt. During the 2021-22 season, he was an assistant coach at SUNY Cortland. Before then, he coached at the Doughboy Wrestling Club in Boston, MA starting in 2018. Lapresi attributes getting the coaching bug from his time helping out at the Finger Lakes Wrestling Club during college.

“I was coaching without knowing,” Lapresi said. “In my mind I was ‘helping out.’ It wasn’t until I kind of looked back and realized I was laying the foundation of being a coach, learning how to show my moves, learning how to run a practice, have control of a room, [and] run a club practice. There would be plenty of times where it would be, ‘Lapresi, run the warm-up,’ or ‘Lapresi, show him the front headlock,’ simple things [with] countless repetitions. Over time, when I do go to clinics and show moves, it has that ease [and] that level of understanding that shows that [I’ve] done this before. Luckily, I just have that muscle memory to lean back on because I was around so, so many amazing people.”

Utica continues the trend of colleges in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic that are creating women’s wrestling programs. This growth is also evident at the local high school level, with the IAC holding their first-ever girls wrestling championships on Jan. 21 alongside the boys’ championships. The New York State Public High School Athletic Association (NYSPHSAA) also had its first girls wrestling individual tournament on Jan. 27. Lapresi credits the constant cooperation with his fellow women’s wrestling coaches with helping grow the sport.

“It really is a collaborative environment,” Lapresi said. “I think that when there’s good people in positions who have the ability to channel the energy that is behind women’s wrestling— especially in New York—that’s when these kinds of special things can start to happen. We’ve talked about using the dome in Utica—which is just an amazing space to host wrestling tournaments—to try to become that place… where people can rally and not just host the tournament but just be a place where we can meet and network and collaborate, and different clubs can get around different people and grow in that way… Getting [women’s wrestling] moving at the New York level is our part, at least.”

Ten years on from his state title, Lapresi embarks on a new journey in the women’s wrestling sphere, one that he hopes to make a lasting impact on for years to come.

“[I’m most excited about] truly being able to start something and put my name next to it,” Lapresi said. “I look forward to the next decade and what that may be.”