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Cumberland University

Nate Croley

Nate Croley

Former two time Cumberland All-American returned to the Wrestling program for his second stint as an assistant coach in 2024. Croley will be entering his seventh season overall at Cumberland.

Entering into his second stint, Cumberland won both the Mid-South Conference Regular Season and Tournament Championship with four individual conference champions – Sammy Shires, Jack Latimer, Cole Smith, and Rocco Horvath. The Phoenix finished in eighth place at the NAIA National Championships with three Phoenix taking All-American honors. Latimer finished as the National Runner-Up while Smith finished in fourth place and Shires took eighth. Cumberland took 11 student-athletes to nationals.

During his first stint at Cumberland, in both the 2018-19 and 2019-20 seasons, wrestling has had two athletes receive All-America honors - Anothony Maia and Nathan Walton in 2018-19 and Patrick Depiazza and Nathan Walton in 2019-20. Maia reached the national tournament semifinals and Walton reached the seventh place event. In 2020, Walton finished in third place and Depiazza captured seventh.

As a student-athlete at CU, Croley was named an NAIA Wrestling All-American in 2015-16 after finishing seventh at 157 at the national championships in Topeka, Kan. He finished that season with a 25-6 at 157 and 30-9 overall at two different weight classes.

Croley repeated as an All-American in 2016-17 after placing third. The Pigeon Forge, Tenn., native lost in the main draw semifinals at 157 but came back with a pair of victories in the wrestleback to claim third place. He finished 32-10 overall in 2016-17.

Prior to his return, Croley worked at Green Hill High School as the head wrestling coach for two seasons. 

He graduated from Cumberland with a bachelor's Degree in Special Education in May 2017.