The 2024-25 season beings the fourth season at Delaware Valley for Andrew Taylor after taking over the DelVal men's wrestling program in April of 2020. His first season at the helm was an abbreviated campaign due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Taylor has guided two men's wrestlers to MAC Championship victories. The first was Ryan (Arndt) Kelly in 2023, then Jacob Blair in 2024, both in the 133 lbs. class.
In 2023-24, Taylor was named Middle Atlantic Conference coach of the year. The Aggies finished the season with a dual meet record of 14-5, along with having eleven MAC Championship placer winners, eight Southeast Region place winners, and one NCAA All-American (Blair).
During his first full and complete season in 2021-22, Taylor led the Aggies to a 4-4 mark in duals. The Aggies also captured their first tournament title since 2017 with a first place finish out of 12 teams at the Waynesburg Invitational. Taylor also led his team to a second place finish out of eight teams at the Baldwin Wallace invite. The team roster more than doubled in size from Taylor's first season at the helm, as 27 Aggies were suited up. Taylor coached his first national qualifier in Youssef Ait-Boulahri, as the senior finished second at Regionals. Ait-Boulahri also earned the MAC Scholar Academic Award and was also joined by Ryan Kelly, Mike Rubino and Dan Eckley as NWCA Scholar All-Americans.
In first season in 2020-21, the squad went 1-4 in dual matches, but Taylor grew the team in numbers and academic success. The 2021 Aggies had six MAC Academic Honor Roll members, two Academic All-MAC honorees, and four NWCA Scholar All-Americans. Taylor earned his first-career victory in a 31-22 triumph over Messiah College in the 2021 season opener on February 13.
A native of Columbus, Ohio, Taylor, comes to DelVal by way of Division III affiliate Baldwin Wallace University where he served as assistant men's wrestling coach of his alma mater for six seasons under head coach Jamie Gibbs.
As a member of the Yellow Jackets staff, Taylor helped compile a 104-23 record over five seasons and captured four-straight Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) titles, two Central Regional championships, and two regional runner-up finishes while being nationally ranked each year. During that span, Baldwin Wallace had 38 individual national qualifiers, including a Division-III best nine individual qualifiers in 2018, and six All-Americans. This season, BW was ranked number six in the country heading into the 2020 Division III National Championships.
Taylor played a key role in the Yellow Jackets' success off the mat and in the classroom as well. The team finished with the second-highest team GPA in all of Division-III for the 2018-19 season and ranked 10th overall in 2019-20 with a 3.55 team GPA.
As a Division-III student-athlete at BW, Taylor compiled a 92-70 career record with three 20-plus win seasons, including one trip to the national championships and a nod to the NWCA Scholar All-American team.
Taylor is the 10th head coach in DelVal men's wrestling history.
