DRAGON ATHLETICS
Staff
Keenan Spiess, Facilities Coordinator / Head Wrestling Coach
Vigilant caretaker of a time-tested program that provided Minnesota State University Moorhead with its lone national championship and continues to annually attract sizeable national attention, Keenan Spiess begins his fifth season as head wrestling coach at MSUM this winter.
Spiess succeeded the legendary John Sterner following the 2002-03 season and has added more chapters to the Dragon success story. In his first four seasons at State, Spiess has crafted a 47-22 dual meet record with two Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference championships.
In addition, the Dragons have crowned a national champion—Nate Baker—and qualified 22 wrestlers for the NCAA Division II National Championships. Last year Spiess piloted the Dragons to a 14-8 dual meet record and produced a pair of All-Americans.
In 2005-06 MSU Moorhead finished 10-7, captured a second NSIC title in three years and produced an individual national champ for the first time in nine years. The Dragons charted an 11-4 dual meet campaign in 2004-05 and dispatched six wrestlers to the nationals. In his first season as the Dragons’ head coach, Spiess patiently guided MSUM to a 12-3 dual record and reclaimed the conference crown. MSUM also placed fifth in the NCAA II North Central Region and advanced three wrestlers to the national championship.
Spiess became the only MSUM coach to debut with back-to-back-to-back double-digit dual meet victories in his first three years on the job.
A native of Fargo, ND, Spiess earned NAIA honorable mention All-American honors as a sophomore and junior at MSU Moorhead and qualified for the national tournament again as a senior. A transfer from North Dakota State University and a tri-captain of the 1994-95 Dragons, Spiess claimed the NSIC 167-pound title in 1995.
A four-year letterman and captain-elect of the Dragons as a senior, Spiess earlier served as an assistant under Sterner. He returned to the MSUM wrestling staff in 2002-03 after four seasons as head coach at Fargo North High School.
During Spiess' tenure as head coach of the Spartans, Fargo North collected three North Dakota State Class A individual championships. He was honored as East Region Coach of the Year in 1999-2000.
A two-time Spartan MVP, Spiess was a North Dakota State Class A individual runnerup at Fargo North.
