NDSU

Roger Kish was head coach of the North Dakota State University wrestling team for 12 seasons before being hired as head coach at the University of Oklahoma in May 2023.

Kish was the fourth head coach in the history of the Bison wrestling program. He took over in 2011-12 after spending two seasons as an assistant coach with the Bison under National Wrestling Hall of Fame head coach Bucky Maughan.

Kish had a 109-69 overall record including a 50-30 record in conference duals. Kish guided the Bison to a 33-26 mark in the Big 12 Conference and was 17-4 in the Western Wrestling Conference.
 
Kish guided the Bison to back-to-back fifth-place finishes in the Big 12 Championships over his final two years. He coached NDSU's first three Big 12 individual champions Cam Sykora in 2020 (133 pounds), Luke Weber in 2021 (165 pounds) and Jared Franek in 2023 (157 pounds).

North Dakota State had 54 NCAA championship qualifiers under Kish including 21 over his final four seasons. He had six wrestlers advance to earn All-America honors including Trent Sprenkle (2013, 125/5th), Steven Monk (2014, 165/3rd), Kurtis Julson (2015, 174/8th), Hayden Zillmer (2015, 184/6th), Jared Franek (2023, 157/4th) and Michael Caliendo (2023, 165/7th).

Kish directed the Bison to a pair of NCAA West Regional/Western Wrestling Conference championships (2014, 2015) and two WWC regular season titles (2013, 2015). He was a three-time WWC Coach of the Year.

In addition, Clay Ream was a three-time NCAA Elite 90 award winner and Jared Franek was a back-to-back winner of the Elite 90, which recognizes the student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade-point average at each of the NCAA's national championship sites.

Kish joined the NDSU program after a successful wrestling career at the University of Minnesota, where he was a graduate assistant for the Gophers in 2008-09. The Lapeer, Mich., native was a two-time All-American and two-time NCAA runner-up for the Gophers at 184 pounds. 

He had a career record of 117-27 for the Gophers. As a sophomore, he went 35-7 en route to a Big Ten title and an NCAA runner-up finish. In his junior season, Kish was 37-3 and was the Big Ten and national runner-up.  He was also a team captain.

Kish graduated from Minnesota in May 2008 with a bachelor’s degree in business and marketing education.

He was also a two-time cadet national champion and also captured a USA Wrestling junior national title. At Lapeer West High School, he was a four-time Michigan state champion.

Kish is the son of Roger and Brenda Kish. His older brother, James, wrestled at North Carolina.