FULL PRESS CONFERENCE | OFFICIAL HIRING RELEASE

GREAT FALLS, Mont. – Argo Athletics officially introduced Tony DeAnda, the first Head Women's Wrestling Coach in school history, to the Great Falls community with an introductory press conference in the afternoon of June 2.  The hiring of DeAnda was first announced on May 15.

UGF Vice President for Athletics Dave Gantt introduced the former University of Jamestown Head Coach and spoke about why DeAnda was chosen as the man to lead the Lady Argos in their inaugural season. Following Gantt's opening statement, DeAnda made his first public comments as an Argo before taking questions from the Great Falls media and members of the UGF campus community.

For the past six years, DeAnda has built a national power at Jamestown. Since he took over the program in 2011, the Jimmies have had 16 WCWA All-Americans, including 2016 National Runner-Up Amy Fearnside.

Before coaching at Jamestown, DeAnda spent six years as an Assistant Women's Freestyle Wrestling Coach at the United States Olympic Education Center for USA Wrestling. During his time with USA Wrestling, he coached two Cadet Pan-AM Championship teams, two Junior Pan-Am Championship teams, one Youth Olympic Games Pan-Am Championship team, and one Senior Pan-Am Championship team.

DeAnda also has a storied career in his own right as an athlete. His college career started at Augustana College where he was a two-time NCAA Division III All-American. He then transferred to NCAA Division I powerhouse, University of Nebraska, where he was a national qualifier. At the international level, he was a five time Mexican National Champion and placed at the U.S. Nationals three times. He was ranked in the top 10 in the USA from 2001-05, won a bronze medal at the 2003 Pan American Games and was the 2005 Real Pro Wrestling National Champion.

Quotes from the Press Conference:

Dave Gantt:

• "As you all will find out as we get to meet Coach DeAnda a little bit more, we couldn't be more pleased with him leading our program for its inaugural season and many years into the future. We went on a path that involved a lot of phone calls, and I have to applaud Coach Caleb Schaeffer on his help with this process, and we scoured the countryside. We wanted to do right by this program, since it was our first new offering in a while. We wanted to have the same kind of leadership that we anticipate for all of our programs, coming into this program initially."
• "After countless phone calls and countless hours of debate and evaluation, we finally engaged with Tony. It just seemed like a natural from the get-go that he would be a natural fit for us. We knew that we needed to recruit him, so that he knew we were a great fit for him."

Tony DeAnda:

• "It's an honor and a privilege to be starting the program here at Great Falls. I would like to thank our Vice President for Athletics Dave Gantt, and our School President Anthony Aretz. I would also like to thank Men's Wrestling Coach Caleb Schaeffer. He has transitioned me in really easy. He has several recruits in already and he has just made it an easy transition. I want to thank him from the bottom of my heart for doing a lot of the leg work already."
• "My number one goal is to serve and to guide the student-athletes here so that they can be successful in both the classroom and on the mat. In the short term I would like to improve the roster size up to 20 and eventually get to 30 in the following year. We would also like to be competitive nationally. That's a long term goal, but I think it can also be a short term goal."
• "I have for main reasons for coming to UGF. The first reason is I wanted to piggyback off of the success of Coach Schaeffer and also, I know that this is a wrestling community. With the success her at the high school level, and at college level, it just tells me that there is culture of wrestling within this community. The second is, just the location. Being close to states like Washington, Oregon, and California makes it a little bit easier of a sales pitch to get recruits from those states that are near Montana. The third one is to be close to my wife's family who lives in Washington, and the last factor is that it allows me to get more in tune with my Catholic identity."
• "We're going to be starting the Argo wrestling club on June 6. I also want to partner up with our women's state director Rich Vasquez. I have worked with him in the past at my last school and I want to continue that partnership with him a little more in depth. We're also going to have many home events here in Great Falls and then we're going to have some events in Columbia Falls. We're trying to get some exposure for women's wrestling so that the state of Montana knows what it's all about."