Army West Point head coach Kevin Ward is at the start of his 11th season at the helm of the Black Knight wrestling program. 

For Ward and company, this young 2024-25 season follows arguably one of the best years for Army wrestling in recent history. 

Last year, the West Point, New York-based service academy crowned its first All-American since Matt Kyler in 2008 when Ben Pasiuk became the 20th All-American in Army history, placing eighth at 174 pounds. 

“I never felt like that was a monkey off my back,” Ward said of securing Army's first All-American in nearly two decades. “I felt like, ‘Man, I'm really happy for Ben. Yeah, he did it.’ He's been so close the past three years, and he did it. You’re happy for him and proud of him and glad he gets to experience what he did.”

Pasiuk also etched his name in the annals of West Point wrestling folklore by becoming just the fourth four-time NCAA qualifier in program history. 

The 2023-24 Army squad — consistently a nationally ranked team, which has become commonplace under Ward — saw seven wrestlers place at the EIWA Championships and take third as a team at the one-day conference tournament. Plus, Army qualified six for the NCAA Championships — four of whom are back in the lineup this season: junior Ethan Berginc, sophomores Braden Basile, Gunner Filipowicz and Lucas Stoddard. 

To top it all off, Ward was named EIWA Coach of the Year for the second time in the last five seasons. He last won the award following the 2018-19 season. This time, though, the award comes after leading his team to a 7-4 overall dual meet record, which included a 6-1 mark against EIWA foes — including an 18-17 nail-biter of a victory in a dual on the road against rival Navy last February. That dual came down to the wire and was decided in the match’s final bout. 

“I think that we had a really good group of seniors last year, mixed with a really good group of freshmen,” Ward said of last year’s team. “And when you have that unique combination, it can be really powerful. So, we had some really great leaders (as) upperclassmen and some freshmen who didn't think they needed to wait until they were juniors or seniors to win.”

Ward went on to say that while he has many proud moments in his head coaching career — which also includes building a Division-II program from scratch at Ouachita Baptist University, in Arkadelphia, Arkansas, into a top-five team nationally — the 2023-24 season at Army was “as good of a coaching job as I've done,” Ward said. 

While last year might have been Ward and the Black Knights' best season since his arrival, Ward is far from content, and his approach during this, his 11th year, will remain the same. He will rely on what has gotten him to this point. 

Foot On The Gas

Ward will be the first to tell you that when he took over the program in 2014 it was not broken. It was a good program, but he said he believed there was room for improvement. 

“The graph doesn't always go from the bottom left to the top right, straight line,” Ward said. “Some years, you just don't have the results and the performances that you thought you could have. But mostly, we've shown, and I'm proud that we've shown that we have improved the program every year. “

It may have felt as though things started slowly at times for Ward, particularly during back-to-back three-win duals meet seasons in his first two years at West Point. Shortly after that, however, things began to change, and the wrestling world noticed Army’s continued growth as a program. This growth continues today, as noted by countless individual accolades and honors for coaches and wrestlers alike. 

According to Ward, one reason behind the steady success is that he “keeps his foot on the gas” and believes in “making improvement your #1 priority” within his program.  

“You can't take your foot off the gas,” Ward said. “To compare this to the world outside of wrestling. … I have some other friends my age who built successful businesses, but they've been doing it for the last 15 to 20 years. So, at this point in their career, they don't have to work as hard as they did the first few years of building a business.

 “But in wrestling, coaching and recruiting, I never get to that point because every year, you start from scratch, you have new recruits coming in.”

Ward has also learned throughout his tenure at West Point how critical it is to take every season one day, one practice, one dual and one tournament at a time — something he admits he has not always been the best at. 

“I think one of the mistakes I made a few times (was) looking too far ahead and overlooking some things that are right in front of you,” Ward said. “I think to keep getting better, you have to stay hungry, and it's got to be a priority for you to get better. That sounds easy, but it's pretty easy to take your eye off the ball, so you have to intentionally make sure that daily improvement is important in your program.”

Unique Experiences And Opportunities 

Another foundational element of Ward’s coaching philosophy is providing his athletes unique experiences and opportunities. Ward says this is aided by the fact that Army’s EIWA affiliation lends itself to more scheduling flexibility than most other conferences. 

“For me, it's important that we give our guys opportunities to challenge themselves against really good teams,” Ward said. “If you look at our schedule over the past few years, the teams that have been on it. … I mean, every year, we've got somebody ranked in the top five or six and sometimes higher than that on our schedule because we want those challenges, and we want unique experiences for our guys.”

Wrestling fans probably already witnessed one of those “unique” experiences earlier this season when Army kicked off its dual meet schedule on Nov. 8, attending the Throwdown on the Yorktown — an event held on the deck of the USS Yorktown in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. 

“I mean, that's why we wrestled on the deck of an aircraft carrier last week (at Throwdown on the Yorktown). It's something our guys can remember for a long time and talk about,” Ward said. “I take that approach of … we have to challenge ourselves. I want to give our guys opportunities to create memories that they're going to have with them for the rest of their lives. And I want to give them chances to be successful.”

Army seemed right at home on the aircraft carrier as the Black Knights bested Gardner-Webb 35-6. The Black Knights did so by winning eight of the dual’s 10 matches — half of which came by bonus points, plus a win by forfeit at heavyweight. 

Unfortunately, Army’s second dual on the aircraft carrier with the Citadel was cancelled due to inclement weather and condensation on the mats on the USS Yorktown. 

“When our guys graduate, they don't play home games in the Army, we hope not, like, nobody wants the Army to fight at home, so it's just good experience for them to be on the road and handle (other environments),” Ward said. “I love being on the road with the guys. It's my favorite thing. I don't like being away from my family, but that's where you bond as a team. So I like taking those trips, and I like to build them around experiences that you can have together as a team. That's what it's about for me.”

Ward very much believes in the school of thought that his Black Knights will be ready to wrestle anyone anywhere. 

“I'm not afraid to say yes,” Ward said. “When (unique opportunities) come up, I'll say, ‘Hell yeah, we'll do it,’ and I'll figure it out somewhere along the way. I don't need to know all the details. I'll just say, yes, let's do it, then we'll figure it out.”

One such experience on the schedule later this season is a non-conference matchup with the second-ranked Iowa Hawkeyes in early December at Francis Howell High School in St. Charles, Missouri.

“The thing with Iowa, there's not a bromance between me and the Brands brothers,” Ward said. “You know, Frank Popolizio set this thing up. And he called me, and he's like, ‘Hey, we're looking for an opponent for Iowa.’ And I said, I'm in. I didn’t need to hear anything else.

“I love competing against Iowa and the Brands brothers because, you know, they're going to bring it. Their fans are passionate. It's just a really fun team to be able to compete against. … “It's an opportunity for guys to challenge themselves, and they have a hell of a team.”

No NIL, No Transfer Portal, No Problem

In the new era of college athletics, the transfer portal and the increasing frequency of NIL deals significantly impact a program and a starting roster. At Army, Ward pays almost zero attention to these topics — and that’s how he said he prefers it. 

“None of the service academies are going to participate in NIL. It’s not going to happen. So, we don't have to talk about it a whole lot,” Ward said. “We don't have to deal with it in-house here, which is great because everybody on our team gets paid every month anyway. They’re on a full ride, and they get paid every month.”

Ward followed up, partially tongue-in-cheek, saying that the Army is the original NIL as it has been able to compensate wrestlers — legally, of course — well before the days of NIL. 

“We're the original NIL,” Ward said. “We're giving our guys money in their pockets every month since way before these other schools could legally do it.”

The transfer portal is also not a concern for Ward and the rest of the Army staff. Ward said he feels this is an advantage to the Army program. 

“We can tell our guys, and we can promise them, you're going to graduate with the recruits that you came into school with,” Ward said. “And my commitment as a coach is to build the best program that we can, so we're going to recruit really hard every year, but I'm not going out in the transfer portal trying to buy somebody to come in and take your spot, and then you got to wonder where you're going to go to school next. So you don't have to make two or three college decisions when you come to West Point. You can make one decision. One decision, (and) it's gonna be great for the rest of your life.”

Every wrestling program has the feel of a family or a brotherhood, but according to Ward, this is true on a different level within the Army wrestling room. 

“One of the best and the strongest attributes of our program is that sense of connection and that sense of family that's here because, you know, you’re going to graduate with them. They're going to be friends with them for the rest of your life,” Ward said. “And that sense of family that we have here that connection, it's, it's very real, and it's very tangible once you get here.”

The Rivalry With Navy

For the Army, the rivalry with the Navy — though rooted in a sense of mutual respect and their service to defend our country — is arguably one of the best rivalries in the NCAA, regardless of the sport. Wrestling is no exception. 

“The rivalry with Navy is such a such a fun one because it doesn't matter how the rest of the year has gone, or what anybody's ranked, or any of that, it's going to be a barn burner of a dual meet, guaranteed,” Ward said.

While it is certainly a marquee matchup for the Black Knights every season, Ward was quick to say that all dual meets matter to him. 

“Everything else matters, too,” Ward said. “I don't take the approach that it doesn't matter how the rest of your season goes. Like, if you're 1-10, it's a pretty shitty year, you know. 

“But the dual meet is always going to be exciting no matter what. We could be ranked 77th versus 78th in the country, and it would be dynamite.”

This year, the annual Star Series matchup is set for Sunday, Feb. 16, at Christl Arena in West Point. 

To date, the Star Match series record between the Black Knights and the Midshipmen is 9-9-1 overall, with many recent duals decided by narrow margins.  

Army won the last dual last year in 2024 in Annapolis, 18-17. Navy’s last Star Match victory came in in 2023, winning via an 18-13 score in 2023 while on the road at West Point. 

The Season Ahead 

Ward may be less than a year removed from his best year as the leader of the Army program, but rest assured, his expectations for his team have only risen. 

“The goals for us — where our program (is) right now — are pretty consistent, that we want to send all 10 guys to the national tournament, and we haven't done that yet, but it's not an unrealistic goal for us to have,” Ward said. “So that's very real for us. But we want 10 guys going to the NCAA tournament (and) represent our program. If we do that, we have a chance to win our conference tournament. That's a big goal of ours. We want to be EIWA champs.  It's been too long since Army’s done that.”

The last time a team of West Point wrestlers stood atop the EIWA at the conclusion of the conference tournament was during the 1986-87 season. 

Ward said he is excited for the season ahead, especially with a young nucleus of four returning national qualifiers, all of whom are underclassmen in Berginc, Basile, Filipowicz and Stoddard. 

“It’s exciting for us because we're starting from a really good spot right now,” Ward said. “We’ve got to keep moving forward, and that’s not easy, right, but it t makes it really exciting.”

With just a trio of events under their belt at this juncture of the young season, Ward knows there is still much work to be done. 

 “Well, my initial reaction to our first couple of competitions is we got to get a lot better. We've got a few guys that are really kind of leading the way and performing the way that we expect them to, but not everybody's clicking at the same time right now,” Ward said. “So, we've got a lot of work to do. It's a team with a huge potential, but we were not even scratching that yet.

“We just got to get everybody firing at the right time. And fortunately, it's November, so we have time to do it, but there's also some urgency to (say), ‘let's get that done now.’”

Catch Army Black Knights home duals this season on Flowrestling.