Jim Gibson

Head Coach

Jim Gibson recently completed his fourth season as head coach of the VMI wrestling program after taking over in March of 2018. Last year, VMI juniors Cameron Chicella and Jon Hoover earned National Wrestling Coaches Association (NWCA) Scholar All-America honors for the first time for the program since 2007. 

In the 2020-21 season, VMI had two individuals, Tyler Mousaw and Blake Showers, earn spots on the Southern Conference All-Freshman team. Mousaw (197) and Zach Brown (184) were ranked in the top 33 in their weight classes in the final coaches ranking of the regular season.

Under Gibson's guidance, red-shirt senior Neal Richards earned All-American honors in 2019-20, just the third VMI wrestler in program history and the first since 1999. He was named the Southern Conference Tournament's Most Outstanding Wrestler for the second-straight year after winning the 174-pound individual championship and qualifying for the NCAA Division I Tournament. VMI finished with 28 team points at the SoCon Tournament, just two points out of fourth place.

VMI finished the 2018-19 regular season in fourth place in the Southern Conference standings with a 3-3 record, the program’s best league mark since the 2006-07 campaign.  The Keydets defeated Davidson, Gardner-Webb and The Citadel in dual-meet action. Richards had one of the best seasons in program history. He was a five-time Southern Conference Wrestler of the Week, and the conference’s regular-season Wrestler of the Year and tournament’s Most Outstanding Wrestler, earning a trip to NCAA Division I Championship competition.

Gibson came to the Institute by way of Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, where he served the past six years as the head assistant wrestling coach and recruiting coordinator for the Bison. On top of coaching, Gibson was tasked with scouting and evaluating prospective student-athletes across the country, developing a competitive schedule every year, managing team travel and accommodations, and overseeing and determining the best use of the program’s financial aid and scholarship budget.

In addition, Gibson monitored the academic standards and progress of the team’s 35 student-athletes, planned and implemented on- and off-campus recruiting activities, aided the regulation of the team’s yearly operating budget and cultivated potential donors to assist in reaching the team’s yearly fundraising goals.

Gibson helped coach the 2014-15 Bison wrestling squad that went 15-4, reaching its highest ever national ranking at No. 22 and setting Bucknell’s record for single season dual meet wins. The team placed third at the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association championship in both 2015 and 2016.

Other highlights from Gibson’s time at Bucknell include three nationally ranked All-Academic teams (2014-16), 26 EIWA place-winners and the program’s 100 percent Graduation Success Rate for three consecutive years. Since 2015 Gibson has served as the co-owner and director of the Bison System Wrestling Camp in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, overseeing its daily operations, managing funds and directing 20 camp counselors and four clinicians.

Gibson began his coaching tenure at Clarion as a graduate assistant coach from 2007 to 2012 for a program that produced two All-Americans, 11 NCAA qualifiers, six PSAC champions, three EWL gold medal winners and four Academic All-Americans. The Golden Eagles placed 18th at the 2012 NCAA Championship.

A four-year starter at Edinboro University in Edinboro, Pennsylvania, Gibson qualified for the NCAA Championships as a senior in 2007 after earning an Eastern Wrestling League runner-up finish at 197 pounds and was a Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference champion. He started at the 197-pound weight class on two NCAA Top 10 teams while at Edinboro.

After college, Gibson qualified for the 2009 world team trials and was the champion of the 2009 Northeast Regional qualifier. In 2008 he placed fourth at the Northeast Regional qualifier and finished in the top eight at the 2008 U.S. National Championship’s Challenge Tournament to qualify for the 16-man U.S. National Championships.

Gibson graduated from Edinboro in 2007 with a bachelor’s degree in health and physical education with a concentration in health promotion. He went on to earn his master's in education with an emphasis in athletic coaching from Clarion in 2009.

He married his wife, Sarah, in May 2009. The couple has one son, James.