Cal Poly Wrestling Coaching Staff

Brendan Buckley

Head Coach
First Season

Brendan Buckley, head wrestling coach at Ivy League member Columbia University in New York for the last 11 seasons, was named Cal Poly’s head wrestling coach on June 21, 2011. 

“Brendan has an excellent record in developing student-athletes,” said Mustang director of athletics Don Oberhelman. “Brendan has demonstrated that he knows how to fulfill his first responsibility as a coach, which is to make sure we honor our commitment to our student-athletes’ academic achievement. We’ve hired the right coach to ensure we continue to honor those ideals.

“Brendan also believes, as I do, that all of our student-athletes should strive to leave Cal Poly with a diploma and a championship,” Oberhelman added. “I’m very excited about what he will accomplish at Cal Poly.”

Buckley, who earned a 14-3 win at 142 pounds in Fresno State’s 24-16 dual meet victory against Cal Poly in 1997 at Mott Gym, praised Cal Poly’s reputation for athletic and academic excellence.

“Cal Poly athletics has a rich tradition that I am well aware of. My goal is to add to those traditions,”  Buckley said. “I am really excited to be here and I can’t wait to begin working with the team. We will strive for excellence on the mat and in the classroom.”

Buckley received the Bob Bubb Coaching Excellence Award for NCAA Division I on May 31. Presented by the National Wrestling Coaches Association the award recognizes an outstanding coach who epitomizes the qualities and characteristics of a role model and mentor for developing young student-athletes.

Last year, Buckley led the Lions to a 9-6 overall record and a third-place finish in the Ivy League. The team placed seventh overall at the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association (EIWA) Championships in March and two wrestlers advanced to the round of 16 at the NCAA Division I National Championship.

Off the mat, Columbia shined in the classroom as well, ranking third nationally with a 3.2917 team cumulative grade-point average. The Lions have been named to the National Wrestling Coaches Association Academic Team each year under Buckley's guidance and have ranked in the top 10 in five of those years.

Buckley’s accomplishments at Columbia include five years of nationally ranked recruiting classes, 20 NCAA qualifiers and a school-record eight EIWA placewinners in the 2006-07 season.

In the last six years, Columbia has earned 26 All-Ivy League selections, 16 NCAA qualifiers and the program's first All-American in 23 years. Matt Palmer finished eighth in the 2005 and 2007 NCAA Championships at 165 and 174 pounds, respectively. In the 2008-09 season, Buckley coached Columbia's first EIWA champion in 13 years.

Buckley was named EIWA Coach of the Year as he led the Lions to a fourth-place finish at the 2005 EIWA Championships, the team’s best finish at the meet since 1931. The Lions also won the EIWA Wrestling Officials Sportsmanship Award.

Columbia made further improvements in 2007, as the team earned its first-ever top 25 ranking, eight wrestlers placed at the EIWA Championships, four team members qualified for nationals and Palmer earned his second All-America honor.

Buckley, 71-84-1 in 11 dual meet seasons with the Lions, came to Columbia from the University of Virginia, where he was the top assistant coach from 1998 to 2000. He helped lead the Cavaliers to two straight top-25 finishes in the NCAA Championships, while helping develop three All-Americans and seven NCAA qualifiers, including national finalist Steve Garland at 125 pounds.

Prior to Virginia, Buckley was the chief assistant coach at UC Davis as well as at Sacramento City College. During his tenure at Sacramento CC, five wrestlers earned All-America status.

Originally from Long Island, Buckley lived in Buffalo, N.Y., before moving to Orlando, Fla. He was a high school All-American and Florida state champion at 135 pounds for Lake Howell High and then starred at Clemson where he made the freshman All-American team his first year and reached the NCAA Round of 16 as a 142-pound sophomore.

When Clemson dropped wrestling after the 1994-95 season, Buckley transferred to Fresno State, where he wrestled under Dennis DeLiddo. Buckley was a Western Athletic Conference champion for the Bulldogs and earned All-America status with a seventh-place finish at the NCAA Championship at 142 pounds in 1997.

Buckley graduated from Fresno State in 1997 with a bachelor’s degree in speech communication and completed his master's degree in sports management at Columbia. Buckley and his wife Julia will celebrate their first wedding anniversary Aug. 28.

 Jamill Kelly

Assistant Coach
First Season

Jamill Kelly, silver medalist in the 2004 Summer Olympics, is in his first season as an assistant wrestling coach at Cal Poly.

Kelly was a two-time NCAA qualifier wrestling for Oklahoma State and lettered twice in the sport after attending Lassen Community College for one year. He is a graduate of Atwater High School near Merced.

“I am thrilled to begin working with an Olympic silver medalist like Kelly,” said head coach Brendan Buckley. “It was important that we hire someone with California roots, a strong freestyle wrestling background, and someone that cannot only teach the sport but also serve as a terrific role model to our student-athletes.

“On all accounts, Jamill excels and I truly believe we hit a grand slam with his hiring,” Buckley added. “This was our first step in the next era of Cal Poly wrestling and I am excited to begin working with Jamill.”

Kelly was a silver medalist at 66 kilograms/145.5 pounds in freestyle wrestling at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, and was a member of the 2005 U.S. Freestyle World Team.

Other accomplishments on the mat include a pair of USA Senior national titles, 2003 Pan Am Games silver medalist and 2001 Pan Am Championships silver medalist. He was a 2004 U.S. Nationals champion, placed second at the 2002 U.S. Nationals and third at the 2001 U.S. Nationals.

Kelly also was a member of Freestyle Team USA four times and was a 2001 University Nationals champion. He was a U.S. Olympic Trials champion in 2004 and a member of the 2003 World Team.

Kelly was Big 12 Conference runner-up in 2000 at Oklahoma State, a two-year Cowboy starter and a team captain. Prior to joining the OSU program, Kelly attended Lassen College, where he was second at the 1996 NJCAA Junior College Nationals. He was fourth in the 1995 California high school state championships, competing for Atwater High School.

Following his competition days, Kelly has served as U.S. Junior World Freestyle Team coach, which competed in Beijing, China, in 2007; coached a U.S. freestyle tour team that competed in Krasnoyarsk, Russia, in 2006; and assisted with the coaching of junior-level teams while working in Massachusetts.

He also served a year as head assistant wrestling coach at Harvard and most recently was head coach of Dallas Dynamite Wrestling Club in Texas.

Kelly was a coach of the Cowboy Wrestling Club in Stillwater, Okla. from 2001-06, developing the club in the community and coaching over 100 area youth athletes. He also was a part of the coaching staff at Oklahoma State as an administrative assistant as well as assisting with the development of numerous All-American wrestlers there during his tenure.

Mitch Monteiro

Assistant Coach
First Season

Mitch Monteiro, a Paso Robles High School graduate and three-time NCAA Division I national qualifier while wrestling at Cal State Bakersfield, was added to Brendan Buckley's coaching staff at Cal Poly in November 2011.

Monteiro earned NCAA All-American honors with a fifth-place finish at 285 pounds in the 2010 NCAA Championships en route to a 21-7 record as a senior with the Roadrunners.

He also qualified for the nationals in 2008, posting a 3-3 mark as a sophomore after transferring from Cuesta College, and in 2009 when he compiled a 29-8 record as a junior.

"We are very pleased to announce the hiring of Mitch Monteiro, a local product an a former NCAA All-American," said Buckley. " It can be difficult to find quality coaches that wrestled heavyweight and yet are agile and light enough to work with 184- and 197-pounders and we did just that.  

"Mitch having wrestled at Paso Robles High School will also present us with the opportunity to strengthen our ties to the local wrestling community, something that is very important to us," Buckley added.

Monteiro attended Cal Poly from 2005-06 and was a member of the Mustang wrestling team, but had his season cut short due to an injury. He attended Cuesta College during the 2006-07 season, but that same injury kept him from competing as well.

Monteiro placed second in the Pacific-10 Conference Championships as a sophomore at Cal State Bakersfield and captured conference titles in both 2009 and 2010. He was named the Roadrunners' Male Athlete of the Year in 2010.

At Paso Robles High School, Monteiro claimed four league championships as well as three CIF-Southern Section individual titles. He was a two-time CIF-Southern Section Masters Meet placewinner with a first and a third, and twice qualified for the state finals, finishing second and third.

Monteiro is two courses shy of completing degree requirements in criminal justice at Cal State Bakersfield. He has been working as a line counselor at Aarons Boys Home in Atascadero since February, providing supervision, guidance and counseling to at-risk youth and juvenile delinquents.

Monteiro will coach wrestlers in the upper weights while Jamill Kelly, hired in August, will handle the lower-weight wrestlers. Kelly was a silver medalist in the 2004 Summer Olympics and a two-time NCAA qualifier.