William Penn names Woods head women's wrestling coach, director of wrestling
William Penn University has named Gary Woods II as head women's wrestling coach and director of wrestling, athletics director Grant Farris announced. In addition to leading the women's program, Woods will oversee operations for the men's wrestling team.
Woods comes to William Penn from Southeastern Community College in Burlington, Iowa, where he launched both the men's and women's wrestling programs last season. The women's program produced two All-Americans in its first year of existence and finished 14th at the NJCAA National Championships.
Prior to Southeastern, Woods built the women's wrestling program at Joliet Community College in Illinois, serving as head coach of both programs in 2024 and 2025. The men's team posted a pair of top-10 finishes in NJCAA Division III, while the women's squad led all Division III programs in one season and finished ninth overall among all NJCAA levels. The women produced their first national champion in 2025. Woods also guided the Joliet women's team to the highest GPA on campus and the fifth-highest in the NJCAA.
Before his time in junior college athletics, Woods built an extensive high school coaching résumé in Virginia. He served as head coach of both programs at Mountain View High School in 2022 and 2023, guiding the boys' team to a state title in 2023. He also held coaching positions at Massaponax, Spotsylvania and Chancellor High School from 2014-21. At Massaponax, he helped the program to a regional title and a district runner-up finish. At Spotsylvania, he launched the girls' program in 2019 while the boys placed in the top five in districts and regionals.
Woods is a 2015 graduate of Southern New Hampshire University with a degree in business administration and earned a master's degree in education leadership from Waldorf University in 2024.