BUCHANAN — Jeffrey Mucha, a Buchanan native, has made a career out of coaching wrestling.

Earlier this year, Mucha was hired as an assistant wrestling coach at Manchester University in North Manchester, Indiana

Mucha’s wrestling roots run deep. He got his start in the sport at Buchanan High School, where he learned about coaching from watching his father, the late Frank Mucha, who was a long-time teacher and wrestling coach.

Mucha, who attended Buchanan from 2009 to 2013, competed at the varsity level in football, wrestling and baseball. Mucha competed in varsity wrestling for all four years of his high school career.

He still remembers the state meet during his senior year of wrestling. After losing in the first round, Mucha had to wrestle his way back to the top.

“I think I had to win five or six matches straight to get to place,” Mucha said. “It wasn’t what I had hoped for, but it was just as good in a lot of ways.”

After losing, Mucha was able to put together enough wins to bring home third place.

After competing in high school, Mucha knew he wanted to compete at the next level.

“It kind of was always a dream of mine, like a lot of kids, to be a Division I athlete and play the big-time sports,” Mucha said.

He found wrestling to be his best avenue to get into college sports. The transition to college competition felt natural and through the support of his father, and his family, he was encouraged to take it to the next level.

Mucha’s father died in 2016 after a battle with cancer. To this day, Mucha’s father remains his biggest role model.

After competing at Wabash College for four years and earning a four-year varsity letter, Mucha graduated from Wabash with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics in 2017. During his time as an athlete in college, he took on several coaching roles with local club wrestling teams and helped coach Buchanan’s wrestling club.

“It was an easy, natural transition for me, because I grew up around a longtime coach,” Mucha said. “One of my brothers coached football and wrestling, and a bunch of my uncles and stuff did.”

Mucha went on to earn a master’s of business administration from Wheeling Jesuit in 2019. At Wheeling Jesuit, he continued to be involved in wrestling and served as a graduate assistant coach. He coached eight NCAA Division II All-Americans and three National Champions during his two seasons at the university.

It was enough to get him hired at Manchester University, where he works on the recruiting side of things and is involved in academic services for the student-athletes. During the wrestling season, Mucha helps run practices, individual workouts and continues to be active in recruiting and academic services.

“I’m not just coaching these guys in wrestling,” Mucha said of his role. “In a lot of ways, I’ve kind of become more of a mentor. Guys come to me with questions about what classes to take. I just had a conversation the other day with a guy who wants to join the police academy, and he isn’t sure if he should finish school. We are really like the last steps before these athletes go out into the world and become members of society.”

Mucha’s advice to high school athletes is to have as much fun as possible and be open to an array of opportunities when pursuing college athletics.

“Right now, there is a big trend in sports where everybody thinks Division I or bust,” Mucha said. “Or they think, Big Ten School or bust. For me, I had that same mindset, and I ended up at a Division III liberal arts school with 850 students. It ended up being nice for me. I think I got very lucky.  If you want to continue playing college sports, be open to anything. Don’t write off a school because it’s too small or too big. Give everything a chance.”