Son to a father who was the head wrestling coach at the West Allis / West Milwaukee wrestling club, Josh Wagner has been actively involved in wrestling since the age of 4.
Josh Wagner is from the Milwaukee area — born in West Allis but grew up in Menomonee Falls until 8th grade. His father was the head wrestling coach at the West Allis / West Milwaukee wrestling club, which is how he got into wrestling at the age of 4.
Josh has known both Ben and Max Askren for over 15 years, since his youth wrestling days. He wrestled on a lot of Wisconsin teams together, for duals and nationals. In high school he would visit Hartland on the weekends to wrestle and train with both Ben and Max.
Josh went to Milton High School, a team state champion in 2002. Josh was a high school, 148-6 career record holder, and a 4 time conference, regional and sectional champion. Josh was a 4 time state qualifier and took 3rd as a freshman, 2nd as a sophomore and 1st as a junior. He took 7th at Senior Nationals, and was an all american in freestyle and 2-time All American in Greco. He won the 2000 Cadet Greco Fila Nationals, which qualified him to represent USA in Poland. With no world tournament that year, Josh practiced and had duals with Poland’s National Team. During his college years, Josh earned 4 letters at the University of Missouri wrestling at 149 pounds, and was a team captain in the 2007-2008 season. Josh was a 2-time NCAA Qualifier and had 40 career pins. In the 2007, he was on the 3rd place team along with Ben and Max Askren.
What Josh loves most about wrestling is that it is one of the toughest sports. He believes there is a lot of pride in saying “I am a wrestler,” because of the respect that is given to those that have wrestled. Doing something that seems insane to others is cool to him. Obviously winning is the goal at everything in life, but in wrestling, to compete one-on-one and put on a show for others to see is a lot of fun for Josh.
The thing that excites Josh the most about coaching wrestling is seeing wrestlers getting better. With so many levels – everyone progresses differently, but seeing improvement is most fun for Josh. To see young wrestlers meet their goals is a really satisfying thing for him as a coach.
Josh was really excited when AWA Co-founders Ben Askren and Max Askren asked him to come work and coach for AWA. These are two guys he has known for a long time, who he continues to have a lot of respect for in the sport of wrestling. Being a part of the team has been an exciting journey for him. While it seemed unreal at first, having a job that is related to one of your biggest passions in life – Josh is very happy with his position as a coach. He looks forward to coaching his kids through AWA.
| 148-6 HS record |
| 2002 HS State Champion |
| 4x Conference, Regional, and Sectional Champion |
| 3x Fargo All-American |
| HS Nationals All-American |
| 2000 Cadet Greco World Team Member |
| 2x NCAA Division 1 national qualifier |
| 3rd place Midlands 2007 |
| 40 pins in college 3rd all time at Missouri |
| 2007-2008 Team Captain University of Missouri |
My son who is six attends the ninjas in training at the Green Bay location. Coach josh is great with the kids. Awesome place and glad this came to the Green Bay Area. I would recommend this to any parent or wrestler off all experience levels.”Alek Reed