Ty Prazma was hired to be an assistant coach in July of 2015 and enters his second season at the Institute.
In his first season of coaching at VMI for the 2015-16 campaign, Prazma played a crucial role in developing freshman Neal Richards into an NCAA tournament qualifier. With his help during the course of the year, the Keydets totaled 27 points at the SoCon Championships, more than double the total from the prior season. He also helped develop junior 125-pounder Dalton Henderson, who won an individual title for his weight class at the All-Academy Championships hosted by VMI on Jan. 30.
Prazma joined the coaching staff after a stellar wrestling career at the University of Missouri, where he wrestled at the 165-pound weight class from 2010-15 and amassed 83 career victories on a squad consistently ranked in the Top 10. Competing at the highest level of NCAA Division I wrestling, he came in sixth place at the 2014 Midlands Championships and achieved varsity letterman status during the 2012-13 and 2014-15 seasons.
The Granite City, Illinois, native served as a Tigerstyle Wrestling Camp counselor every summer from 2011-2014 for Missouri head coach Brian Smith and was named the assistant to the program’s Director of Operations in the summer of 2014. Some of his responsibilities included communicating with potential donors for the program and registering participants for summer camps.
Prazma earned a master’s degree in educational and counseling psychology with an emphasis in positive coaching in the summer of 2015 from the University of Missouri. He earned his bachelor’s degree in parks, recreation and tourism with an emphasis in sport management in 2014.
An excellent student, Prazma was named to the Big 12 Conference Commissioner’s Honor Roll from 2010-12, the dean’s list, and to the 2014-15 Academic All-MAC team. He was also given a MAC Presidential award for accumulating at least a 3.5 GPA in graduate coursework, and was named one of 28 student-athletes at the university to Three Stripes Club in recognition for high performance in academics, athletics and society.
