For over 35 years, Head Wrestling Coach Mike Jones has been synonymous with collegiate and international wrestling success. He has produced Olympic medalists as well as world and collegiate champions. Mike has developed countless NAIA All-Americans and Canadian Interuniversity Sport National Champions.
During his tenure, SFU wrestling team's have won a total of 13 national championships. The team won two NAIA Championships in 1988 and 1993. In 2000, Mike guided the team into Canadian Interuniversity Sport, winning back-to-back CIS men's titles in 2009 and 2010. In women's wrestling, team's coached by Mike won the North American College Championship in 2002 and won CIS Championships in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008 and 2010. With Mike at the helm, Simon Fraser has proudly secured the record for most individual NAIA National Wrestling Champions (40). Mike has twice been named NAIA Coach of the Year and has also been named the CIS Coach of the Year.
In 2012-13, Jones guided the SFU women's teams to not one but two national titles, as the Clan took home the WCWA Championship and the WCWA Duals title.
Mike has also had success on the international level. Since coming to Simon Fraser University in 1976, Jones has developed eighteen Olympians and his athletes have captured thirteen medals at Olympic and World Championships. At the 1984 Summer Olympics, one of two Olympic games where Mike served as the Head Coach of Team Canada, two of Mike's atheltes won medals, with Bob Molle winning silver and Chris Rinke taking bronze. Mike's pupils at SFU have also experienced Olympic success including a silver medal for Jeff Thue in Barcelona. In 2000 another milestone was reached by one of Jones' athletes when SFU wrestler Daniel Igali became the first Canadian ever to win an Olympic gold medal in wrestling, winning the men's wrestling competition at the Sydney games. In 2008, another of Jones' students and former SFU wrestler Carol Huynh became the first Canadian female to win a gold medal in wrestling when she triumphed in Beijing.
At a grassroots level, Mike has given back to the sport, serving as a technical volunteer on the BC Wrestling Associations board of directors. In this role, he provides technical expertise and guidance to wrestling programs across the province while developing young coaches who have risen to prominent roles in the wrestling world, including current national team head coach Dave McKay.
In 1992, Mike was inducted into the Canadian Amatuer Hall of Fame. In 2005, he was inducted into the USA Wrestling Hall of Fame. On September 13, 2011, Mike was honoured alongside Olympic gold medalist Maelle Ricker and former Vancouver Canuck Trevor Linden, among others, when he was inducted into the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame.
