Josh Henson is in his sixth season as head wrestling coach at Shorter University after being charged with leading the school's first-ever wrestling program in January 2009.
In his first season with the Hawks in 2010-11, Henson guided Shorter to a 20th place finish at the NAIA Wrestling National Championship. The Hawks had three grapplers place in the top 16 in their respective weight class at the national championships in 2011.
In 2011-12, the team held a record in dual meets of 7-4, while finishing 15th in the nation and maintaining a GPA high enough to be ranked second in the country. The programs first two All-Americans were crowned; Nate Galloway (133 lbs - 6th place) and Andrew Ewers (285 - 4th place).
Henson came to Shorter from the University of Pennsylvania, where he was an All-American wrestler before serving as an assistant with the Quakers from 2002-04 and again from 2005 until his hiring with the Hawks on January 14, 2009.
Henson began his collegiate wrestling career at the University of Nebraska where he was a two-year letter winner for the Huskers. He transferred to Penn in 2000, where he developed into one of the program's most successful grapplers.
In his senior season in 2002, Henson won the EIWA Championship title at 165 pounds and finished seventh at the NCAA Nationals, earning All-American honors in the process. That year, Henson set a Penn record for single-season wins, posting 36 victories.
Henson stayed on with the Quaker wrestling program upon his graduation in 2002 with a degree in Psychology. He assisted legendary Penn head coach Roger Reina from 2002-04, helping guide the 2003-04 Penn squad to an upset of No. 3 Iowa State University and a seventh-place finish at the NCAA National Duals.
In 2004, Henson left the Penn program to train at the United States Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Co.
During his training, Henson placed seventh in Greco Roman style at the 2005 U.S. Open where he earned All-American status. He climbed as high as No. 3 in the 2005 Senior National Rankings at 74 kilograms in Greco Roman.
He returned to Penn in 2005 as an assistant coach and has enjoyed tremendous success in all phases.
Henson has coached seven NCAA All-Americans, two NCAA national champions, five first team Academic All-Americans, 13 conference champions, and 40 NCAA national qualifiers while also helping his teams to three top 25 finishes in team GPA.
In his second tenure with the Quakers, Henson honed his coaching skills under former Penn head coach and current head coach of the United States Freestyle Wrestling Team, Zeke Jones.
