Wrestling
- Title:
- Head Coach
- Email:
- jdubuque@princeton.edu
- Phone:
- 609-258-5248
Joe Dubuque, a two-time NCAA champion at Indiana, is considered one of the finest wrestlers to ever come from New Jersey. He is quickly proving to be one of its finest coaches as well. Dubuque, who was promoted to head coach prior to the 2023-24 season, enters his 11th season as a coach and 1st season as head coach in 2023-24 with a Princeton wrestling program that has made a dramatic leap during his tenure.
Before being promoted to head coach, Dubuque had assisted head coach Chris Ayres in revitalizing Princeton wrestling in ways few could have imagined a decade earlier. Since 2016 alone, Princeton has:• won the Ivy League title in 2020 for the first time since 1986 and ended Cornell's 92-match, 18-year Ivy League winning streak
• in 2022, had the program's first NCAA finalist since 2002 and had two in the same year (Patrick Glory, Quincy Monday) for the first time ever
• in 2023, had the program's first NCAA champion since 1951 and second ever (Patrick Glory)
• Princeton placed 15th at the 2019 NCAA Championships and had a program-record three All-Americans (Patrick Brucki, 4th, Patrick Glory, 6th, Matthew Kolodzik, 5th), and placed 13th at the 2023 NCAAs, the program's best finish since 1951
• Kolodzik became the program's first four-time All-American and Glory became the program's second
• sent Brett Harner to the 2016 All-America podium, ending a 13-year drought without one
• sent a program-record seven to the NCAA Championships (2017)
• placed in the Top 5 at EIWAs annually, when competing, from 2016-22 (third in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022)
• win 10 EIWA individual titles, all since 2016 (Harner, 2016; Jordan Laster, 2017; Kolodzik, 2017, 2018 & 2020; Patrick Glory, 2019, 2020 & 2023; Patrick Brucki, 2019; Quincy Monday, 2022)
• win four individual Midlands titles, all since 2018 (Brucki, Kolodzik in 2018, Glory in 2019, Monday in 2022) and placed fifth overall in 2019 and 2020; the first Midlands titles and best team finishes in event history
• earn EIWA Co-Head Coach of the Year honors (2017)
• earn Ivy League Coach of the Year honors (2016, 2017, 2019, 2020)
• had the program's first-ever Hodge Award finalist Glory, 2020 & 2023)
Dubuque worked closely with Kolodzik, who put together a run like almost no other Princeton wrestler in program history. Kolodzik is a three-time All-American (including a third-place finish in 2018, when he defeated the #2, #3, #4, and #6 seeds) and three-time EIWA champion. He became the program's second Ivy League Rookie of the Year ever (2017), the second Midlands finalist (2016), and he was the program's first four-time first-team All-Ivy honoree since 1986.
Besides his work with the lower weights, Dubuque has also dramatically improved Princeton's presence on social media, and he has brought in thousands of followers to the program through his creativity and imagination.
Dubuque, the 2005 and 2006 NCAA champion, had five years of experience as an assistant coach, including two with his alma mater, Indiana. Prior to that, he spent three years as an assistant with Hofstra.
Dubuque, a native of Bloomfield, New Jersey, was a scholastic national champion as a senior and a two-time state champion at Glen Ridge High School. He posted a 23-5 overall record and was ranked 12th as a freshman, but he missed the Big 10 Championships due to an injury.
A year later Dubuque qualified for his first NCAA appearance with a fourth-place finish at the Big Ten Championships and then went on to earn All-America honors with an eighth-place showing at the NCAA Championships. He finished the year with a 34-9 overall record, a 21-2 dual mark and captured the 125-pound title at the Northern Iowa Open.
In 2004-05 Dubuque placed third in the Big Ten Championships and then defeated three ranked opponents on his march to claim the 125-pound title at the national championships. He became the first Hoosier grappler to claim a national championship since Brian Dolph captured the 150-pound title in 1990. He finished the year with a 29-3 overall record, an 18-1 slate in duals, a 6-1 mark in the Big Ten and a 12-2 mark against ranked opponents.
As a senior during the 2005-06 season he recorded an overall mark of 28-1, including a 7-1 record against ranked opponents; he defeated three ranked foes at the NCAAs en route to the 125-pound crown. Dubuque became just the second Hoosier in Indiana history to capture two national titles and the first Hoosier to register back-to-back NCAA crowns. He helped lead Indiana to an 18th-place finish at the 2006 NCAA Championships.
While wrestling at Indiana, Dubuque posted an overall record of 114-18, including a 69-6 dual mark and a 19-6 Big Ten record in four years.
Dubuque earned a bachelor’s degree in recreation sports management from Indiana. He has a wife, Jaime, a son Chase and a daughter Sienna.
