A three-time United States Olympic wrestler alternate, a two-time All-American at Oklahoma State University and a former assistant coach on the staff at NCAA Division I Purdue University, Tom Erikson was named the head men and women's wrestling coach at Lyon College in May 2015.
Erikson has more than 25-years of coaching experience at a variety of levels, demonstrating the proficiency in developing athletes to the status of national-level competitors.
He has spent 13 years (1999-2012) at Purdue as an assistant coach at the main campus in West Lafayette, Indiana, working extensively in the physical and mental development of a number of All-Americans and Honorable Mention All-Americans.
Erikson has been on the U.S.A. Wrestling national staff since 2013, working as the head coach of the National Team, which represented the United States in the Medved Cup in Minsk, Belarus. During that time, he was also coach of Team U.S.A. in an exhibition dual, competing against Team India in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in 2014.
He made time to serve as an assistant wrestling coach since 2012 at Hamilton Heights High School in Arcadia, Indiana.
Erikson has served as team leader of Team Indiana (2004-2015), was a club coach at River City Wrestling Club (2000-07) in West Lafayette, and was vice chair of ticket sales, marketing and promotion for the 2004 Olympic Wrestling Team Trials in 2002-04.
A graduate of Bloom High School in Chicago Heights, Illinois, Erikson then attended Triton College in River Grove, Illinois, where he received his Associate of Arts degree. He went on to attend Oklahoma State and then later graduated from Western Governors University, with a Bachelor's of Science degree in Marketing and Management.
Erikson, who is in the Bloom High School Athletics Hall of Fame ('86), the Illinois Wrestling and Officials Association Hall of Fame ('96), the National Junior College Athletic Association Hall of Fame ('96), the Midlands' Hall of Fame ('04) and the Indiana Wrestling and Officials Association Hall of Fame ('10), was an U.S. Olympic Wrestling Team alternate in 1988, 1992 and 1996, a two-time NJCAA National Champion at Triton College (1984 & 1985), a member of the All-Big 8 Academic Team in 1986 and a NCAA Wrestling All-American at OSU in 1986 and 1987.
Erikson hopes to build relationships with other wrestling professionals in the Arkansas and surrounding states like he did in Indiana. He also says he plans on using the established relationships he has built in the Midwest to expand the Lyon programs.
Erikson and his wife, Randi, have two children, a 24-year old son, Bowdi, and a 14-year old daughter, Jadlynn.
