Brent Rastetter enters his eighth season as head wrestling coach for Otterbein in 2023-24, originally coming on board in October of 2015 to restart the program.
Rastetter, 50, was chosen after the search committee narrowed down a pool of initial applicants to five finalists. He came to Otterbein from Lexington High School in Lexington, Ohio, where he spent 12 years as the varsity wrestling coach and five as Dean of Students/Athletic Director for the Junior High.
He has guided the Cardinals to 53 dual wins and other notable tournament finishes, including an upset over No. 9-ranked Lycoming during the inaugural campaign, a fourth-place result at the challenging Ithaca Invitational in year two, and repeat victories at the Star City Open in 2018 and 2019. Otterbein has finished top-10 at the NCAA Regionals four times as well.
Rastetter has molded a handful of nationally-ranked and all-region standouts since arriving, most notably 4x first team All-OAC standout Drew Kasper. He delivered a 108-13 college record, including a 62-2 mark at heavyweight en route to becoming the program's first All-American with a fifth-place finish in 2019 at the NCAA Championships. Kasper was then a perfect 30-0 as a senior, and ranked No. 1 in the nation, before the CoVID-19 pandemic forced an abrupt cancelation just before the NCAA's. He went on to sign a multi-year contract with the WWE and now competes under the ring name Brutus Creed.
Ryan Whitten (2020 Central Region champion) and Jarrod Setliff also made consecutive appearances at the NCAA Championships between 2021-23. Beyond that duo, Corbin Bunsold went 90-26 in three years (missing one season with an injury) while compiling a 34-8 record as a senior, a program record 52 career pins and the OAC Clyde Lamb Award.
Jackson Lakso (85-29) and Willy Plaisir (64-29) have served as other notable pioneers in the program.
Rastetter enjoyed a very successful run at Lexington before entering the college ranks, compiling a dual-meet record of 208-34 while capturing eight-straight conference championships. In addition, the Minutemen won eight sectional titles, finished sectional runners-up four other times, qualified for the state dual-team tournament each of the three years the OHSAA sanctioned the event, and finished state runner-up as a team in 2009. His program achieved six top-10 individual finishes at the OHSAA state wrestling tournament over the past seven years.
An 8x Ohio Cardinal Conference Coach of the Year, Rastetter has produced 189 district qualifiers, 45 state qualifiers, 27 state placers and four state champions during his career. Eleven of his former Lexington wrestlers have gone on to compete at the college level, including five at Duke University. He is now eager to begin developing another winning formula at Otterbein.
Rastetter holds nearly 30 years of coaching experience, which also includes 18 in both football and track at the junior high and high school levels. He spent 15 years as a teacher in the Lexington district and, prior to that, taught and coached at Crestview High School in Ashland, Ohio... where he got his first head coaching job at the age of 20.
Rastetter received his bachelor’s degree from Ashland University, in 1995, before obtaining a master’s in technology education from Nova Southeastern University (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) in 2005. He and his wife, Michelle, have three children together; sons Collin and Caden, along with a daughter, Ella.
Coach Rastetter's Dual Record:
| Year |
Overall |
Conference |
Regional Finish |
| 2016-17 |
13-7 |
1-5 |
10th |
| 2017-18 |
6-6 |
1-5 |
9th |
| 2018-19 |
8-11 |
2-4 |
8th |
| 2019-20 |
15-6 |
3-4 |
8th |
| 2020-21* |
1-3 |
1-3 |
---- |
| 2021-22 |
4-9 |
2-4 |
11th |
| 2022-23 |
7-6 |
3-4 |
12th |
| 2023-24 |
6-9 |
3-4 |
15th |
| Total |
59-57 |
16-33 |
N/A |
* COVID-shortened season
