Mike DeRoehn is in his seventh year overall as head coach of the Lakeland men’s wrestling team and the third year of his second stint with the program. He also serves as director of strength and conditioning for Lakeland athletics.
DeRoehn has been rebuilding the Muskies men's wrestling program in his first two years back on campus. He took over a small roster and a program that had seen a number of coaching changes since his departure in 2014 and has rebuilt the team while also giving the program stability.
DeRoehn brings a wealth of experience, highlighted by nearly 20 years of coaching including successful head coach roles at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville and UW-Oshkosh in addition to Lakeland.
DeRoehn’s first tenure at Lakeland saw him serve as assistant athletic director, head men’s wrestling coach and strength & conditioning coach from the fall of 2010 through the 2013-14 school year.
He led development of the first dedicated wrestling space at Lakeland in the program’s history, and he established and led the “Muskie Tough” strength and conditioning program for all Lakeland student-athletes. He led the wrestling team to the Northern Wrestling Conference Championship in 2011 & 2012, trained the sixth and seventh NCAA qualifiers in school history and Scholar All Americans in 2012, 2013 and 2014. He also held several leadership positions off the mat.
At Two Rivers, DeRoehn established Raider TRained, a long-term athletic development program for grades 7-12 with over 150 participants in the first year. His program became one of only 40 schools nationally to earn recognition as a “Program of Excellence” by the National High School Strength Coaches Association. He also created the Raider Challenge, a staff health and wellness program with 40-plus participants.
DeRoehn left Lakeland for UW-Platteville where he served seven years as head men’s wrestling coach, strength & conditioning coach and staff development coordinator.
He immediately reinvigorated the program from the bottom of the conference to consistently ranking in the top 25 in NCAA Division III. His tenure included coaching 16 NCAA Qualifiers, 15 Scholar All-Americans and the first NCAA Finalist in UW-Platteville history.
Off the mat, he led a $30,000 revitalization of UW-Platteville wrestling room, earned the 2017 “Best of Brand” award from the National Wrestling Coaches Association and created and facilitated Headlocking Hunger, an annual community service event which engaged the entire athletic department to benefit local and campus food pantries, as well as Sharpen the Axe, a monthly, department-wide staff development program.
DeRoehn was head men’s wrestling coach at UW-Oshkosh from 2004-10, leading the program to consistent Top 25 national rankings with multiple NCAA qualifiers. He also served as state coach for the Wisconsin Wrestling Federation in River Falls, Wis., from 2006-10.
DeRoehn received a master’s degree in educational leadership from UW-Oshkosh and a bachelor’s in physical education from Plymouth State University, Plymouth, N.H. He lives with his wife Nicole, a 2012 Lakeland graduate, and daughters Madalynn and Audrey in Two Rivers.
