Hawkeye and Trojan wrestling faced a tough loss on the evening of Dec. 8 when the passing of Coach Mark Reiland was announced. Reiland is a wrestling legend at the University of Iowa and brought his expertise to West High where he coached boys wrestling for 19 years.

Reiland attended Eagle Grove High School in Eagle Grove Iowa, where he won two individual state championships. After going 69-1 in his last two seasons of high school wrestling, Reiland traveled over to Iowa City, where he would begin a memorable college wrestling experience. Under former Head Coach Dan Gable’s guidance, Reiland was the 1991 NCAA title weighing in at 167 pounds. Reiland was also a two-time All-American for the Hawkeyes.

After graduating from Iowa, Reiland had a short-lived coaching position at Solon High School before he came back to Iowa City to coach for the Trojans. During this period of coaching, Reiland was inducted into the Glen Brand Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2010. In his time at West, Reiland coached 26 state champions, 13 runner-us and 84 place winners. The team has a whole brought home five state dual crowns and two traditional team titles- all under Reiland.

Reiland’s father, Marv Reiland was also a former Trojan, being West High’s athletic director from 1990-2012.

The loss of Mark Reiland is a tragedy that impacts not just Trojan wrestling, but Iowa wrestling as a whole. He will be missed greatly, and his legacy will live on.