Donnie Vinson - Assistant Coach - Wrestling Coaches

Donnie Vinson

Title:
Assistant Coach
Email:
davinson@ncsu.edu
Phone:
(919) 515-7214

Donnie Vinson joined NC State as an assistant coach in 2017. Vinson was an All-American at 149 pounds during his collegiate career at Binghamton under head coach Pat Popolizio, and spent the previous three years on the coaching staff at Cornell.

Vinson also serves as a coach with the Wolfpack Wrestling Club, and has attended many tournaments with the Wolfpack RTC.

Vinson joined the Cornell coaching staff as the program’s volunteer assistant coach for the 2014-15 season, and was on staff there for three seasons, which were among the program's best ever. Vinson helped tutor three NCAA champions and two runners-up and 11 total All-Americans. Cornell qualified a school-record nine wrestlers for NCAA's in his first two years and won New York State, Ivy League and EIWA titles each year Vinson was on the sidelines.

He spent the 2013-14 season as a graduate assistant at Binghamton. He helped develop a pair of NCAA qualifiers, including EIWA runner-up Cody Reed at 197 pounds, who later become just the second Bearcat wrestler in program history to advance to the NCAA quarterfinals. Binghamton had five place winners and tied for seventh in the school’s debut at the EIWA Championship.

Vinson is the career wins leader at Binghamton with a 132-27 record and was a two-time Colonial Athletic Association Wrestler of the Year. The 2012 All-American at 149 pounds was named the CAA Championship’s Most Outstanding Wrestler as a senior and claimed the athletic department’s Athlete of the Year award. He was also chosen to receive the John Bilos Alumni Award, given to the top senior male for outstanding career performances as a Bearcat. Vinson is one of just four wrestlers to defeat Kyle Dake, Cornell’s four-time NCAA champion, during his collegiate career.

He earned his undergraduate degree in marketing from Binghamton in 2012, and then went on to earn his master’s in student affairs administration in 2014, also from Binghamton.

Vinson married his wife Lisa in 2016, and the couple have a daughter, Darcy.