Chadron State College Athletics

Taygen Smith was hired as the Chadron State men's wrestling head coach in October 2026.

Smith spent four seasons on staff at CSC prior to earning the head coaching job, starting as a coaching assistant ahead of the 2022-23 season and as the program's assistant coach beginning in 2025. 

Smith has been a part of the coaching staff for several defining moments in Chadron State men’s wrestling history. In Smith’s four years as an assistant Chadron State, the program has had 12 national qualifiers and five All-Americans, including national runners-up Quen Campbell and Keegan Gehlhausen. 

The Eagles also set a program record last season with 10 NWCA Academic All-Americans and have recorded 31 during Smith’s four-year assistant coach tenure.

As an assistant coach at CSC, Smith designed individualized training plans, facilitated practice sessions and conducted film analysis with student-athletes. He also has conducted technique clinics with the Wyoming Coaches Association, co-managed Chadron State’s wrestling camps and has helped organize program fundraising events.

Smith competed as a student-athlete with Hastings College in Nebraska (NAIA), where he was a three-time national qualifier in 2020, 2021 and 2022, earning NAIA All-American honors with a seventh-place national finish in 2021. He was also an Academic All-American that season.

Smith graduated from Hastings in 2021 with a bachelor’s degree in recreation and sports management, with a minor in coaching. Smith also obtained a master’s degree in organizational management from Chadron State College in 2024.