Penn High School welcomes elite coach for inaugural Girls Wrestling season

MISHAWAKA, Ind. -- Amy Hildebrandt, sister of Olympic wrestler Sarah Hildebrandt, is bringing the skills and knowledge she used to help train her sister to the first-ever Penn High School Girls Wrestling team this fall.

"Penn High School is turning to a coach with elite credentials to be the head coach of the Kingsmen Girls Wrestling Program as the sport makes its debut in the Indiana High School Athletic Association," school officials said.

Hildebrandt was a coach in the Penn Wrestling Program from 2018-2020 and was the head coach of Women’s Wrestling at Trine University from 2020-2022.

"We are so excited to hire Amy as our first Girls Wrestling Head Coach as it becomes a stand-alone IHSAA sport,” Penn Athletic Director Jeff Hart said. “I've known Amy for many years, and she has all the personal character traits to become an elite and transformational high school coach.

Hildebrandt is currently teaching English in Japan and is heading to the Paris Olympics this week to support her sister.

“She has a teacher's heart, she loves the sport of wrestling and has been around it for most of her life, and she understands the importance of education-based athletics and the positive impact it can have on young student-athletes,” Hart said. “I can't wait for her to get started and join our family of head coaches at Penn."

She is set to join the Penn staff in mid-September.

"I am so excited for what is to come with Penn Girls wrestling,” Amy Hildebrandt said. “I've been fortunate enough to have seen this team since its inception, so I know what's been put into growing such a fantastic program.

Hildebrandt has trained with her sister Sarah -- who won the Bronze Medal in the Tokyo Olympics and is currently competing at the 2024 Paris Olympic -- at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs.

“Honestly, it's almost surreal to see how it has now become fully legitimized as an IHSAA official sport,” Hildebrandt said. “It is something I and many others have spent years advocating for. I am looking forward to building off what I know is a solid foundation and helping young women find success in the sport of wrestling. This is history in the making for Indiana wrestling, and that is something anyone would be proud to have a hand in."

She will be the head coach of Penn Girls Wrestling for the inaugural IHSAA season in 2024-2025, pending approval by the Penn-Harris-Madison Board of School Trustees.

Hildebrandt’s brother, Drew Hildebrandt, won a State Championship in Wrestling during his time at Penn.

Sarah Hildebrandt will continue her Olympic run at 5 a.m. on Tuesday morning in Paris.