Simon Fraser names Randhawa head coach of women's wrestling
Simon Fraser University has named Nishan Randhawa as head coach of its women's wrestling program, the school announced. Randhawa begins his role July 15.
Randhawa, who wrestled for SFU from 2015 to 2020, brings one of the most decorated international resumes of any coach in Canadian wrestling. A seven-time senior national champion, Randhawa has represented Canada at four senior World Championships, three U23 world tournaments and three junior world meets. He won gold at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England, bronze at the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile, and bronze at the 2025 Pan American Championships in Monterrey, Mexico, all at 97 kilograms. In 2015, he won a bronze medal at the World Junior Wrestling Championships in Brazil at 96 kilograms.
Randhawa has been coaching with SFU's Red Leafs program for the past two seasons, serving as lead assistant coach in 2025-26 after a season as a volunteer assistant. He has also volunteered with the Guru Gobind Singh Wrestling Club in Abbotsford since 2015. He graduated from SFU with a criminology degree in 2021.
Joining Randhawa's staff is Gord Sturrock, who has been named mentor coach and begins his role August 1. A volunteer coach with the Red Leafs since 2021, Sturrock brings decades of elite coaching experience to the program. He served as a senior women's world team coach in 1996, a Pan American team coach for junior and senior men in 1997 and a world team coach for junior men and women in 1999. Sturrock has been an instructor of upper-level sport science courses at Douglas College in New Westminster since 2007, serves as a high-performance coach advisor for both BC Wrestling and Wrestling Canada Lutte and is a National Coaching Certification Program Master Coach Developer. As a competitor, Sturrock was a member of Canada's national wrestling team from 1979 to 1991, winning bronze and silver medals on the world stage as a junior. He was inducted into the Northwestern Ontario Sports Hall of Fame in 2011 and received a Sport BC President's Award in 2024.
The 2026-27 season opens in November when SFU visits Pacific University's Mike Clock Open in Forest Grove, Oregon.