There are assistant coaches, and then there are World Championship medalists who happen to be assistant coaches. Leigh Jaynes – who begins her 6th year with the GCU Wrestling program - firmly belongs in the latter category. A six-time U.S. national team member, Army Captain, and 2015 World Wrestling Championship bronze medalist, Jaynes brings a résumé to the GCU Club Wrestling staff that is virtually unmatched in the sport — and a personal story that is even more compelling than her medal count.
Jaynes came to coaching after a decorated military and athletic career, stepping behind the bench as Head Women’s Wrestling Coach at Delaware Valley University from 2019 to 2022. There, she celebrated her first major coaching milestone with a win over NCAA Division I program Sacred Heart University. In 2022, she joined the GCU Club Wrestling staff while also playing pivotal role in the early development of the Johnson & Wales University Women’s Wrestling program in Rhode Island. Jaynes has also volunteered her expertise to support the growth of wrestling and youth development initiatives in Cabo Verde.
The road to those coaching credentials ran through some of the most elite wrestling venues in the world. Jaynes grew up in Mount Holly, New Jersey, and was a multi-sport athlete — dance, swimming, track and field, and cheerleading — before discovering wrestling in her senior year at Rancocas Valley Regional High School. She took to it immediately, earning High School All-American honors at the 1999 USGWA Girls Folk-Style National Championship. At Missouri Valley College, where she earned a Bachelor of Science in Exercise Science and a Master of Arts in Management, she became a two-time All-American and, after placing 5th at University Nationals, qualified as a resident athlete as part of the Olympic Development Program in Colorado Springs.
Over the next decade, Jaynes was named to six U.S. national teams and competed at the 2009, 2012, and 2015 World Wrestling Championships. Representing the U.S. Army through the World Class Athlete Program, she became the first military woman in nearly a decade to medal at the World Wrestling Championships — and in 2015, captured bronze in the women’s freestyle 60 kg division, becoming the first military woman to medal in that weight class. She also earned bronze at the 2015 Pan-American Wrestling Championship and the 2008 World Beach Wrestling Championships, and won gold at prestigious international tournaments including the Sunkist International, Dave Schultz Memorial, and Bill Farrell International. Her photo is displayed at the WCAP facility at Fort Carson, Colorado. What makes her 2015 World medal all the more remarkable is the circumstances under which it was earned — Jaynes returned to elite competition after having her daughter, Evelyn, making her one of the first American women to return to high-level wrestling after childbirth, and she has since become a passionate advocate for athlete mothers everywhere. Jaynes officially retired from competition following the 2016 U.S. Olympic Trials and completed her service as an Army Captain that same year.
