David Schutter is one of the longest serving coaches on Truman’s staff having been with the department since 1990. He enters the 2018-19 season having guided one national champion (Merrick Meyer in 2004), nine of the Bulldogs 12 All-Americans, including six two-time recipients and 40 individuals to the national meet.
In addition, the Bulldogs have been strong academically having placed among the top 10 on the National Wrestling Coaches Association list of academic teams for NCAA Division II. His squad has won the team Academic National Championships four straight years from 2007-2010 and six times overall. They were the first Division II school to win four straight and is one better than Colorado Mines with the six academic team titles. The Bulldogs were second in the academic rankings following the 2011 and 2012 seasons.
In 21 of his 29 years coaching at Truman, Schutter has had at least one representative at the NCAA National Meet. Merrick Meyer won the Bulldogs first national title since 1968 when he captured the 141-pound bracket in 2004. Meyer finished his career as the all-time wins leader with 130 and was a two-time All-American.
Ryan Maus was the latest Bulldog to earn All-America honors with a third place finish at the 2013 Championships in the 149-pound weight class. Blake Peterson was third in 2008 and fifth in 2007 in the 165-pound bracket.
The largest Truman contingent sent to nationals under Schutter was in 2005 when Dan Keller, Meyer, Dustin Teeman and Gordan Harrison represented the Bulldogs.
He was awarded in 2008 the Bob Bubb Coaching Excellence award presented by the National Wrestling Coaches Association.
Schutter led the Bulldogs to fifth-place finishes at the Midwest regional championships four times, some of the best regional finishes in school history. Schutter was the Mid-South Wrestling Association coach of the year for the 1996-97 season, and was named the Midwest regional coach of the year in 1992-93.
He has compiled 132 dual wins in the last 29 seasons at Truman, the most by any Bulldog coach, and guided the ‘Dogs to their only undefeated season at 11-0-1 in 1992-93.
He has coached seven regional champions and two NCAA post-graduate scholarship recipients. In 2006, two-time all-American Gregg Nurrenbern was selected to the ESPN the Magazine Academic all-America team.
He began his collegiate wrestling career at Indiana University under Olympic champion Doug Blubaugh, compiling a record of 17-9 at 118 pounds. Schutter transferred to Indiana State the following year and moved up to 126 pounds for the next three years. He won six tournament titles and was the runner-up once. Schutter finished third in the NCAA Division I Midwest Regionals. He received a political science degree from Indiana State in 1986.
From 1987-90, he served in the U.S. Army, spending most of his military career as a member of the all-Army wrestling team. Schutter competed in the Inter-Service Championships, U.S. Nationals and the Olympic Trials, and won numerous open tournaments while stationed in Wruzberg, Germany. He also won the U.S. Army European Freestyle and Greco-roman Championship at 136.5. He had a cumulative record of 277-33-5 and was a finalist for the 1988 Olympic Trials.
In 1990, while training at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Schutter suffered a career-ending neck injury at the height of a promising Greco-Roman wrestling career. Schutter then coached the Wruzberg team that won the VII Corps freestyle and Greco-Roman championships in Europe.
Schutter believes in a theory of constantly striving to improve and in coaching a scholar-athlete, an athlete whose most important goal is to graduate with honors. Schutter has coached several student-athletes that have gone on to earn PhDs, MDs, Law Degrees and become officer's in the United States Military. His coaching style makes men into leaders of men.
He has three sons, Dakota, Justin, Jason and a daughter Kami and is married to his wife Jennifer, a horticultural specialist with the University of Missouri-Extension. In his down time, Schutter enjoys fishing for crappie and spending time with his family.
