Since taking over in 2016, Head Coach Omi Acosta has led Life University Men’s Wrestling to national prominence. Under his leadership, the Running Eagles captured the 2021 NAIA National Championship and earned multiple NAIA team trophies, including four consecutive national runner-up finishes (2022–2025) and a third-place finish in 2019.
The program has finished in the NAIA Top 10 every season since 2019 and reached the finals of the NWCA National Duals five times over that span.
In 2023–24, Acosta guided Life U to a perfect 23–0 dual season, capped by a dramatic victory over Grand View University in the NWCA National Duals Finals, ending their 11-season win streak. In 2025, the team once again finished runner-up at both the NAIA Championships and the NWCA Duals.
Program Achievements Under Acosta
- 2021 NAIA National Champions
- NAIA National Runner-Up: 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025
- NAIA Third Place: 2019
- NAIA Top 10 Finishes: 2019–2025
- NWCA National Duals Champions: 2024
- NWCA National Duals Runner-Up: 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023, 2025
- 12 NAIA Individual National Champions
- 66 NAIA All-Americans
- Five Straight Conference Regular Season Titles
- Four Consecutive Conference Tournament Titles
- Four-Time AAC Coach of the Year (2022–2025)
- 2021 Mid-South Conference Coach of the Year
- 2024 NAIA National Coach of the Year (NWCA)
- 2021 NAIA & USA Wrestling Magazine Coach of the Year
- Three-Time Life University Coach of the Year
Coaching Philosophy: LUCHA
LUCHA: Our Identity. Our Standard.
At Life U Men’s Wrestling, we live out the values of Life University’s Lasting Purpose:
To Give. To Do. To Love. To Serve.
Wrestling isn’t just a sport to us — it’s a tool for transformation. It shapes our discipline, challenges our character, and forges us into stronger students, athletes, and men.
At the center of everything we do is one powerful word: LUCHA — a Spanish word meaning struggle, fight, and overcoming adversity. It defines our culture, our commitment, and our competitive edge.
LUCHA is symbolized by the palm tree:
- It bends in the storm but does not break
- It thrives under pressure
- It grows stronger through resistance
Through LUCHA, Coach Acosta builds not only elite athletes but resilient leaders prepared for life beyond the mat.
Student-Athlete Career
Omi Acosta began wrestling after moving from the Dominican Republic to Miami-Dade County, Florida. He attended South Dade High School, where he trained under Hall of Fame coaches Victor Balmeceda and Humberto “Duck” Reyna.
Acosta helped South Dade earn four straight top-two finishes at the Florida 3A State Championships from 2004 to 2008. As a junior, he became a district champion, state qualifier, and placed 6th at state, earning the Most Improved and Most Dedicated team awards. Though a senior-year injury sidelined him, he remained a team leader as South Dade won the 2008 state title and ended Brandon High School’s 459-match winning streak — the longest in U.S. sports history.
He also trained with Gladiator Wrestling Club, becoming the first Gladiator to wrestle in college, setting the example for future Miami-Dade athletes.
At the college level, Acosta was a two-time NJCAA All-American and 2010 NJCAA National Champion at Waubonsee Community College. He then transferred to Grand View University, where he won the 2012 NAIA National Championship and helped secure the program’s first team national title — a team later inducted into the Grand View University Athletic Hall of Fame.
He has also been inducted into the Waubonsee Athletic Hall of Fame and recognized on Grand View’s “10 for 10” alumni list, celebrating the university’s top graduates of the past decade.
Education & Academic Role
Adjunct Professor, Sports Psychology
Life University – Marietta, GA
Teaches undergraduate courses in Sports Psychology as part of the university’s Positive Psychology program.
Life University – Marietta, GA
M.S. in Positive Psychology, Summer 2020
Ohio University – Athens, OH
M.S. in Recreation and Sport Management, Fall 2016
Grand View University – Des Moines, IA
B.A. in Spanish & Criminal Justice, Fall 2013
