Darrius Little - Wrestling Coach - Brown University Athletics

Darrius Little

Title:
Head Assistant Coach
Phone:
401-863-3824
Email:
darrius_little@brown.edu
Joined Brown:
Fourth
Alma Mater:
North Carolina State University '12

Darrius Little, an assistant coach at Lehigh University from 2015-18 and a 2012 NCAA All-American at North Carolina State University, enters his fourth season coaching the Brown University wrestling program in 2021-22 and first as Head Assistant Coach. He was promoted to Head Assistant Coach in 2020-21, leading all recruiting efforts for the Bears.

During the 2019-20 season, Little helped developed a young Bears’ team over the course of the season with Brown winning three of its last four dual meets. Ricky Cabanillas ’23 led the Bears with a seventh-place finish at the EIWA Championships and tallied 25 wins, the most for a Brown freshman since 2012. Brown’s 2020-21 competitive season was canceled due to COVID-19.

In 2018-19, Little helped lead a program that posted four NCAA qualifiers, tallied six EIWA placers in back-to-back years for the first time since 2000, placed eighth as a team at the EIWA Championships – marking the program’s highest finish at the conference tournament since 2004 – and totaled five All-Ivy selections for the first time since 2008.

Little played a major role in the development of Lehigh’s lightweights from 2015-18. The 2018 season saw Darian Cruz become a three-time All-American and three-time EIWA Champion at 125, following up on his national championship campaign in 2017. Scott Parker earned his second straight All-America honor and won his second EIWA title at 133 as well.

In his first season at Lehigh, Little helped the Mountain Hawks produce two EIWA Champions and three All-Americans. Working primarily with Lehigh’s lightweights, Little helped Randy Cruz earn his first All-America honor, while Darian Cruz won an EIWA title. Darian Cruz and Mason Beckman both reached the All-America round of 12 at the NCAA Championships.

Little spent the 2014-15 season as an assistant coach at Gardner-Webb University in North Carolina where he helped mentor Ryan Mosley into a NCAA tournament qualifier.

At NC State, Little amassed a 102-58 record and sits third in school history in total victories. He capped his Wolfpack career with a 37-13 campaign in 2011-12 that featured runner-up finishes at both the Southern Scuffle and ACC Championships. Little went 4-3 at the NCAA Championships in St. Louis, earning All-America honors with an eighth-place finish at 141. He defeated nine nationally ranked wrestlers including four All-Americans in his senior season.

Little also finished second in the ACC as a freshman in 2008 and as a junior in 2011. A three-time NCAA qualifier, he qualified for nationals in 2009 and 2011 in addition to his All-America campaign in 2012.

The Thomasville, N.C., native has been active on the freestyle circuit since graduating from NC State with a degree in Science, Technology and Society with a concentration in Computer Science in 2012. Little finished fourth at University Nationals in 2014 and took seventh place at 61 kg in the 2015 U.S. Open.