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Pictured: The 2021-22 Life University women's wrestling team. Image courtesy of the Life University Women's Wrestling Twitter Page (@LifeUWWR).  This feature is presented by Adidas Wrestling.  A husband-and-wife coaching duo is unique, nearly unheard of, but at Life University, Head Coach Ashley Flavin and her husband Christian Flavin are the driving forces behind the women's wrestling program. The two met at a youth wrestling summer camp in Georgia. Christian was coaching on the schoolboys and juniors' side, and Ashley was helping with the women's side.  "Truthfully, we bonded over the lack of the use of a front headlock to go ahead in wrestling," Ashley said.  After being the volunteer assistant coach at Life University, Flavin was offered the head coaching job in 2017. It required learning on the fly and lots of readjusting, but it led to Ashley and Christian finding each other again.  "Ashley asked me on the right day," Christian said. "I was getting out of wrestling. I was done with it."  The pair worked well together and bounced ideas off each other from the start. They shared responsibilities and the day-to-day tasks needed to maintain an NAIA Division I team. Together, they also learned how to run a program. Before 2017, neither Ashley nor Christian had been the head coach at the collegiate level.  Today, the two are married and working together, building a program that overcomes challenges and does things the right way. But at the core of the program is the wrestlers and the tight-knit family feel.  https://twitter.com/AshSwordFlavin/status/1483668258423283716 "When me and Ashley are recruiting, we are looking for good wrestlers, but more importantly, we are looking for the right people," Christian said. "We have a type. There is a personality that wants to come and wrestle for us, and we love it, and it's awesome."  That type includes wrestlers that aren't afraid to lose and venerable women. The Flavins emphasis is that the wrestlers strive for something greater than themselves at Life U.  The team celebrates Thanksgiving together at their coaches residency and enjoys going to movies, playing video games, or eating out together.  "They just enjoy being around each other," Ashley said. "They like to joke and have a good time."  "A couple of years ago, we got snowed in at the AIA'S," Ashley said. "We were stuck in the Denver airport for forty hours. We got back, and they were still spending time together."  Christian and Ashley also spend a lot of time around one another. They live together, making separating responsibilities and work and life balance complex. They explained that it is a day-by-day balance, and it's both a joy and a battle.  "We are together 24/7," Christian said. "I don't think there are many times we are more than 20 feet away from each other."  They are still learning to balance responsibilities, especially after COVID, but trust is vital in splitting roles. Taking time away from wrestling is also an essential part of their home life because it allows them to be an everyday couple and step away from the mat.  "Letting things be fluid is really important to the success of the program and to functioning in all aspects of our relationship," Ashley said.   The program is very successful on numerous fronts. Every year it gains more All-Americans than the year prior. It is consistently in the top three in the country for academics. They've had multiple top-five recruiting classes and a 100% graduation rate for athletes who complete their eligibility at Life U.  That said, for both coaches, the most impressive feats are those related to immeasurable moments.  "The ones [moments] that really matter are seeing them walk across the stage or seeing them find who they are again," Christian said.  "One of our athletes that graduated, she dropped out of high school and went back to college at 24 and became an All American," Ashley said. "Things like that, there is not a great way to measure that, but it's one of those top-five moments. Those are the things you are striving for."  Last year, the team dealt with a COVID outbreak around Christmas, and it brought them closer together and helped motivate them for this season.  "For our team specifically through some of those hardships, we've seen them stand strong together," Ashley said. "They found a way to draw closer and make it meaningful."  Winning Nationals was always a back-of-mind goal for the Flavins. This year on January 7, they were able to do it despite two forfeits and coming up against a team they had never beaten in a head-to-head dual.  Winning Nationals helped the program come full circle. Back in 2017, when the Flavins took over the program, Life U women's wrestling had 18 women on the roster. Now it's an elite, well-known program with over forty women on the roster.  "For them, to be able to go out there and put their heads down and get the job done and stay true to who they are as wrestlers, stay true to who we are as a program, it really validated what we are doing," Ashley said. "It validated the progress, and it shows what we are saying and doing is working." After guiding the Eagles to its first-ever NWCA National Duals crown, where Ashley made history, becaming the first female coach to have a team reach the finals. Flavin was also the first female head coach to win the event after her team won in the finals against top-seeded Campbellsville, 25-19. Since last month's NWCA National Duals in Kentucky, the Eagles have kept winning. Currently, Life U is 11-0 (4-0 in conference). And, after earning a pair of wins yesterday (February 3) against No. 2 Campbellsville and No. 8 University of the Cumberlands, Life U clinched its first-ever Mid-South Conference regular-season title.  https://twitter.com/LifeUAthletics/status/1489628782684250115 Looking ahead, Life U will look to add a conference tournament title at the conference tournament in two weeks in Bowling Green, Kentucky.  Life U may have had some hardships to overcome in recent seasons, but during 2021-22 season,  Ashley and Christian Flavin are thriving at the helm of the Life U women's wrestling program, taking the team to new, historic heights. 

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