Tim Fader enters his 11th season as the UW-Eau Claire Head Wrestling Coach in 2025-26.
Fader is one of the most decorated coaches in all of NCAA Division III, surpassing 300 career dual victories during the 2022-23 season. He has received five national coach of the year awards throughout his career, two while at UW-Eau Claire, and was inducted into the National Wrestling Coaches Association Division III Hall of Fame in 2017.
He has taken the Blugold wrestling program to new heights, highlighted by an unprecedented 2023-24 season. The Blugolds took fifth place at the NCAA Championships that year and produced the second national champion in program history, along with having a school record four All-Americans. UW-Eau Claire clinched a share of its first-ever Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference team championship by tying UW-La Crosse at the WIAC Championships. The team also set new single-season school records for dual victories, pins, technical falls and major decisions, along with setting a new dual scoring record. For his work, Fader received The Open Mat's Division III Coach of the Year award and d3wrestle.com's Coach of the Year award.
Fader has coached 11 All-Americans and seven individual WIAC champions at UW-Eau Claire. That accounts for nearly half of the program's all-time All-Americans in a span of only nine years.
Fader previously served as the UW-Whitewater head coach for 10 years, the UW-La Crosse head coach for six years and a La Crosse assistant for three seasons. Fader won conference championships all six years he was head coach at La Crosse and his last three seasons at Whitewater. He was WIAC Coach of the Year four times in 1999, 2001, 2002 and 2014 and National Wrestling Coaches Association Coach of the Year in 2001 and 2012, and the d3Wrestle.com National Coach of the Year in 2014 with a national runner-up finish at Whitewater. His teams have had eight top 10 finishes at nationals. His 2000 La Crosse squad won the national dual meet championship. He has coached more than 40 All-Americans and 55 Scholastic All-Americans.
Fader has given the Blugold wrestling program some stability for the first time since veteran coach Don Parker retired in 2009 after 32 years as head coach. Prior to Fader, the Blugolds had five different head coaches in six years.
A native of Illinois, Fader wrestled for his father Pete in high school at Rochelle High School. He wrestled collegiately at Augustana College, where he graduated Summa Cum Laude with a degree in Accounting and Finance-Business Administration. At Augustana, Fader was a two-time team MVP, two-time conference champion, three-time national qualifier, two-time NCAA Division III All-American and twice was named a First Team Academic All-American by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). He went on to earn a master’s degree in Sports Administration from UW-La Crosse in 1997.
Fader is the proud father of son Rye and daughters Molly and Shae.
