Roger Kish was named Oklahoma’s 15th head wrestling coach on May 2, 2023, and will enter his third season at the helm in 2025-26.

In year two under Kish’s leadership, the Sooners showed significant improvement, finishing the regular season with an 8-4 dual record. Their 4-4 mark in conference competition also represented the program’s first .500 or better finish in Big 12 action since 2019. Additionally, five Sooners qualified for the NCAA Championships during the 2024–25 season, matching the highest total in the Kish era at OU.

Kish made an immediate impact in his debut season (2023-24), leading the Sooners to a 23rd-place finish at the NCAA Championships-their highest in eight years. He also guided Stephen Buchanan to All-American honors for the third time in his career. Buchanan compiled a dominant 27-3 record and placed third nationally at 197 pounds, marking Oklahoma’s top individual NCAA finish in eight seasons.

Before arriving in Norman, Kish spent 12 seasons as the head coach at North Dakota State, a Big 12 Conference affiliate, where he led the Bison to a winning record in each of his final five years (48-20 combined).

During his tenure at NDSU, Kish compiled a 108-70 (.607) dual record, including a 50–30 (.625) mark in conference duals—33-26 in the Big 12 and 17-4 in the Western Wrestling Conference. The Bison thrived under Kish’s leadership in his final five seasons, posting a .706 overall winning percentage and a 21-7 (.750) dual record over his last two years.

Kish's 2022-23 NDSU squad went 11-3 in dual competition and finished fifth out of 13 teams at the Big 12 Championship after tying for fourth place in the regular season with a 6-2 record. The Bison, who broke into the top 20 and never left after a 20-16 season-opening road win over No. 8 Nebraska, reached No. 15 in the National Wrestling Coaches Association Poll for their highest official coaches ranking since they moved to Division I in 2006-07. They also reached No. 12 in the InterMat rankings this past season, their highest in any poll in their D-I history. NDSU beat Oklahoma 21-12 in February in Fargo, N.D., and went on to finish 24th at NCAAs after scoring a Division I program-record 25.5 points at the event.

Kish coached 21 Bison wrestlers to NCAA Championships qualification over the last four seasons: six in 2023, five in 2022, four in 2021 and six in 2020 (before the event was canceled due to COVID-19). Those wrestlers earned a total of nine All-America honors, including two in 2023 by 157-pound senior Jared Franek (fourth place; was also the 2023 Big 12 champion) and 165-pound redshirt freshman Michael Caliendo (seventh place).

Kish's NDSU wrestlers also flourished in the classroom. His Bison earned 35 NWCA Scholar All-America honors since he became head coach and combined for 100 academic all-conference accolades. Clay Ream was named the 2017 and 2018 Big 12 Wrestling Scholar-Athlete of the Year and earned three consecutive NCAA Elite 90 Awards (2016-18), while Franek won two straight NCAA Elite 90 Awards. The Elite 90 Award is presented to the student-athlete with the highest cumulative GPA participating to the finals site of each year's NCAA Championships.

Kish was named Western Wrestling Conference Coach of the Year three consecutive seasons (2013-15) and directed the Bison to a pair of NCAA West Regional/Western Wrestling Conference championships (2014, 2015), as well as two WWC regular season titles (2013, 2015). He produced 19 NCAA West Region/WWC/Big 12 individual champions.

Prior to being named head coach at NDSU, Kish spent two seasons as a Bison assistant coach under the legendary Bucky Maughan. Kish joined the Bison program after a highly successful wrestling career at the University of Minnesota, where he also served as a graduate assistant for the 2008-09 season. He was a two-time All-American and NCAA runner-up with the Golden Gophers at 184 pounds.

Kish, who graduated from Minnesota in May 2008 with a bachelor's degree in business and marketing education, posted a 117-27 career collegiate record and went 35-7 as a sophomore en route to a Big Ten title and a second-place NCAA finish. As a team captain his junior season, he finished 37-3, was the Big Ten runner-up and finished third nationally.

A Lapeer, Mich., native, Kish was also a two-time cadet national champion and captured a USA Wrestling junior national title. He was a four-time state champion at Lapeer West High School.

Kish and his wife Jessalyn are parents to a son, Huxley, and a daughter, Emry.