Jon Mendoza has been hired as the new head coach of the Pella High wrestling program.

Mendoza is currently an assistant at Van Meter and works at their elementary school. In addition to coaching the Little Dutch, he’ll be a third grade teacher at Pella’s Lincoln Elementary.

In high school, Mendoza was a member of the 100-win club at Norwalk, qualified for state twice and was twice a place-winner at the Brute Adidas High School Nationals.

He was a three-year college varsity letter winner at Waldorf and Central College, where he was academic all conference all three years and qualified for the NCAA tournament once.

Mendoza replaces Joe Burch, who stepped down following the 2016-2017 season to spend more time with his family.