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Carlene Sluberski
EDITOR’S NOTE: Below is the biography of Carlene Sluberski, one of nine inductees in the Chautauqua Sports Hall of Fame’s Class of 2024. The other inductees are Karen Bakewell, Daniel Bryner, Cheryl Burns, Tom D’Angelo, Doug Kaltenbach, Rod Maloy, Karen Tellinghuisen and Judy Young. These nine individuals will be formally inducted at the CSHOF’s 42nd induction banquet on Presidents Day, Feb.19. Tickets are available at the CSHOF, 15 W. Third St., Jamestown; at the Jock Shop, 10 Harrison St., Jamestown; at Matt’s News, 93 E. Third St., Dunkirk; by calling Chip Johnson, banquet chairman, at 716-485-6991; or online at https://www.chautauquasportshalloffame.org/.
The sport of girls wrestling has received a lot of well-deserved attention in the past few years as more girls get involved and more schools field teams. 2024 Chautauqua Sports Hall of Fame inductee Carlene Sluberski was a trailblazing pioneer in the sport of women’s wrestling in this county.
Sluberski, born in 1991, first took up the sport as a fifth-grader. She wrestled in middle school and then four years at the varsity level for Fredonia Central School under the mentorship of CSHOF inductee Alex Conti.
Her record as a freshman was 6-4; as a sophomore 24-17; as a junior 36-10; and as a senior 50-5. Her overall career high school wrestling record was 116-36 with 44 pins, against male competition.
Sluberski was the Section VI champion at 96 pounds in 2008. She achieved fame when she became the first girl in New York State Public High School Athletic Association boys wrestling to reach the state finals in 2009. She finished second after suffering a broken finger in the final match at 96 pounds.
After graduating from Fredonia Central in 2009, Sluberski attended Northern Michigan University in Marquette, Michigan, where there was an Olympic Education Center. After three years at Northern Michigan, she transferred to Brock College in St. Catherines, Ontario, Canada where she had a stellar four-year career.
She was a four-time Canadian Interuniversity Sport champion, a three-time First-Team All-Canadian and Brock University’s Female Athlete of the Year (2014-15). She received her Bachelor of Science degree in kinesiology in May 2016.
She was also a two-time U.S. Senior National team member and served as a training partner for the 2013 and 2014 World Championships, as well as the 2016 Olympic Games; and was a member of the Junior World Team in 2011.
Following Brock, she was a graduate assistant at the University of the Cumberlands at Williamsburg, Kentucky in 2017-18. During her time at UC, she coached five All-Americans in the WCWA, in addition to two All-Americans in the U23 World Team Trials. She received her Master of Arts degree in teaching from UC in December 2018.
In 2018, Sluberski served as a volunteer coach in Fargo for Team New York, in addition to coaching at the Junior Pan-Ams in Fortaliza, Brazil, in which the Team USA women placed first overall.
Sluberski’s impressive resume includes work with USA Wrestling in multiple capacities. In November 2019, she worked with USA Wrestling for the Berlin Open. She traveled with cadet and juniors to Berlin for international competition and training camp. In February 2019, she worked with USAW for the Klippan Lady Open in Klippan, Sweden. Sluebrski also served as Team Montana’s women’s coach in 2019 for High School Marine Corps Freestyle Nationals in Fargo, North Dakota. Team Montana had two female All-Americans in 2019.
She then acquired her first head coaching job at University of Providence in Montana. In her first season working with the Argos, Sluberski guided Providence to a trio of All-American honors in 2018-19. The Argos had two Women’s Collegiate Wrestling Association All-Americans and one NAIA All-American. In 2019-20, Sluberski led her grapplers to a top-10 team ranking (9th) and a third-place finish at the inaugural Cascade Collegiate Conference Championships. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the NAIA National Invite was canceled and her squad, like many others, was unable to compete. Along with a top-10 ranking in the final regular season poll, Sluberski’s squad had 11 wrestlers ranked individually that were set to compete at the NAIA Invite.
Sluberski was named the Eastern Oregon University head women’s wrestling coach in November 2020. In 2020-21, Sluberski and the Mountaineers were limited to just one regular-season event in the Nampa Collegiate Invite prior to competing at the NAIA National Invite. Two Mountaineers earned All-American status. As a team, EOU placed 17th at nationals and had a total of nine athletes qualify. Sluberski was named the CCC Coach of the Year, as voted on by the league’s coaches. EOU finished the season ranked No. 17 in the final NAIA coaches’ poll.
The following season, 2021-22, EOU finished 10th as a team at the NAIA Invite with four All-Americans, one of whom was a national finalist. Sluberski returned to Western New York in 2022 when she was named the head coach of the recently created D’Youville University women’s wrestling team.
She resides in the greater Buffalo area with her husband, Max, and son, Miles.
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