MOUNT PLEASANT — A large chapter of the Central Michigan wrestling program is coming to a close.
Head coach Tom Borrelli has decided to step away from the program after 33 years at the helm.
“I got to live out my dream for 40 years in coaching in college, and when I was young, if you’d told I would have been able to do that, I would’ve said you were crazy,” Borrelli said.
Before his time with the Chippewas, Borrelli spent time coaching at Clemson and Lake Superior State to combine for those 40 years in collegiate coaching.
In that time, he has coached one national champion, 45 All-Americans, 10 MAC Wrestler of the Year honorees and has brought 30 MAC Championships and 15 MAC Coach of the Year honors to CMU. He ended his career with an astounding 154-36 MAC record.
“I like the little bit of an underdog role that we have being a mid-major. So, I always tried to stay in my lane a little bit and kind of grow where you’re planted. So, it was the right fit for me,” he said.
Borrelli became known for his scouting and his ability to find local talent that maybe wouldn’t get a Division 1 look otherwise.
“It’s easy to spot athletic ability and speed and quickness and things like that. But if a person who has a lot of talent is not a real hard worker … that’s very evident in wrestling,” Borrelli said. “It’s easier to find guys that are just blue collar, hardworking guys, and a lot of times a lot of those guys go to smaller schools that are in Northern Michigan.”
Borrelli knows all about the meaning of hard work. He wrestled for The Citadel - a military college in Charleston - despite only picking up wrestling himself as a sophomore in high school. In college, he was named the program’s most outstanding wrestler, twice.
“I always wanted to be a really good wrestler, and for one reason or another, I got started late and wasn’t able to accomplish those things,” he said.
Where Borrelli felt he had shortcomings, only ended up pushing him to become the iconic figure in wrestling he is today.
“It was really important to me for people not to go away from the sport. Having maybe some of the same regrets that I had,” he said. “That was the fun part of it. To me, that’s what kept me going, was to help people do things that maybe I couldn’t do.”
Borrelli plans on spending his days in the panhandle of Florida with his wife.