Tom Borrelli caps off legendary coaching career at NCAA Championships
Central Michigan coach Tom Borrelli looks to the scoreboard against Missouri in this February 2020 file photo at McGuirk Arena. (CM Life | Isaac Ritchey | file)
Central Michigan wrestling head coach Tom Borrelli is officially retired following the NCAA Championships, which featured three CMU wrestlers over the weekend.
After 33 years with CMU wrestling, Borrelli said he felt the timing was right and that the decision to retire took a couple years.
“A lot of it had to do with just energy, and just not being able to do the things that I feel like those guys need me to do physically in the room,” Borrelli said. “I'm 67 years old and closer to 70 than 60.
"It's just hard to do the things that those guys need from a physical standpoint, but also the stress of everything as you get older, it's not as easy to handle.”
In his time with the Chippewas, Borrelli brought home 15 Mid-American Conference Championships titles, including one in the 2024 season.
He coached national champion Casey Cunningham in 1999, who was inducted in the CMU Hall of Fame in 2009. Borrelli also coached 45 All-Americans and 10 MAC Wrestler of the Year honorees in his time with CMU.
Along with the team accolades, he individually has won 15 MAC Coach of the Year awards.
However, he said it's not the championships and awards that he will remember the most, but the relationships he has built throughout his career.
“The guys on our team over the years, the alums … those are the things you remember,” Borrelli said. “You don't remember the wins and losses that much. You remember the bus rides, the funny things that happened (and) just the relationships.”
Along with building those relationships with the people he coached, Borrelli said he will remember all the staff he interacted with through the years, including trainers, marketing students and facility workers that helped the program grow.
One of the All-Americans and MAC Wrestler of the Year honorees that he coached was Matt Stencel, who is now an assistant coach with CMU wrestling alongside Borrelli.
“(Borrelli’s taught me) to remain humble and be loyal to the people around you and the people that have helped you,” Stencel said. “And be grateful for every situation that you're in, and whether things are hard or whether things are easy, just be (to) grateful that it's a test and that it's preparing you for the rest of your life.”
As Stencel was coaching with Borrelli, he said he did a lot of listening and watching how Borrelli interacted with the different wrestlers, and it has helped him grow as a coach.
“I would just watch how he does it, the things he says, how he explains those things, and the reasons why he explains those things the way he does to those guys,” Stencel said. “And so it's been a little bit of, like, he's coaching me on coaching right now, not just coaching me on wrestling.”
The humbleness Borrelli has shown throughout his career is something that his wrestlers will take away, including redshirt senior Alex Cramer.
“He's a really humble guy, and he goes about things not really (getting) too high with wins and letting it get to his head, but also not harping too much on the losses and being too critical of himself and others,” Cramer said. “He keeps things in perspective pretty (well).
"Wrestling is important to me, and we all have goals here, but he's really reinforced the importance of other things outside of the mat as well. Such as family and the importance of the brotherhood on the team (and) taking care of one another.”
Transferring from Old Dominion, Cramer said he has been able to grow and learn a lot from Borrelli, both on the mat and in life.
“Just being able to learn from somebody with that much expertise, from a technical standpoint, it's been awesome,” Cramer said. “He's helped my wrestling tremendously, and helped me in other areas as well. And ... in my growth as a person, too, I think he has a lot of admirable character traits about him, and I've been able to take away a lot from him.”
Cramer was one of three representatives for the Chippewas at the NCAA Championships, along with graduate student Corbyn Munson and redshirt senior Johnny Lovett.
During the award ceremony at the Championships, Borrelli was honored for his career and handed out the All-American awards for the 197-pound weight class.
As his career comes to an end, Borrelli has created a program that has had a lasting impact on the wrestling world. He wants to see it continue even after he leaves.
“Just that I left the place better than I came, that's really it,” Borrelli said about what he wants his legacy to be. “You just want to leave places better than when you found them, you know, and then somebody else can continue to build.
“I want to see (the program) continue to thrive, continue to be important to the university, important to the wrestling world, and also a place where people that want to accomplish big things, wrestling-wise, feel like they can come here and do it.”
Borrelli’s advice to the future coach who will take over the program is to “do it their own way.”
“I didn't have any roadmaps when I came in here,” Borrelli said. “I was young and dumb, and it took me seven years to win a conference championship, so I'm just glad people had patience with me.
“I didn't have any big accolades when I came out of college as an athlete or anything like that, so there were a lot of people that were questioning why they hired me. … Just do it your way. Go at it with blinders on and do the best you can.”
