2024 Hall of Fame: Borrelli Leaves a Legacy of Success on All Levels

Note: Last in a series of profiles on members of the 2024 Class of the Marcy Weston CMU Athletics Hall of Fame.

Officially, Tom Borrelli walked away last spring, at the conclusion of the 2024-25 wrestling season, his 33^rd in charge of the Central Michigan program.

His presence is still palpable in the Chippewas' wrestling room which bears his name, in McGuirk Arena, and in wrestling rooms and gyms far and wide.

That's what you call a legacy.

Borrelli will be inducted into the CMU Marcy Weston Athletics Hall of Fame as part of the 2024 class in a ceremony in McGuirk Arena on Friday, Sept. 20 (6 p.m.) and then introduced at the CMU-Ball State football game at Kelly/Shorts Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 21.

He will go into the prestigious hall along with basketball/baseball player Chad Pleiness, gymnast Sarah Dame, football player Eric Fisher, volleyball player Kaitlyn (Schultz) Miller, and cross country/track & field standout Ryan Watson.

2024 MARCY WESTON CMU ATHLETICS HALL OF FAME CEREMONY
Date: Friday, Sept. 20, 2024
Time: 6 p.m. ET
Location: McGuirk Arena Main Floor
Admission: Free and open to the public

Borrelli's success at CMU has been well documented and etched in stone.

He led the Chippewas to a first-place finish last spring at the Mid-American Conference Championships, marking the 30^th time in his 33 years that his team has won the league tournament or its regular season title. He capped it off with his unprecedented 15^th MAC Coach of the Year Award.

The All-American plaques – for the record, 45 times a Borrelli-coached Chippewa earned the lofty honor – the myriad trophies and awards sit on the shelfs and hang on the walls.

What's in Borrelli's heart and mind, and so many of those that he mentored, carries more significance.

"Ultimately, when it's all said and done, it's about people using wrestling or using the things they learned through being a competitive athlete in college and the perspective they've gotten and how to handle failure and how to handle success and the things in between," Borrelli said. "That's why you do this."

A testament to Borrelli's influence is the number of his protégés who followed him into the coaching ranks. I know what coach did for me, and I want to do that for others.

Borrelli's longtime assistant and one of his very best wrestlers, Ben Bennett, has succeeded him and is now in charge of the program. Borrelli's son, Jason, is the coach at American and two others, Scotti Sentes and Luke Smith, head programs at Campbell and Cal State Bakersfield, respectively.

Many others fill assistant coaching positions on the college level and lead highly successful high school programs around the state of Michigan.

A week ago, the annual Chippewa Wrestling golf outing drew 144 participants, the max a typical golf outing can accommodate. A retirement gathering celebrating and honoring Borrelli last spring drew an overflow crowd to a local restaurant.

They return to reconnect with former teammates and friends and, perhaps most importantly, get a few minutes with their former coach.

"It's not about the wins and losses," Borrelli said, "it's more about the friendships and the things you learn and how you can use that later on in life.

"Sometimes the hardest lessons you learn are through athletics. It's got to be one of the best teachers for the rest of your life and people that go through this, those are the things that you want them to be able to use.

"I think the reason that athletics are in the educational process are for those lessons that you learn: how to persevere, how to be a good human being, what's right and what's wrong."

Today, Borrelli lives with his wife of 48 years, Lorri, in Port St. Joe on the Gulf of Mexico in the Florida panhandle. Their son, Bob, and his wife live about 90 minutes away. Jason and his family live just outside Washington, D.C.

Fishing and riding his Harley-Davidson are on Borrelli's long-term agenda. Working around the house and yard work keeps him busy for now.

"For 45 years I've know exactly what I was going to do every day," Borrelli said. "I was on a schedule; you had to get this done, you had to get that done. And now you wake up and you're trying to figure out what you're going to do."

Thanks in large part to Tom Borrelli, legions of former Chippewa wrestlers know what they're going to do: be good fathers, be good citizens, be good role models.

Central Michigan University Athletics

2024 Hall of Fame: Borrelli Leaves a Legacy of Success on All Levels

Related Videos