Tuesday Q&A: Tossin' 10 at Jason Borrelli, Stanford University head coach

Stanford head wrestling coach Jason Borrelli. Photo: Tony Rotundo, WrestlersAreWarriors.com.

Each Tuesday, TheMat.com will be tossing 10 questions at a college wrestling coach. This week, we visit with the Stanford University head coach Jason Borrelli.

Q1: Entering your 8th year as head wrestling coach at Stanford where do you see the state of the program now as opposed to when you first came in?

Borrelli: Without a doubt, Stanford Wrestling has made big strides over the past 7 years. From an administrative and financial support standpoint, I would be willing to say that we are in the best shape of Stanford Wrestling's 100-year existence. We have the full allotment of coaches, a great operating budget, and our national brand is thriving. This progress is a credit to many amazing people. The administration (current and former), coaches (current and former), alumni, donors, and student-athletes are the lifeblood of our program and we are grateful that so many people believe in our vision. Through the generosity of many, we recently finished a $700,000 dollar renovation to our practice facility! The next step is to increase our scholarship limit and we are working very hard to make that happen. During my first 6 years at Stanford we recruited on 3.5 scholarships. Last year, our scholarship limit was increased to 4.5 and we will continue to raise funds to grow that figure closer to the 9.9 NCAA maximum.

Q2: You have been a highly successful recruiter in your tenure at Stanford. What kind of prospect are you looking for and what has been the key to your success?

Borrelli: Solid NCAA performances in 2011 (11th) and 2012 (16th) allowed us to capitalize with some great recruiting classes. As a result, the cupboards are getting pretty full and the future is very bright for the Stanford Wrestling program! I have zero doubt that we can win an NCAA title in wrestling in the near future. In a nutshell, our program searches the country for individuals that share our Cardinal Caliber values of integrity, passion, positive attitude, sacrifice, hard work, and family. When we identify such a person, we invariably find that their background includes a high school and wrestling program that embrace these same hallmarks of success. We have built some strong recruiting connections across the country and are working very hard to keep them strong moving forward.

Q3: Talk about your coaching staff of Jamill Kelly and Ray Blake and the impact they have on the Stanford program.

Borrelli: As the saying goes, "you don't get places on your own." With that in mind, I have had some tremendous help over the past 7 years. Matt Gentry, Alex Tirapelle, and Vic Moreno come to mind when I think of my early years. Looking at my current staff, Ray Blake has made endless sacrifices for the program. I can't say enough great things about Ray! Without question, he will make a phenomenal head coach when he decides the time is right. Ray has been my wingman since I was hired 7 years ago and, undoubtedly, our program would not be where it is today without him on staff. In fact, I attribute most of our recruiting success over the years to Ray! His knowledge of the sport is amazing, the rapport he builds with his student-athletes is outstanding, his ability to teach/breakdown technique is as good as it gets, and his organizational skills and overall administrative efficiency is off the charts! Until this interview, Ray Blake was the best-kept secret in coaching!


Jamill Kelly brings tremendous value as well! Most notably, Jamill is fantastic at running workouts and putting together training cycles. From Oklahoma State to USA Wrestling, Jamill has been surrounded with many of the greats in our sport and brings an array of knowledge to our wrestling room each day. Like Ray, Jamill has a solid rapport with the student-athletes and has been a big help in the advancement of the California Regional Training Center ... it never hurts to have an Olympic silver medalist on your staff! As we start our second year working together, I am excited to spend more time with Jamill and find out how we can utilize all of his strengths as we continue on our upward trajectory from the previous 7 years!

Q4: What has been the biggest challenge for you during your time as a head coach?

Borrelli: This is a tricky question. My biggest challenge as head coach has shifted over the years. When I first started coaching, changing the team culture was the biggest challenge. I don't mean that we had bad kids, because that's certainly not the case, as we had wonderful people on the team. I just mean that we had to make sure that everyone really understood what it took to win on the highest level and understood the sacrifices that had to be made. As we raised the level of expectation, we also demanded a certain level of commitment and quickly found out who was and who was not all-in. In fact, in our first year, our roster went from 33 to 19 wrestlers. However, in many ways, losing those 14 wrestlers put the team in a better place. I guess you could call it, "addition by subtraction." We knew after that first year that everyone remaining was 100% committed to the process. We did not care about talent level, we just wanted to make sure that everyone was willing to work hard, make the necessary sacrifices, keep a positive attitude, and be committed.


Fast forward 7 years later and we don't have those same concerns. We have 32 wrestlers on our roster and we will finish the season with all 32 still on the roster. Our biggest challenge now is more along the lines of helping our wrestlers cope with their early career setbacks. As our recruiting has picked up, the success level of our incoming freshmen is much higher. With that comes even higher expectations from the student-athletes themselves. Therefore, we find ourselves having to navigate our wrestlers past getting knocked down and experiencing failure for the first time.

Q5: You landed two past Junior World medalists, Joey McKenna and Nathan Butler, in another great recruiting haul. Both are freshmen and both won the Hokie Open last weekend. How tough are these two and how far can they go this season?

Borrelli: Joey and Nathan are incredible individuals. Both have very high potential and can certainly win an NCAA title before they leave The Farm! What impresses me most about each of them is their work ethic, positive attitude and overall consistency as it relates to their training and preparation! Joey is laser focused and great to work with in a training environment because he always keeps you on your toes! However, off the mats he is goofy and very fun to be around ... it's very refreshing. From day one at Stanford, we knew Nathan was a rare find! He is a 265 man with the motor of a little man and great mental toughness too. It's not often that we find a guy with his size that can run a timed 3-mile in 20:30! Nathan is a computer science major and is also very fun to be around off of the mats. I have a strong feeling that you will not stop hearing Joey and Nathan's names after their NCAA careers finish, as they each have international aspirations as well.

Q6: Speak to what it takes to be a student-athlete at a highly regarded academic institution like Stanford and succeed both on the mat and in the classroom.

Borrelli: Stanford is an amazing place! No school in the country has a better combination of academics and athletics. From the academic side, Stanford is consistently ranked in the top 3 across the nation. From the athletic side, Stanford has won 21 straight Director's Cups! Because of this, it takes a very unique individual to succeed on The Farm. If I had to sum up our student-athletes in a few words, I would say they are inquisitive, intellectual, efficient, and widely accepting of others! Stanford promotes a standard of excellence while fostering a presence of family and community that is unmatched! In my mind, when you are held to a very high standard and you have a strong support network around, you can be ultra successful. Stanford does just that for it's student-athletes.

Q7: You have served on the NCAA Division I Wrestling Committee since 2011. What have you learned in your time of service on the committee?

Borrelli: My term on the NCAA committee was extremely valuable. Having a chance to witness first hand the amount of work that goes on behind the scenes to run the NCAA tournament was remarkable. The attention to detail and the amount of time spent trying to make everything right is quite impressive. Anthony Holman and his staff are great for the sport and it's refreshing to know that wrestling is in good hands! Aside from that, the biggest thing that I learned is that you can't please everyone and you will always have critics.

Q8: Stanford has never won a conference championship. Can this be the year?

Borrelli: Personally, I don't like to make predictions that are outcome based. I prefer to focus on the process and try to get better each day. We have had very solid teams the past 2 years that we felt could have won the Pac-12 championship, however we clearly didn't get it done. Therefore, something went wrong in the process. Taking a look at this year’s team, we feel the same way. Time will tell if we can get it done. Shifting gears a bit, Stanford takes great pride in winning the Director's Cup each year as the nation's best athletic department in the country. The Director's Cup is based solely how teams do at the NCAA tournament, and not at the conference level. Therefore, we would take a top 5 NCAA team finish if it meant having to sacrifice a conference championship in the process ... just saying!

Q9: Jim Wilson earned NCAA All-American honors last season for Stanford. How do you view his progression from last year to this year and what can we expect from him this season?

Borrelli: Jim Wilson is the epitome of consistency! You know exactly what you are going to get every time he competes. He is someone that wrestles from whistle to whistle and gives his best effort each time out! As a coach, you can't ask for more from a student-athlete! Jim exemplifies how far a great work ethic and positive attitude can take someone in this sport! Mix those attributes with Jim's strong inner belief system and you have a deadly combination! Our focus with him moving forward will be on improving his technique from day to day. Jim has many of the intangibles, but as he continues to make technical adjustments in his wrestling, he will be more and more deadly on the mat!

Q10: Who were your top influences in your development as a wrestling coach and how did they help you develop your skills?

Borrelli: No doubt about it, my dad has had the biggest impact on me as a coach! In fact, I talk to him about coaching just about every day and will continue to do so until he stops taking my calls! As most people know, I am very proud of him! It's hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that he has coached for 24 years at CMU and produced 38 All-Americans. His teams have won 14 MAC Championships (11 in a row) and he was named the national coach of the year in 1998 after CMU's 5th place finish at NCAA's! I could go on and on, as I am simply amazed at what he has been able to do at Central Michigan! The single most valuable coaching lesson that he has taught me is to surround myself with great people. From the staff to the athletes, he reminds me about the importance of integrity and says that success is about proximity. You are the sum of all those around you. If you surround yourself with 5 great people, you will likely be the 6th great person!


Additionally, Casey Cunningham and Kerry McCoy have played huge roles in my life. Casey was my assistant coach in college and many of my philosophies regarding living the right lifestyle and how to train in the sport of wrestling were shaped by Casey! Talking about Kerry, aside from my dad, he is the only other person that I have coached under and, therefore, I learned a lot from him during that time. Most notably, Kerry taught me the importance of engaging with your support network regularly (alumni, parents, donors, fans, etc.) and how to successfully build relationships with administrators in the department. I am very grateful for the year that I spent with him!


I have regular contact with other close friends as well. Dave Bolyard, Jason Mester, Tony Ersland, and Heath Eslinger each have had a positive influence on my coaching career in some way and we talk often. They bring unique experiences to the coaching profession and it's great to pick their brains too!