PITTSBURGH—The Pitt wrestling team made a significant addition to its coaching staff this week with the hiring of Lou Rosselli as assistant coach, head coach Keith Gavin officially announced.

Rosselli, who competed at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta for Team USA, joins the Pitt wrestling staff after most recently serving as Oklahoma's head wrestling coach from 2016-23.

"I am very excited to be adding Lou to our staff," Gavin said of Rosselli. "Lou's resume speaks for itself. He has coached and won at the highest levels of our sport. Lou was my personal coach during my time wrestling for Team USA and had a big impact on me, so I know firsthand what he will bring to our team. I am grateful that Lou has decided to come to Pittsburgh and join the Pitt wrestling family."

"I would like to thank Keith Gavin and Heather Lyke for welcoming me to this incredible Pitt family," Rosselli said. "I'm excited to work with this talented young team and coaching staff. I am also very much looking forward to working with Keith again. My wife is actually from the Pittsburgh area, and our boys are huge Pittsburgh sports fans, so my entire family is very excited for this opportunity."

Rosselli is no stranger to college wrestling in western Pennsylvania, having competed from 1989-93 at Edinboro University, where he was a two-time NCAA All-American at 118 pounds. He was also named the PSAC and EWL Most Outstanding Wrestler at the end of his senior season in 1993.

Following his collegiate career, Rosselli served as a volunteer assistant coach at Edinboro and worked towards the Olympic dream, which he achieved by representing Team USA at 52 kilograms in 1996.

Rosselli won national freestyle titles at the university level in 1994 and on the senior scene in 1995, 1996 and 1999. He took the gold at the 1997 World Cup and won silver at the 1998 Pan American Games.

A native of Middleport, N.Y., Rosselli joined Edinboro's full-time wrestling staff as an assistant coach in 1998. He would stay with the Fighting Scots until he joined Tom Ryan's first staff at Ohio State in 2006.

In over a decade in Columbus, Rosselli would helped Ryan build the Buckeyes into a powerhouse and was recognized as the 2009 NWCA Assistant Coach of the Year. He was promoted to the role of OSU associate head coach in 2009 and played a pivotal role in Ohio State winning the 2015 NCAA team title.

At Ohio State, he mentored four-time NCAA champion Logan Stieber and two-time champion J Jaggers.

Rosselli's résumé also brings a highly skilled and accomplished freestyle coaching career to Pittsburgh. He has an extended coaching history with USA Wrestling, earning three Terry McCann National Freestyle Coach of the Year awards in 2007, 2013 and 2016.

He was on staff for Team USA at the 2015 World Championships and is a three-time U.S. Freestyle World Team Coach and led the American squad at the 2010 World University Games.

Additionally, Rosselli served as a volunteer assistant coach for the American wrestling teams at the 2012 Olympics in London and the 2016 Olympics in Rio, coaching five medalists and three gold medalists.

Rosselli was named the 14th head coach in Oklahoma wrestling history in 2016. He steered the Sooners until 2023, going 56-49 in duals and producing more than 40 NCAA qualifiers and All-Big 12 Academic selections, four All-Americans and two-time Big 12 champion Dom Demas.

Highlighting his time in Oklahoma, Rosselli also guided the Sooners to the 2021 Big 12 team title.

He is a member of the Edinboro Athletics, Eastern Wrestling League and Buffalo Sports Hall of Fames.

Rosselli joins a Pitt program that has produced 40 NCAA qualifiers, 12 ACC champions, eight All-Americans, three NCAA finalists and 2023 NCAA champion Nino Bonaccorsi under Coach Gavin.

The Panthers are on the verge of a move to a new state-of-the-art facility, with "Victory Heights" currently under construction and set to open for the 2025-26 season.

Rosselli and his wife, Amy, have three sons: Jaxson, Ty and Jordan. Jordan wrestled for his father at Oklahoma during the Rosselli family's time in Norman.

Lou Rosselli hired as Pitt Wrestling Assistant Coach

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