SCMAT Exclusive Wrestling Article 1-10-08
Speaking of brothers, let's spotlight the Borrelli's.
Two years ago SCMAT ran a series of articles entitled "Where are the now?" We looked at a former South Carolina wrestler Tom Borrelli. To this day I can still remember the turning point while writing that article, a moment when I was stuck with no answers. I did not know my History and I flunked! In the article I wrote "... and I still have yet to figure out if he (Tom) placed in state (but does it really matter at this point!!!) ..." Two years later I can say it matters! Tom's brother Paul wrote me two years ago and started sharing stories from the History of South Carolina wrestling in the 1970's. I was determined after those e-mail exchanges to put the history of South Carolina wrestling together, year by year, state placer by state placer. The SCMAT Exclusive article string going on this season are a credit to Paul Borrelli for taking the time to put the first pieces of the historical puzzle of SC wrestling together. Enough on the credits, let's take a moment to look at 3 brothers that have made some history in South Carolina (years ago) and continue to do so in North Carolina, Michigan and now California (Tom's son). Let's take a look at one of the records the Borrelli brothers hold with 7 sets of 3 brothers. As we saw in our last article, "Oh Brothers", seeing two brothers succeed is a narrow group but when you search for 3 brothers that have all had exceptional success, we find a group in the single digits after 40 years. Philip Borrelli I did some hunting and wanted to find how many times we have had 3 brothers in South Carolina that each placed at least twice in the State Tournament. That's a minimum of 6 family state placements for 3 brothers (2 for each brother). Back in 1994, Philip Borrelli became the 3rd Borrelli brother to place in State twice. And, here is the list of 7 sets of 3 brothers I found that make up the Exclusive list in our records: 1975 112 4A-3A-2A-1A 3rd Tom Borrelli Goose Creek 1974 98 4A-3A-2A-1A 2nd Tom Borrelli Goose Creek 1977 105 4A-3A-2A-1A 1st Paul Borrelli Goose Creek 1976 98 4A-3A-2A-1A 1st Paul Borrelli Goose Creek 1994 112 4A 2nd Philip Borrelli Goose Creek 1993 103 4A 3rd Philip Borrelli Goose Creek 1970 UNL 4A-3A-2A-1A 2nd Willie Craven James Island 1969 UNL 4A-3A-2A-1A 1st Willie Craven James Island 1971 154 4A-3A-2A-1A 1st Larry Craven Fort Johnson 1970 154 4A-3A-2A-1A 2nd Larry Craven James Island 1969 145 4A-3A-2A-1A 2nd Larry Craven James Island 1977 155 4A-3A-2A-1A 2nd Mike Craven Fort Johnson 1976 145 4A-3A-2A-1A 1st Mike Craven Fort Johnson 1975 138 4A-3A-2A-1A 4th Mike Craven Fort Johnson 1974 132 4A-3A-2A-1A 4th Mike Craven Fort Johnson 2005 152 3A 1st Jordan Martin Eastside 2004 145 3A 3rd Jordan Martin Eastside 2007 135 3A 1st Bryce Martin Eastside 2006 119 3A 4th Bryce Martin Eastside 2005 103 3A 1st Bryce Martin Eastside 2007 140 3A 1st Corbin Martin Eastside 2006 125 3A 1st Corbin Martin Eastside 2005 112 3A 1st Corbin Martin Eastside 2001 119 3A 1st Ryan McClester Lugoff-Elgin 2000 119 3A 1st Ryan McClester Lugoff-Elgin 1999 112 3A 1st Ryan McClester Lugoff-Elgin 2006 140 3A 1st Lance McClester Lugoff-Elgin 2005 135 3A 1st Lance McClester Lugoff-Elgin 2004 125 3A 1st Lance McClester Lugoff-Elgin 2007 103 3A 3rd Justin McClester Lugoff-Elgin 2006 103 3A 2nd Justin McClester Lugoff-Elgin 1971 127 4A-3A-2A-1A 2nd Albert Spalviero Fort Johnson 1970 120 4A-3A-2A-1A 1st Albert Spalviero James Island 1969 120 4A-3A-2A-1A 2nd Albert Spalviero James Island 1973 105 4A-3A-2A-1A 3rd Mike Spalviero Fort Johnson 1972 105 4A-3A-2A-1A 4th Mike Spalviero Fort Johnson 1971 103 4A-3A-2A-1A 2nd Mike Spalviero Fort Johnson 1974 126 4A-3A-2A-1A 2nd Joe Spalviero Fort Johnson 1972 119 4A-3A-2A-1A 4th Joe Spalviero Fort Johnson 1992 160 4A 2nd Bobby Stephenson Mauldin 1991 145 4A 2nd Bobby Stephenson Mauldin 1995 189 4A 1st Chad Stephenson Summerville 1994 171 4A 1st Chad Stephenson Summerville 1993 171 4A 2nd Chad Stephenson Mauldin 1995 275 4A 1st Craig Stephenson Summerville 1994 189 4A 1st Craig Stephenson Summerville 1993 189 4A 1st Craig Stephenson Mauldin 1992 171 4A 3rd Craig Stephenson Mauldin 1981 138 2A-1A 1st Andrew Walker Swansea 1980 132 2A-1A 2nd Andrew Walker Swansea 1978 112 2A-1A 3rd Andrew Walker Swansea 1987 145 3A-2A-1A 2nd Roslin Walker Swansea 1986 145 3A-2A-1A 1st Roslin Walker Swansea 1993 140 2A-1A 1st Dennis Walker Swansea 1992 140 2A-1A 1st Dennis Walker Swansea As a Junior at Goose Creek in 1994, Philip Borrelli would gain his second state placement, though in the Finals he would lose to 3x State Champion Clay Cavanaugh of Lexington. Paul Borrelli Paul would be the only brother in the bunch to bring home a state title and he would become a 2x State Champion and bring home the 1977 Most Outstanding Wrestler award. Paul squared off with David Bullock of Airport in the 1977 Finals, with both wrestlers being undefeated, and Paul would win a tight 3-2 contest with an escape in the 3rd period being the deciding point. Paul Borrelli would graduate a year early from high school, opting to pass on the chance for a third high school state title, as he instead continued his wrestling career at Clemson. Now up in Charlotte, NC, coaching wrestling at Charlotte Christian, Paul has seen his sons continue the family wrestling tradition. Aaron graduated in 2007 and won a state tile in his senior year going 48-0 and finishing a strong career with 148 career wins. Another son, David Borrelli, is a senior this year and he holds two state titles already and surpassed Aaron's school record for career wins earlier this season. In addition, Paul's son Joe Borrelli is in the lineup and paving his own path to success. Both David and Joe recently placed at the Taco Bell Invitational at Spring Valley as thier father Paul coached mat side. Tom Borrelli Tom would have some stacked weight classes during his years at Goose Creek. 3X State Champion Mark Reeve of Greer, a transfer into the state from Ohio (I believe) would win the weight class Tom was in both his senior and junior years. Thomas Alexander of Lower Richland was in Tom's weight class his junior year and Alexander would go on to become a Wrestling USA All-American as well as earn All-American honors in Junior College out in Oklahoma. Tom would go on to wrestle at The Citadel and then come back to Goose Creek to coach his alma-mater in 1981, seeing two of his wrestlers earn State Placement - Mike Rogers and Nathan Day (future coach of Battery Creek). Tom has been head coach at Central Michigan for many years now and currently has the Chippewas ranked between #5-#7 in the country depending on what polls you look at. In 2006-2007, Tom led the Chippewas to their ninth consecutive Mid-American Conference Championship. Central Michigan finished the season ranked fifth in the final dual meet rankings and finished 15th at the NCAA Championships. Tom coached three CMU wrestlers last season to All-American honors. Tom's son Jason wrestled for Central Michigan after becoming a two-time Michigan State Champion in high school. A four-year starter for Central Michigan at 125 and 133 pounds, he was part of five consecutive team Mid-American Conference (MAC) championships. Jason captured the 133-pound MAC title as a junior in 2005 and would also qualify for the NCAA Championships at 133 pounds twice, in 2005 and 2006. Before this season, Stanford Head Wrestling Coach Kerry McCoy announced the addition of Jason Borrelli to the Cardinal wrestling staff for the 2007-08 season. And, if you have not discovered Flowrestling yet (a Coach Robby Bell recommnedation), check out Coach Tom Borrelli's interviews, here with his observations of Central Michigan Breaking Through. And don't miss the other clips on the web link above - "Mount Pleasant, MI", "Biggest Influence", "% Mental", "Casey Cunningham", "Finest Hour" and "A Relief" --- all are worth seeing! Several other web links of interest on Tom Borrelli include WIN Magazine's article speculating Will Central Michigan be the surprise team at National Duals Jan. 12-13? and this clip from Central Michigan coach Tom Borrelli from the 1999 NWCA Clinic. The Borrelli brothers established some historical moments in S.C. and their success continues with an inspiration that families do seem to have wrestling run deep in the blood line. In fact, Tom, Paul and Philip's dad was a Pennsylvania wrestling state champion! The Borrelli family was a geat addition to South Carolina and we should not forget to follow Central Michigan's pursuit of a National Title this season and feel a sense of pride that the Goose Creek High School wrestling room was where it began. Hopefully in this SCMAT exclusive article for 2007-2008 the history of SC wrestling is defining itself as an exciting past with a future awaiting more greatness. These historical articles at SCMAT will hopefully provide accurate facts though we may always have missed some data at some point. If you notice a correction, addition or just want to comment please send a reply to scmat@hotmail.com thanks, Mark Buford