MOUNT PLEASANT - Central Michigan University formally introduced their sixth head wrestling coach in program history on Thursday, promoting assistant coach, and Chippewa wrestling legend, Ben Bennett to the position.
Bennett, the only 4-time All-American in program history, has spent the past 11 seasons as an assistant coach for legendary head coach Tom Borelli, who recently announced his retirement from the position.
After graduating from CMU in 2013, Bennett joined Borelli’s staff as an assistant coach, getting promoted to the associate head coach position for the 2022-2023 season. He helped lead the Chippewas to a Mid-American Conference Championship in the recently complete 2024 season, and the team loses just two wrestlers to graduation, setting Bennett up for a potentially successful first campaign.
Borelli said that Bennett was always willing and able to step up and do what was needed to help improve the Chippewa wrestling program during his time as an assistant coach, and he was impressed by Bennett’s fearlessness in the face of challenges, both as a wrestler and a coach.
“In the last two or three year, I kind of had the feeling that he would probably be the guy,” Borelli said. “So, I started giving him more responsibility and kind of mentoring in that direction a lot more.”
Bennett credited coach Borelli for the first-class instruction he has received since arriving in Mt. Pleasant in 2009. He ranks seventh in career wins at CMU with 121, including a 30-match winning streak in 2013 that still stands as the program record. He was elected to CMU’s Marcy Weston Athletics Hall of Fame in 2023.
Now, he aims to add another chapter to his career at CMU.
“I feel prepared. I feel like I’m ready for that,” Bennett said. “I’ll have my own little twist on things that’ll be a little different because it’s not coach Borelli running it. But the one thing I always loved about this program was the way we train athletes, the way we develop the athletes.”
“It’s pretty wild, pretty incredible,” Bennett said about taking over for his coach and mentor. “It also means a whole lot to me, to be able to follow in his footsteps for everything he’s done for me in this program.”
