Alex Tirapelle finished his fifth season with American University wrestling in 2025-26. He made the move from Stanford to American with head wrestling coach Jason Borrelli, joining his staff as associate head coach for the program in July, 2021. Tirapelle brought past experience in the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association (EIWA) as a three-year head coach at Penn from 2014-17.
Tirapelle has been a staple of the program throughout American’s rapid improvement over the last five seasons, culminating in a fourth straight campaign of at least eight dual wins, along with two conference champions and three NCAA qualifiers in 2026: Maximilian Leete (133), Caleb Campos (184), and Emmanuel Ulruch (HWT). He’s guided several wrestlers to career-best seasons, most recently seeing Campos make a historic run at 184 pounds. Under Tirapelle’s tutelage, the redshirt junior led the team with a career-high 31 wins, became an EIWA champion, and went 6-2 at the NCAA Championships to take fourth place and become AU’s first All-American since 2016.
Making an impact up and down the roster, Tirapelle helped the heavyweight Ulirch toward a breakout season as a redshirt sophomore. Ulrich went 22-16 and was ranked 28th in the final RPI poll of the season. He went 3-2 at EIWAs, earning fifth place and an at-large bid in the NCAA Championships in Cleveland.Â
The Clovis, California native spent a total of eight seasons with Borrelli at Stanford, first becoming part of the Cardinal staff in 2010-14 and rejoining the program from 2017-21. In his final season, the Cardinal swept the Pac-12 awards, seven of 10 Cardinal starters qualified for the NCAA Championships, and Stanford finished with two All-Americans and its first national champion since 2004 in redshirt sophomore Shane Griffith.
In his eight combined seasons at Stanford, Tirapelle helped Cardinal wrestlers earn 33 berths to the NCAA Championships, including Stanford's second three-time All-American and first two-time NCAA finalist in Nick Amuchastegui. The Cardinal earned 10 total All-America honors during Tirapelle's tenure, including three at the 2011 NCAA Championships in Philadelphia – the highest All-America output at any NCAA Championships by a Stanford squad. The three All-Americans in 2011 propelled the Cardinal to an 11th-place finish overall, the highest team finish in program history. Stanford matched its record with three All-Americans in 2020.
During his tenure at Penn, Tirapelle went 21-18 in duals and had 13 wrestlers qualify for the NCAA Championships, including All-American Casey Kent in 2016.
Prior to his first stint at Stanford, Tirapelle served as an assistant coach at UC Davis for two seasons. coaching one Pac-12 champion and six NCAA qualifiers. Before working with the Aggies, he spent seven years at the University of Illinois as a student-athlete, graduate student and member of the academic advising staff.
Tirapelle twice earned All-America status at Illinois, captured two Big Ten titles, and was named Big Ten Wrestler of the Year in 2004. As a freshman in 2003, he finished as the national runner-up and earned Illinois Freshman Male Athlete of the Year honors in the process. Tirapelle finished his career as the Illini's all-time wins leader with 128, while ranking third with an .877 winning percentage.
Along with his impressive athletic career, Tirapelle racked up several academic honors. He was a Big Ten All-Academic honoree all four years, a first-team NWCA All-Academic selection, and first-team ESPN The Magazine/CoSIDA Academic All-American. In addition, Tirapelle earned an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship.Â
Tirapelle holds a pair of degrees from Illinois, graduating in 2006 with a B.S. in accountancy and earning a Master's in sports management in 2009. Tirapelle's wife, Amy, is also an Illinois graduate who was a member of the cross country and track & field teams. The couple have three children, Leandro, Sofia and Lorenzo.
