Tanelli joins the Hokies after eight years as the head coach at Columbia
He led them to fourth at the EIWA championship and took three wrestlers to the NCAA tournament this year.
This is a really strong hire for Coach Robie
πππ‘ππ€π’π π©π€ π½π‘πππ π¨ππͺπ§π. πππ‘ππ€π’π ππ€π’π.Got our guy! Head coach @ROBIEwrestling announces the addition of @ZachTanelli as Associate Head Coach.π https://t.co/rJyHS3zRrN#ThisIsHome #Hokies π¦ pic.twitter.com/Zk5OVD1HfSβ Virginia Tech Wrestling (@HokiesWrestling) April 22, 2024
Has serious recruiting chops. Will likely work mostly with 125, 133 and 141 weight classes. Has a pretty solid YouTube channel following on Fanatic Wrestling.
Spent time as assistant and head coach at Hofstra and then two years as an assistant at Purdue before taking over at Columbia.
Comments
Is this a head coach in waiting situation or is it really that much better a career move to be an assistant at Tech than the head cheese at Columbia?
also:
It might be a bit of both but honestly I think the resources at Columbia were limited. He struggled to get them to finish higher than Army, Lehigh and Cornell but did consistently have one or two champions in the EIWA each year.
Now he gets a chance to focus his efforts on the weight classes he works best with while coaching a team that consistently is top 10 in the country.
It seemed odd when I read it first, but then I thought maybe it was a chance to step up to a head coach position by having success as a top assistant at a higher level. I would not be surprised to see him heading to a HC job at a P4 school in 3-5 years.