Lou Rosselli

Lou Rosselli

Wrestling

Anyone who followed the wrestling career of Lou Rosselli and concluded he was a great athlete would only be half right. Today, the 1988 Roy-Hart graduate is also an accomplished college coach. In or out of the wrestling circle, Rosselli has always been a quick study.

As a high school athlete, he qualified for the New York State championships four consecutive years, winning twice. He was the state champion at 98 pounds in 1986 and the 1988 winner at 112. A five-year varsity wrestler, and a four-time Section VI champion, he finished with a record of 156-8, including 37-0 his senior year.

Rosselli continued his career at Edinboro State, where he was a two-time All-American (1991 and 1993) and three-time Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference champion at 118 pounds. In 1989, he was named the Eastern Wrestling League Freshman of the Year and became the first Edinboro freshman to earn a trip to the NCAA championships. He graduated with a degree in health and physical education in 1993.

As an international competitor, Rosselli made the 1996 U.S. Olympic Team in the Atlanta Games but his dream for an Olympic medal was cut short when he broke his arm in three places during a victory and had to withdraw. He also captured three U.S. Open championships: 1995, 1996 and 1999.

After coaching 11 seasons at Edinboro, Rosselli moved to Ohio State University in 2006. He works mostly with the light weight classes. OSU was the NCAA runner-up in 2009.

“Lou is one of the most knowledgeable coaches in the nation,” said Ohio State coach Tom Ryan. “His years of college coaching, combined with world class international experience, make him priceless to our program.”
Rosselli also coached on the international level helping the U.S. National Team to a second-place finish at the 2009 Pan American Championships in Maracaibo, Venezuela.

He has been lauded with several honors during his coaching career, including the 2007 Terry McCann Award, USA Wrestling’s Freestyle Coach of the Year. That honor complements his memberships in the Edinboro and Eastern Wrestling League halls of fame.

“He’s just a tremendous young man who has done it all to the best anyone could expect,” Rosselli’s high school coach Dick Lang told the Medina Journal-Register.

The biographies contained on this website were written at the time of the honoree's induction into the Hall of Fame. No attempt has been made to update these narratives to reflect more recent events, activities, or statistics.