Kyle Borshoff: Building a Legacy at Binghamton

The Binghamton Bearcats have had Kyle Borshoff as head coach for seven years. Entering his eighth season at the helm, the program has improved in many aspects. The overall GPA has been on the rise. The performance on the mat has been on a steady incline. He’s been a busy man building the program’s brand into what it is today thanks to his cerebral approach to wrestling and other wrestling-adjacent hobbies. 

Before he was involved with the Binghamton program. He was a successful athlete at American University in Washington DC. Borshoff earned All-American honors in 2009 and 2010 while qualifying for NCAA’s three times in total. The upstate New York native’s father is also a Binghamton Athletic Hall of Fame member. It’s the perfect place for Kyle to thrive, almost as if it was destined.

Kyle’s father, Tim Borshoff, was an NCAA finalist in 1975. He was Binghamton’s first to achieve this feat, helping the team finish in fifth place. It also earned him the Athlete of the Year award. Kyle’s father still attends every match. “Watching wrestling is his hobby. Others play golf – not my dad.” Kyle explained. He continued, “I am always meeting people who knew my dad. His coach started the wrestling program at the university. I guess there’s some pressure on me!” Kyle said in a half-serious, half-joking manner.

Coach Borshoff saw his father get inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2001. He still remembers his speech to this day. Hall of Fame inductions must run in the family. Due to his success on the mat, Kyle was recently inducted into the Hall of Fame at his alma mater. Kyle’s father was present at his induction. It’s not every day that a father and son are able to see one another get inducted into the Hall of Fame – especially at two great institutions. Coincidentally, both schools are in the EIWA conference.

Kyle Borshoff is not only an excellent wrestler, coach, father, and mentor. To add to the list, he’s recently been promoted to a blue belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ). Jiu-jitsu is a hobby he’s recently got back into within the last two years. The first time he ever “rolled” was when he was an assistant at American right after college with an athlete he coached named David Terao. It was a hobby Terao enjoyed and also excelled at. Terao was (and still is) a very high-level judo athlete. If you do not remember Terao, be sure to watch his matches from NCAA’s in 2016 when he claimed fourth place. He was one of the most exciting wrestlers to watch! The entire arena was “ooh-ing and aah-ing” at every wild sequence during his matches. Terao, a Hawaii native, is still training to compete at the 2028 Olympic games in Los Angeles. 

Borshoff really took a liking to jiu-jitsu because it’s similar to wrestling in many aspects, but also different. Once he was named the head coach at Binghamton, he was less involved in it. He had more responsibilities as a head coach and family man. His curiosity grew more thanks to a particular wrestler on his team named, Dimitri Gamkrelidze. Dimitri only wrestled his senior year in high school – but he excelled at Judo and Sambo while dabbling in jiu-jitsu. His work ethic and skill set helped him improve every year as he ended his career with an eighth-place finish at EIWA’s. Regarding Terao and Gamkrelidze, Borshoff stated “It made me think differently about wrestling. How can this guy (Gamkrelidze) be competitive in D1 wrestling with only one year of wrestling experience?”

Coach started doing BJJ (rolling) three to four weeks at Broome County Martial Arts, which is owned and operated by Tamden “The Barn Cat” McCrory. McCrory had a very respectable MMA career – fighting in both the UFC and Bellator. Borshoff has found that BJJ athletes really benefit from working with him because he gives a different feel compared to typical jiu-jitsu grapplers. The inverse assumption can be made as well. BJJ athletes who can wrestle, benefit wrestlers. Borshoff’s preference is Gi BJJ. For those unfamiliar, there is Gi BJJ and No Gi BJJ. The Gi is the (in layman’s terms) fancy robe they wear as they compete. The Gi can be used to help take opponents any position needed to get a submission.  

So, how do these correlate? Think about the main position in BJJ. Most athletes prefer to be on their back – which is the exact opposite of wrestling. If you get into certain positions enough times, you can figure out how to maneuver your opponent in a certain way you may not have felt before. For instance, when you feel an athlete try to pull you onto them in BJJ, something can click in your “wrestling mind” on how to utilize that action, or reaction, in wrestling to force your opponent onto their back. The difference in rules, such as leg locks, submissions, and choke outs, make you aware of positions you may not worry about in wrestling. This particularly comes in handy during a play-wrestle session when both wrestlers are feeling unorthodox positions and working to get comfortable in uncomfortable situations.

“The biggest crossover between the two is takedown defense. You see foot sweeps too. Things like hip position and grip too are familiar to most wrestlers.” Borshoff explained positions that overlap the two disciplines. He continued, “Taking guard (in BJJ) is similar to a leg pass (in wrestling) where you can end up in a double boots position.” At the risk of pissing off jiu-jitsu diehards, he stated that a high-level wrestler who walks into a BJJ practice can hold their own most of the time and pick it up very quickly. In his experience, these high-level wrestlers seem to learn quicker than average due to body awareness and the positions discussed. We discussed wrestlers like Jason Nolf's success in various forms of grappling and numerous UFC champions who have wrestling backgrounds. 

You can bet that some of Borshoff’s techniques he teaches to his wrestlers incorporate BJJ. Occasionally, to switch things up, they’ll do a jiu-jitsu workout while wearing a gi. He hopes to expand this discipline to his team to the point where they really think about wrestling from a different angle. With the increasing popularity of BJJ, more wrestlers are finding themselves doing it as a hobby. Borshoff is at the forefront of integrating these sets of skills into wrestling as a way to not only cross-train, but to improve wrestling skills as well.

There was one point Coach Borshoff made that stuck with me. How can wrestling learn from BJJ? “Literally anyone can walk into a gym and learn BJJ. We can teach it to a 90-year-old woman. Wrestling does not have that capability. There is nowhere for adults to go and physically learn wrestling.” It’s my opinion that this is a niche that needs to be filled if wrestling wants to gain popularity amongst the general population. Why are there so few clubs, gyms, etc. that teach wrestling? It’s proven to be the best baseline for MMA. Maybe that’s a topic for another day. Until then, keep an eye out for the Bearcats of Binghamton. The success on and off the mat is noticeable. Head Coach, Kyle Borshoff, has played a huge part in that with his willingness to think outside the box and approach the sport in a unique fashion. 

photo courtesy of Sam Janicki; SJanickiPhoto.com