Notre Dame College Athletics

Frank Romano has been the head coach of the Notre Dame College wrestling program since its inaugural 2006-07 season. He has built the Falcons into a nationally recognized program with nine National Championships, which includes four National Dual Meet titles. At the NCAA Division II level, NDC has won four titles. NDC also has a record of 123-14 in dual meets under Romano.

Since joining the ranks of NCAA-II in 2012, the Falcons have produced 12 individual National Champions, and 41 individual NCAA-II All-Americans.

Most recently, Romano led the Falcons to fourth place in the 2019 NCAA Division II National Championship. Individually, Jose Rodriguez earned a National Championship at 141 lbs. and five wrestlers were named All-Americans. Notre Dame won the Division II Super Region III for the sixth time in seven years.

At the NAIA level, his teams won four National Titles, including two National Dual Meets, having sent 41 grapplers to the NAIA National Tournament, winning seven individual National Championships and 25 All-American awards.

Prior to arriving at Notre Dame, Romano served as head coach at Kent State University from 1996-2003. While with the Golden Flashes, Romano coached three All-Americans, 64 national qualifiers and 44 Mid-American Conference (MAC) individual champions. He compiled an overall record of 99-41-1 as the head coach of the Golden Flashes. 

Romano has 49 years of coaching experience on his resume, which includes time as an assistant at KSU and stints at a number of high schools in Northeast Ohio, including at prominent programs such as Aurora, Elyria, Kenston, Maple Heights and St. Edward in Lakewood. 

As a coach, Romano has received honors such as the Northeastern Ohio Coach of the Year, Chagrin Valley Coach of the Year, Buckeye Conference Coach of the Year and Greater Cleveland Conference Coach of the Year. Romano was inducted into the Ohio Wrestling Hall of Fame in 1988, the National Wrestling Hall of Fame-Ohio Chapter in 2014 and the Notre Dame College Hall of Fame in 2016.

Romano is a former wrestler at Maple Heights High School, where he won two Ohio State Championships. At Ohio State University, the two-year team captain was a three-time NCAA qualifier, a two-time Big Ten place-winner, an Ohio U.S. Wrestling Federation champion and a U.S. East-West All-Star.

He continued his wrestling career after college and was an Ohio Federation Champion, AAU Freestyle Champion and a participant in the Olympic Qualifying Tournament. 

Romano has a bachelor's degree in health and physical education from Ohio State and a master's degree in athletic administration from Kent State.