Dan Loprieno

  • Position
    Head Coach
  • Email
    dloprien@harpercollege.edu
  • Seasons
    1998-1999 - Current (27) // Asst: 88-89 - 97-98
  • Phone
    847-925-6209
  • Wrestling Championships
    5x (2001, 2006, 2010, 2011, 2019), Asst: 1994
Coach Dan Loprieno has been the head wrestling coach at Harper College since the 1998-1999 season. Since taking over the program, he has led the team to five DIII national championships (2001, 2006, 2010, 2011, and 2019). In 2010, the Hawks defeated all schools, DI included, when they won their national championship. Along with his five national titles, Loprieno’s teams have finished second in the nation six times, third in the nation twice and finished fourth in the nation once. In addition to the national success, Loprieno has guided the Hawks to 10 Region 4 titles and two runners-up finished.
 
Loprieno has coached seven national champions across various weight classes: Mike Rio (149lb)(2004), Josh Kratovil (141lb)(2010), PJ Starnes (157lb)(2011), Curtis Blaydes (HW)(2012), Josh Tardy (149lb)(2013), Michial Foy (165lb)(2019), and Munkhtugla Zuunbayan (157lb)(2020). He has coached an additional 39 All-Americans. He also helped coach 19 All-Americans as an assistant.

In the 2024-2025 season, Loprieno kicked of the inaugural Stormin' Norman Memorial Tournament to honor the late Hall of Fame coach Norman Lovelace, who coached at Harper for 23 years, including a national championship in 1994.
 
In 2019, Loprieno earned his second NJCAA Coach of the Year award after winning his fifth championship.

In 2012, the Hawks won the Midwest District Meet, earning Loprieno Midwest District Coach of the Year. The award was Loprieno's ninth in the last 12 years.

In 2010 Coach Lopreino was inducted into the NJCAA Region 4 Hall of Fame. He was also the NJCAA Coach of the Year for his first time. In 2009, Coach Loprieno was named the NJCAA Man of the Year and was inducted in the NJCAA Hall of Fame in 2008 after winning two national titles as the head coach and and one assisting with coach Lovelace.
 
Loprieno wrestled for Harper from 1983-85, and he was a national qualifier for Lovelace in 1985.  After Harper, he continued his education and wrestling career at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, completing his Bachelor’s degree in Math Education and receiving a Masters of Science Degree in Mathematics. He began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Oshkosh. Next, he was hired as an assistant coach at Harper in 1989 and spent ten seasons as on the staff before being promoted to head coach. He is currently a professor of Mathematics at Harper College, where he started teaching in the fall of 1991.