Since Andrew Alirez finished his collegiate wrestling career at UNC last year, he hasn’t found a direction for his future as an athlete.
Alirez, 25, a scholastic star at Greeley Central, a top college recruit and later an NCAA champion for the Bears, continues to work out and train to prepare for what might come along.
Whatever that might be.
“I don’t have anything lined up,” Alirez said. “I don’t know what’s coming, but I know when it does, I’ll be ready.”
This new reality of uncertainty is a big change for Alirez, whose life as a wrestler had been scheduled since he was a boy.
“You go through all that and then once you’re done it’s kind of like ‘yeah, what do I do?” he said.
Alirez is trying a few things now including as a volunteer coach for the Bears under first-year head coach Teyon Ware. Ware, a two-time NCAA champion and four-time All-American at Oklahoma, was hired in July to replace Troy Nickerson.
UNC hires former Okla. wrestler, assistant coach as head coach of Bears program
Nickerson left UNC for Army West Point in June after 11 years in Greeley. Nickerson recruited Alirez out of Greeley Central and coached Alirez for five years. After winning the 141-pound NCAA title in 2023, Alirez opted for an Olympic redshirt season the following year. He didn’t make the team that competed in Paris in summer 2024, and he returned to UNC for a final season in 2024-25.
Alirez said his training now includes wrestling and jiu jitsu. He’ll be involved with the Real American Freestyle, which is billed as the first unscripted pro wrestling league. The RAF is the only concrete plan Alirez has on his calendar, though a date and opponent have not been confirmed.
There is also the possibility of trying again to make the U.S. Olympic Team. The 2028 Summer Games are in Los Angeles.
"Yeah, of course, that's what I say," Alirez said. "I'm doing a little bit of everything."
Alirez is a volunteer coach with the Bears, while also working as the head coach of the Northern Colorado Wrestling Club and running his own Top Notch Wrestling Club for youth athletes.
Ware said Alirez is with the UNC athletes every day. The UNC wrestling room is Alirez’s room, Alirez’s picture is on the wall and Ware has encouraged Alirez to take the current wrestlers under his wing.
Andrew Alirez, left, a volunteer coach with the UNC Bears wrestling team talks UNC wrestler Daishun Powe, right, during a team practice Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026 at UNC in Greeley. Alirez was a four-time state champion at Greeley Central High School and he won an NCAA title at 141 pounds for UNC in 2023. He exhausted his college eligibility last year. (Brice Tucker/Staff Photographer)Ware said his voice as the head coach is not going to be the only coach in the room for the athletes. Ware has two other assistants on staff: Earl Hall and Charles Jones.
“If coach Jones and coach Alirez are getting through to that athlete that I’m not getting through to, and he’s getting that guy on his game, kudos,” Ware said.
Alirez said his transition to coaching at UNC has not been a difficult adjustment. Alirez said his age has allowed for some distance with the current wrestlers. Alirez said when he returned to the team last year after the Olympic redshirt most of the guys who were his buddies earlier in his career were then out of the program.
Among the athletes on the team now who wrestled with Alirez are: Dominick Serrano, Roman Cruz, Isaac Villalobos and Daishun Powe.
Alirez said the most significant coaching he can give to the UNC athletes is explaining what it takes to be successful at this level of college wrestling and how to win a national title. The rest is up to the athletes.
UNC Bears volunteer wrestling coach Andrew Alirez watches while athletes during a team practice Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026 at UNC in Greeley. (Brice Tucker/Staff Photographer)“You have to be able to look in the mirror and hold yourself accountable,” Alirez, later adding that all decisions have to be made with the goal to improve. “Nothing drives me more crazy than people saying they want to do XYZ and not doing anything that it takes to do XYZ.”
Alirez said it’s hard to totally commit to the sport with the singular goal to improve to reach the top — whether that is to be a national champion or an All-American.
The top eight wrestlers in each weight class at the NCAA Tournament earn status as an All-American.
Alirez said in wrestling an athlete can do everything right and lose and then not reach one of those high goals.
“That’s not the point,” he added. “The point is you have to be willing to go there with the uncertainty and that’s at least giving you a chance.”
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