The Best Column in Wrestling?

There are some great writers in our sport.  Joe Baranik, of www.pawrestling.net/ writes one of the best.

HALF-NELSON REPORT

     By Joe Baranik

When?  2010-Collegiate Wrestling Back Again: From the early 70’s, to the mid-80’s college wrestling was at its peak.  There were nearly 750 college teams that had programs.  Teams in the South East Conference such as Auburn, Tennessee were in the top 10 in the country.  Kentucky was tough along with Florida and LSU.  Yale had some tough guys, UCLA was a decent team and Notre Dame was coming on.  Syracuse with “Mean Gene the Pinning Machine Mills” was a national power.  Collegiate wrestling was thriving.  Indiana State had big Bruce Baumgartner and all 14 schools in the PA State Athletic Conference had squads along with Temple University in Philadelphia. 

     Then the wheels came off with the unintended consequences of the Title 9 law in 1979.  The initial law was great; in essence it said that females should have equal opportunity to participate in high school and college athletics.  Then the law got amended to include an equal number of male and female athletes.  With 120 football players at that time on scholarship, it became impossible to have that many women athletes to equal the numbers of male athletes, so male sports began to be dropped in droves in the mid to late 80’s.  Also, football wanted to increase their budgets and in no way wanted their rosters cut.

     Finally, today, it appears the bleeding has stopped.  Sure there may be some more college wrestling programs discontinued, but the trend is turning in wrestling’s favor.  In my opinion, here are the top five reasons college wrestling is making a come back, and the trickle down effect will only strengthen middle and high school wrestling.

1) 600 college wrestling programs have been added since 2000.  Just recently, Shorter College in Georgia (Div. II) announced that they will add wrestling next season to become the only 4-year college in Georgia to offer the sport.  Darton College, a junior college in Georgia, added wrestling 3 years ago and are coming on strong.  Plus, according to the NWCA News, Quachita Baptist University (Div. II) will become the first college in Arkansas to offer wrestling next season.  “To be the first institution in the state to have collegiate wrestling will give us a stronghold on it,” said Quachita Athletic Director David Sharp.  Greg Hatcher, President of the Arkansas Wrestling Association, has announced the non-profit association will provide mats, uniforms and other assistance to help Quachita’s wrestling program get under way.  The association also has donated mats to more than 40 Arkansas high schools to help launch their wrestling programs.  Hatcher is founder and owner of the Hatcher Agency, the largest health insurance agency in Arkansas.   He lettered in wrestling, soccer and baseball at Alma College in Alma, Michigan.  Emphasizing that “wrestling creates leaders,” Hatcher said the opportunity for wrestlers to “go one-on-one with no one to bail you out” helps build confidence and discipline as well as “great self-defense skills.”  He also cited wrestling’s fitness benefits for student-athletes.  Hatcher also is the author of “55 Steps to Outrageous Service.”

     Also, Tiffin College, a Division II college in Ohio, is competing in their first year of the program and showing great promise. 

2) College administrators are finally realizing how much football costs and how little wrestling costs and the return you can make on your investment.  Boston University eliminated their football program about 7 years ago in order to keep a number of their other sports including wrestling.  Just last month, Hoffstra discontinued their football program because they were spending $4.5 million per year.  Also, last month, Northeastern University in Boston dropped football.  TCU, who went 11-1 this year and was ranked 4^th in the country before losing  to Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl, spends $16.6 million on their program and only has a seating capacity of  44,000.  They admit that their budget pales compared to their neighbors in the Big 12 such as Texas, Oklahoma and Texas A&M.  In addition, Florida State, a member of the ACC (6 member schools offer wrestling) just agreed to pay their new coach $9million over the next 5 years.  Don’t you think the Seminoles could afford a wrestling program?  As strong as Florida high school wrestling has become, there is no college in the state that sponsors a college team.

3) Never has there been more money spent on college wrestling.  In the last 5 years, a myriad of colleges have gotten either new wrestling rooms or a whole new facility to include weight & cardio rooms, locker rooms and video analysis and study lounges.  Michigan just opened a brand new building just for wrestling and virtually every program in the Big 10 has a new or remodeled wrestling room.  Numerous other programs across the country have recently upgraded or added new wrestling practice areas including Old Dominion University, Army, Campbell University, West Virginia, Virginia, Pittsburgh, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Cornell.  This fall, the University of North Carolina will open a brand new building for wrestling. 

4) Fans in the Stands.  So far, this wrestling season attendance is on the upswing.  Over 11,000 people witnessed the Iowa vs Iowa State dual in Ames, Iowa, over 5,000 watched the Lehigh vs PSU match in Bethlehem, Cornell sold out its first home match in November with 6^th ranked Maryland when over 1,000 fans attended the meet in their multi-million dollar wrestling-only facility.  Penn St. crowded in nearly 5,000 fans with their first home match in the Cael Sanderson era against Bloomsburg and LHU bolstered nearly 2,000 fans for their home match with PSU on January 4^th.

     One must keep in mind, that there is very little to nil pre-match hype for college matches in the national media or on Sports Center like for football or men’s and women’s basketball.  Can you imagine if the national media would hype a big match a few days in advance?  I believe the crowds would double.

5) Finally, the powers to be in wrestling such as the NWCA, USA Wrestling, The National Wrestling Hall of Fame and the NHSCA realize the importance of promoting and marketing our product-Wrestling!  More specifically: college wrestling.  I am convinced, that the bigger college wrestling gets, the bigger high school wrestling becomes, which will trickle down to middle schools and elementary leagues and into international wrestling.  Dan Gable and the Iowa dynasty got spectators to come out en mass, J. Robinson proved you can get crowds anywhere if you work at it and now RIOT Sports founder Jim Harshaw is taking the importance of promoting wrestling to the next level.  I must add, yours truly has been an advocate and pro-active in growing this sport for the past 30 years.

6) Wrestling has gained more credibility and influence because we are getting more former wrestlers who are becoming athletic directors and administrators.  Such examples of former wrestlers who have climbed to the top in administration include Bob Bowlsby, Athletic Director at Stanford; Pat Pecora, AD at UPJ and head wrestling coach; Tom Bold, assistant AD at Brown University; Andy Noel, AD at Cornell University; Steve Erber, Associate AD at Cornell; Gene Nighman, Assistant AD at Cornell; Dan Gable, Assistant AD at Iowa; and Charlie Heller, Superintendent at Titusville School District.

     In closing, let me leave you with a quote from Olympic gold and silver medalist Ben Peterson: “Please be reminded that anyone can add energy to a wrestling program and responsibilities can be shared, but leadership and an undying hope is needed in this sport that is so similar to life.”

     Until February, remember as Neil Turner likes to say “As iron sharpens iron, one wrestler sharpens another.”  And, as of 01/05/10, we are reminded on Cornell’s wrestling web page that there is only 71 days, 11 hours, 35 minutes and 25 seconds until the 2010 NCAA Wrestling Championships. 

     Finally, keep your grades up, your weight down and Go 4 the PIN!  (For comments email baranikjj@sapc.edu)