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News Page
May 20, 2000
For sale: mats, singlets and headgear. Program cut. Everything must go.
The number of college wrestling teams has dropped dramatically over the last
two decades because of budget constraints and gender equity.
Although the sport is as popular as ever at youth levels, opportunities for
wrestlers to extend their careers into college are decreasing every year.
"We are probably the No. 1 sport right now that once you graduate high
school you have less opportunity to go on and compete in college," said Dan
Gable, the former Iowa coach who started the Hawkeyes' wrestling dynasty
that includes 20 national championships in the last 26 years.
NCAA wrestling programs have dropped from 374 in 1979-80 to 238 this season.
The number of Division I teams has fallen from 152 to 91, a figure that will
drop again next season when Brigham Young cuts its program.
"Wrestling is strong right now at all levels except college. That doesn't
mean that we are weak, but we are getting picked on," Gable said.
Reasons for the cuts are generally a combination of finances and Title IX,
the federal law that requires schools to give men and women equal athletic
opportunities. As a non-revenue sport that schools are not adding for women,
wrestling has often been the first on the chopping block.
"It's tough to see them go," said USA Wrestling president Bruce Baumgartner,
a two-time Olympic gold medalist.
One of the schools that has saved its wrestling program is Nebraska,
although it is looking for a new coach. Tim Neumann resigned last month amid
accusations of improper scholarship payments.
With an athletic department funded by a national powerhouse football team,
Nebraska is secure in financing, and gender equity after adding women's
bowling and rifle teams over the past three years.
Not every school is so lucky.
Baumgartner, athletics director and former coach at Edinboro University in
Pennsylvania, said there should be another way to meet gender quotas.
"Everybody blames the dropping of a sport as gender equity and it's not
always," Baumgartner said. "Title IX is an excellent law - there is nothing
in it that says that you have to drop and remove programs. Unfortunately in
a lot of college atmospheres the money is not there to add programs."
The money might not be there, but the fan support is. This year's NCAA
championships set an attendance record of 96,994 over the three-day
tournament at the Kiel Center in St. Louis. The event is nearly an annual
sellout, no matter where it's held.
"I don't think college wrestling is in danger of extinction by any means.
But I am concerned if one program drops," Gable said.
Gable isn't worried about the sport at wrestling powers like Iowa, Iowa
State, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State. And for good reason - the four schools
account for 33 of the last 34 NCAA titles.
Arizona State, which edged Iowa for the 1988 championship, is the only
school outside the group to sneak in a title since 1967.
That leaves dozens of programs that can't compete and are hard-pressed to
find the funding to keep the sport alive.
"It's easy to pinpoint us and say, 'We can get rid of this to get where we
want to be,"' Gable said.
Remaining college programs are not having a hard time finding wrestlers.
According to USA Wrestling, 238,334 athletes participated on high school
wrestling teams in 1998-99, an increase of more than 7,000 from the previous
year.
The totals have been helped by an increasing number of girls. In 1990-91,
132 girls competed in high school wrestling. That number was 2,361 last
year.
But the sport's growing popularity with women hasn't caught on at the
college level. A few small schools offer it as a club sport, but women's
wrestling is not close to becoming a varsity sport at a Division I school.
Membership rose from 90,523 in 1989 to 142,065 last year at USA Wrestling,
which governs amateur wrestling in the country from the youth level to the
Olympics, excluding high school and college. The number of sanctioned events
rose from 1,193 to 1,537 during that time.
Gable, now an assistant athletic director at Iowa and college wrestling's
unofficial ambassador, worries that those numbers will level off if
wrestlers see fewer collegiate opportunities.
"If we all of a sudden get too low there's not going to be a lot of
incentive for kids to keep wrestling," Gable said.
High school wrestlers have noticed scholarship offers are hard to come by.
Matt Morkel, who helped lead Omaha's Skutt High School to the last four
Nebraska high school Class B state championships, will be a walk-on at Iowa.
Even with an A average and the 1998 gold medal from the state tournament,
the 125-pounder said his opportunities were limited.
"There just wasn't much out there," Morkel said.
Some schools use fund-raising to keep their programs out of danger. At
Stanford, coach Chris Horpel sends out an annual alumni newsletter. It
netted the program more than $45,000 last year, he said. Horpel, a former
Cardinal wrestler, has been raising money for the program since taking it
over 20 years ago.
But donations aren't always enough. At Miami of Ohio last year, wrestlers
came up short in a fund-raising effort to save the program. Soccer and
tennis also were dropped.
Athletes from the sports who were given two months to come up with at least
$13 million said the time wasn't nearly enough. They raised $3 million.
"Anybody who has ever wrestled can't sit back and do nothing right now,"
Gable said. "We are not football. We are not baseball. We're not basketball.
It's real simple to think there's not a lot of us out there. But there is
and you've got to stay active in it one way or another."
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Family sues school, coach for leaving son unattended after injury
May 25, 2000
UNDERWOOD, Iowa
The family of a high school wrestler is suing Underwood School District
and wrestling coach Lewie Curtis, claiming their son was left unattended
after he was injured in competition.
Nathan Roane, 16, suffered a ruptured spleen and internal bleeding during a
dual meet Jan. 6 at Logan-Magnolia High School, according to the lawsuit.
Coaches knew the 145-pound junior varsity wrestler had been injured but did
not check on him, the lawsuit said. The teen-ager was lapsing in and out of
consciousness when another wrestler found him in the locker room.
Roane underwent surgery and "a good portion" of his spleen was removed, said
Laura Pattermann, the family's attorney.
The spleen, a lymphatic organ in the abdomen, stores red blood cells. Though
not vital, it provides increased protection against infection.
The lawsuit claims Nathan's injuries would not have been as severe had he
been tended to immediately. The family is seeking compensatory and punitive
damages.
"I don't want to see this to happen to anyone else, because they may lose
their son," said Nathan's mother, Judy Roane. "We almost lost ours."
Curtis, school Superintendent Ed Hawks and Pam Johnson of Employers Mutual,
the school district's legal representative, all declined comment on the
suit.
Dave Harty, assistant executive director of the Iowa High School Athletic
Association, said it was impossible to have a doctor at each athletic event.
"If a young man is injured in wrestling, the coach should be watching," he
said.
Underwood won its second consecutive state Class 3A wrestling championship
earlier this year.
