Wilmington College Drops Wrestling!

[wch125]

Copied from another site below......

Wilmington to discontinue three varsity sports
October 25, 2011
In the face of declining participation levels, Wilmington College is discontinuing three of its varsity sports programs, effective immediately.
The affected sports are wrestling and men and women’s golf.
“These were extremely difficult decisions that were made after careful consideration of many factors,” said Terry Rupert, Wilmington College’s vice-president for athletics administration/director of athletics. “Our golf and wrestling teams have brought us local, regional and national acclaim, but in recent years we have seen a declining number of participants in these sports. In today’s economic climate it is imperative that we make sound decisions based on the cost effectiveness of our sports programs. Those factors weighed heavily in our decision to discontinue the sports.”
Wilmington College is an NCAA Division III member of the Ohio Athletic Conference.

[wch125]

I am not wch125, but am posting on his account. wch125 is not a Wilmington College alumni, but is from another DIII school that still has their wrestling program (for now). I'm sure he feels the same as I do about this issue.

As a Wilmington College wrestling alumni who was an Academic All-American, and who had the privilege of practicing with a National Champion & National MVW, two National 3rd place finishers, and National qualifiers I am outraged that a program that has brought so much national recognition at such a small financial cost has been dropped! The mats are already there, the practice area and weight room are already there, the travel expenses are relegated to the cost of gas for the vans and hotel rooms (when applicable), we raised our own money for big trips, and we used graduate assistants to help the head coach as there were no paid assistants. To me it just doesn't add up. You're telling me that wrestling deserves to be dropped over tennis or swimming?! No offense to these programs; they should not be dropped either! This seems more like a way of looking proactive in the face of financial adversity without actually accomplishing anything... how much money is actually being saved by cutting the wrestling program and how is this in comparison to other sports and activities?

I was not a "recruited" wrestler out of high school (many DIII athletes aren't), but I loved (and still love) the sport. Wilmington College offered me a chance to continue to participate and grow in a sport I loved. I was a commuter student who was not in a fraternity, so quite literally wrestling was my fraternity, my social life and my family why I was on campus. These guys took care of me and looked out for me. Because of wrestling I stayed focused on my academics and graduated with honors. I know of others on the team who would not have even received a college diploma if not for their desire to be on the wrestling team and their desire to achieve their goals on the mat. Wrestling gave me and these men a focus that college alone couldn't. Quite simply I would not have attended Wilmington College if they did not have a wrestling program.

Before anyone wants to tell me that I didn't have my priorities straight let me say that wrestling supported my academics and did not replace them. I wanted and needed a college degree first and foremost, and wrestling helped me to achieve that goal; not with money, but with the support and focus provided by my team and my sport.

If there is any way to reconsider this decision I implore Wilmington College to do so. You are not just taking away a person's extracurricular sport; you might be taking away their chance at a college degree as well.

I am sending this to Terry Rupert at Wilmington College and I hope that others contact him as well. See his contact information below.
terry_rupert@wilmington.edu

[wch125]

terry_rupert@wilmington.edu

Terry,

You’re adding lacrosse?! You’ve got to be kidding me. “National searches for men’s and women’s coaches are under way”… maybe if any effort was ever put into finding a coach for the wrestling team then the numbers would not be so low. I don’t want to seem disrespectful to Coach Marsh because he did the best he could for us, but he was a football coach who took the job. He put in a great deal of time and effort for us and he did a great job supporting our team, but a large part of the success we had was due to the technical knowledge and wrestling experience of the great wrestlers on our team (Jerry Grammes, Ken Keller, Bryan Ray, Jimmy Walace…) because the coach had very little of either (no offense). After Coach Marsh, things never changed with the exception of Carl Amerine, and you let him get away. With this type of administrative effort to find a suitable coach how could you expect the numbers to be any better than what they ended up being? And now you are conducting a national search for coaches of entirely new sports at the college when you let a nationally prominent program dwindle away? There is also no reference to the program or its history on the college’s website. It’s as if it did not exist. I don’t want to seem bitter or disrespectful (I love WC) but this decision is very hard to understand or accept.

http://www2.wilmington.edu/news/Wilming ... rp_id=5556

[wch125]

Please contact Jim Reynolds, Interim President through his assistant, Betty Shaffer betty_shaffer@wilmington.edu

Mr. Reynolds,

I graduated from Wilmington College with the class of 2000. I wrestled for WC from 1996 to 2000. In the last couple of weeks I have learned that WC is dropping the wrestling program followed by the announcement that WC is adding lacrosse. I do not understand these contradictory announcements regarding the college’s economic condition and its treatment of athletics at the college.

According a statement made by you “The College is committed to providing the most complete collegiate experience possible for our students…”, then why did you drop wrestling; a program that has garnered national recognition for the college?

I have been in correspondence with Terry Rupert (see below). If you like you can read what I have expressed to him below regarding Wilmington College and its treatment of the wrestling program.

You are dropping a program with less equipment expense, facilities expense, travel expense, greater national recognition and replacing it with a program (lacrosse) with greater equipment expense, greater facilities expense, greater travel expense, and no national recognition. When one of the reasons given for dropping the wrestling program is the current declining economic condition how does this make any sense?

Another reason given for dropping the program was declining participation. I believe this is due in large part to the lack of effort given to finding a suitable coach, and yet a national search is being conducted for lacrosse coaches? When was a national search ever conducted for a wrestling coach? Will faculty positions be provided for these new lacrosse coaches? When was the last time a faculty position was made available for a wrestling coach?

I am hoping you can provide some explanation as to the decision of the college to drop a proven program, in favor of an untested one? How can you fully support a national search for a coach for a new program and ignore the fact that the lack of coaching has caused the wrestling participation levels to decline to record lows.

Please see the following statistics regarding high school sports participation rates http://www.laxpower.com/common/Particip ... es2010.php . Take note that wrestling ranks 6th in participation while boys lacrosse ranks 11th . In 2010 there were 272,900 high school wrestlers compared with only 90,700 boys lacrosse players and 68,800 girls lacrosse players. Bear in mind that these statistics are from a lacrosse website! Lacrosse is growing, but they have a long way to go to catch up to wrestling. To be specific even with boys and girls lacrosse combined the participation gap between wrestling and lacrosse is 113,400 athletes.

Do you have an explanation?

[WitnessProtection]

wch125,
How many wrestlers were on the team at WU last season?

[wch125]

wch125,
How many wrestlers were on the team at WU last season?

From what I can gather from various results the lineup last year was as follows:

Donny Herrington (Cincinnati/Sycamore) Jr. at 125 pounds
Josh Cioca (Midland/Blanchester) at 133 pounds
Tim Brown (Indianapolis, Ind./Lawrence North) Sr. at 141 pounds
Tim Dettwiller (Lebanon/Springboro) Sr. at 149 pounds
Tyler Baker (Middletown) at 157 pounds
Rex Pitsinger (New Lebanon/Valley View) Sr. at 165 pounds
Cody Hamilton (Franklin) Sr. at 174 pounds
184 pounds ?
197 pounds ?
Randy Swain (Carlisle) Sr. at heavyweight

I don't know about those that did not start in 2010-11 because Wilmington College has removed almost all wrestling infomation from their website (out of sight; out of mind I guess). I have read elsewhere that Wilmington College had eleven returners and five incoming freshman set to start the year for the 2011-2012 season.

[cowboysTe74]

wow there goes another

[cowboysTe74]

wow there goes another

[WitnessProtection]

Seems Wilmington is not alone in this.
wch125, any idea when the other schools that don't have wrestling dropped their programs? I vaguely remember Marietta doing this a few years back, but I can't remember exactly how it's been.
Here's some interesting numbers for the schools that still have wrestling.

OAC wrestling roster figures for 2011-2012

BW - 13
Heidelberg - 28
JC - 44
Mt. Union - 48
Muskingum - 29
Ohio Northern - 36
Capital - no team
Marietta - no team
Otterbein - no team
Wilmington - no team

[wch125]

Seems Wilmington is not alone in this.
wch125, any idea when the other schools that don't have wrestling dropped their programs? I vaguely remember Marietta doing this a few years back, but I can't remember exactly how it's been.
Here's some interesting numbers for the schools that still have wrestling.

OAC wrestling roster figures for 2011-2012

BW - 13
Heidelberg - 28
JC - 44
Mt. Union - 48
Muskingum - 29
Ohio Northern - 36
Capital - no team
Marietta - no team
Otterbein - no team
Wilmington - no team

Without doing the research, I must say that I don't know when these programs were dropped. I am surprised by the Baldwin-Wallace numbers.