Jim Giunta talks NCWA with TOM

Jim Giunta is going into his 13th year of heading the National Collegiate Wrestling Association (NCWA) with the same enthusiasm as he had when he began the fledgling college club wrestling organization in 1997. What started as a small organization with a few teams is now a very well run machine with a large membership base. The Open Mat was able to speak with Jim recently and get his thoughts on the organization’ past, present and future, and also his opinion on the state of Texas high school wrestling.

TOM: What was the genesis for forming the NCWA? What need did the organization fill?

JG: The Original thought was to take the model we used to move Texas High School Clubs to State Sponsorship in 1997 and use the same concept to move College Clubs into the NCAA. It turned out there was more pent up demand for club wrestling than we ever imagined across the country. We doubled in size before the finish of the first season from 13 founding teams to 28 teams sending representatives to the first NCWA Nationals.

TOM: How would you say the organization has changed in 12 seasons?

JG: In 1997 the NCWA began with 13 teams and about 100 wrestlers, today we have over 160 member institutions ( more than NCAA Wrestling’s DI & DII divisions combined) and thousands of athletes and coaches. We originally saw the NCWA as a Small Club Organization that’s primary purpose was to start clubs and to push those to the NCAA level at their particular college. Today, we see the NCWA as the only Division, among the NCAA, NAIA or NJCAA, that is exclusively dedicated to promotion and administration of College Wrestling.

Although we continue to support teams as they push to be included in the NCAA, The NCWA gives athletic departments another choice in associations for their wrestling administration. The NCWA now has 16 teams* that are part of their athletic departments, and over 40 programs that have some type of financial aid, ranging from full Scholarships to ROTC subsidy’s.

TOM: The NCWA is a volunteer organization, what are the advantages to this? What are the
negatives?

JG: Volunteers are what make the NCWA what it is today. I see no real negatives to working with volunteers, only positives. Volunteers are impassioned by the sport, athletes and students. Like a volunteer army or the volunteers of the civil rights movement, our coaches and staff are true believers in helping students succeed.

The NCWWA is the Women’s division of the NCWA, Why do you feel it is important to have a women’s division?

With the US Olympic Committee now including women’s wrestling, the NCWA believes that we will be the spawning ground for our future women’s Olympians. We also provide a growing opportunity for the 5,000 + girls graduating from an ever increasing High School programs. Collegiate style wrestling is what they are used to and the NCWWA provides continued opportunities for our female athletes to compete and excel at the college level. The NCWA is the only association to recognize women’s college wrestling.

TOM: You have been involved with Texas high school wrestling for a number of years now, how would you say it has changed since you first became involved?

JG: I began Coaching at Richardson High in 1977, at that time we had about 45 teams state wide, and the wrestling quality probably ranked in the bottom 15 in the Nation… today Texas has become a leader with the largest girls wrestling program of any state and top men’s athletes ranking easily now in the top 15 states.

TOM: What do you see as the roadblocks involved in a D-1 NCAA wrestling program starting in Texas?

JG: In my opinion all “Roadblocks” to DI Wrestling Programs in Texas are Man Made. There are no legitimate reasons not to have college wrestling in Texas.

When you look at the fabricated “Roadblocks” they fall into 3 categories:
1. Title IX Excuses
2. Budget Limitations – that could be 100% offset by increased student enrollment **
3. Extra Work.

Issues 1 & 2 are simply Excuses for the only real reason which is # 3 Extra work for the AD, with no reward. In fact AD’s are threatened by adding sports. Supporters and coaches of other sports are opposed to adding wrestling as well. The way they see it is they would need to share the facilities with men & women’s basketball, as well as budget cutting in other sports due to limited budgets. AD’s have no incentive to add wrestling, only detractors.

TOM:The NCWA Alumni association was just formed this Summer, what are your goals for it?

JG: 1. Create a Wrestling Tradition that supports wrestlers and member schools
2. Increase attendance of wrestling events across the country, Duals, Conference & Nationals
3. Produce philanthropic income for the overall growth of wrestling

TOM: The NCWA now has two divisions, What was the reasoning behind going to this format?

As we continue to grow we are determined to produce not only excellent student athletes but long term leaders in education, business and athletics. To improve teams the Quality Enhancement Committee recommended the divisions as a way to provide clubs an incentive to improve their programs. DII Programs will be Clubs. DI programs will be Varsity Teams and held to higher standards including: Team size, minimum competition standards, Coaching leadership among other quality standards. Eventually the NCWA will have both a DII Club Nationals and a DI Varsity National Championships. The Division break up is likely by 2012.

TOM: What is your vision of the future for the NCWA?

JG: It’s an ongoing and growing process with the coaches, wrestlers and NCWA board members all adding to the Vision. We hope to have over 300 member teams and 6,000 athletes by 2015. We look to have over 150 Varsity scholarship programs in place by that date. Through the new alumni association we expect to have over 50,000 fans attend the 6 session NCWA DI Nationals by 2014.