Update: Save UC Davis & California Wrestling
Published on May 7, 2010 by viratas · No Comments
By TOM Staff
The run-around never stops.
Last week UC Davis Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi addressed the backlash from the national wrestling community after the university announced men’s wrestling, along with 3 other athletic programs, would be discontinued as of July 1st.
After several weeks of silence, Katehi attempted to “reassure” the national wrestling community by stating “[…] it is important for all of you to understand that in reaching my decision, I too did so with what I believed to be the best interests of the university and our intercollegiate athletics program in mind.”
Really?
How could one justify axing the Aggie wrestling program, you may be asking.
A document titled “Criteria for Consideration and Application of Criteria to Potentially Impacted Sports” was posted on UC Davis’ website, and listed several factors that led to the eventual cutting of men’s wrestling. This document is questionable, at best.
Cloudy Justifications
One of the first tiers of the document deemed the Aggie wrestlers were “not competitive in conference,” despite finishing 4th, 3rd and 4th in the Pac-10 tournament on three of the four previous seasons. The team has also been ranked as high as 13th nationally and owns victories over Northwestern and Oregon in previous seasons, both ranked in the top 20 nationally at the time.
Although there is much horsepower in the Davis wrestling room for future seasons, it seems the Aggie wrestlers may have been overlooked during a rebuilding year.
On top of this, men’s wrestling was thought to have a “limited potential for generating revenue.” Although the wording of this piece of criteria is accurate, it fails to do justice to the numbers themselves.
Men’s wrestling is the 2nd highest fundraiser in all of the athletic department at Davis, and over the last 5 years men’s wrestling has generated more than $275,000 dollars in fundraising alone, just behind the football team with roughly $370,000 in money raised. This is astonishing in contrast to men’s baseball which has only raised $115,000 in the last 5 years, and men’s basketball with $61,000 raised within the same time period.
Lastly, this document stated that wrestling “needed a facility,” which Head Coach Lenny Zelesky has stated is far from true, and that a new facility for wrestling was ever requested, or even needed.
Contrary to these justifications, Coach Z believes that the “data appears to be either misleading, or does not accurately represent the UC Davis Wrestling program.”
*The UC Davis administration declined to answer further questions by TOM, including information about the salaries of administrators, total number of varsity rosters spots in context of Title IX, and specific questions pertaining to staff layoffs.
What YOU Can Do
Losing wrestling at UC Davis was a wake up call for Californians, as well as the national wrestling community, to start getting involved with what could be a long-term problem. If we aren’t prepared to fight, we may lose more collegiate wrestling programs around the country and eliminate athletic and educational opportunities for some of our best and brightest.
Assistant coach for the Aggies Alex Tirapelle, a 3x California State Champion at Clovis HS and a 2x All-American at Illinois, understands that this decision has a greater impact outside of the athletes his own roster, stating that aside from “28 guys at UC Davis, 27,000 high school kids in the state of California and countless future generations” of wrestlers have been affected as a result of the loss of one of California’s most well-established programs.
The 2009-2010 season saw the end to another great California Division I program in CSU Bakersfield. Due to a budget crisis of its own, the program that has produced wrestlers such as former national champion and current NFL player Stephen Neal, has decided to discontinue its wrestling tradition. In addition to CSUB, CSU Fullerton was on the “chopping block” briefly, but has been secured at least for the short term.
At this stage of the game, it’s our duty as a national wrestling community to ensure future academic and athletic opportunities for our wrestlers. In order to succeed, we must continue being proactive in our pursuit! It’s time to stop assuming our programs are safe.
A great place to start is by attending and supporting NUWAY (National United Wrestling Association for Youth) events. These events are growing nationally, and a large portion of the proceeds of these tournaments goes directly towards funding wrestling programs within that particular region.
Two events in June prove to be an exciting way to fundraise, as several all-star roster of California wrestlers are set to face other all-star teams from across the nation. Proceeds of these events go to California collegiate wrestling programs.
Friday June 4th — Cal State Fullerton – Titan Gym
Team SoCal and Team San Diego vs. New Jersey, Michigan, and Nevada
Saturday June 5th — Clovis High School – Main Gym
Team Central Valley, New Jersey, Michigan, and Nevada in a round robin format
For more information about these events, as well as host organization SCWAY, visit www.savecaliforniawrestling.com, or visit NUWAY’s page at www. nuwaywrestling.homestead.com.
Also, for specific updates on the status of UC Davis men’s wrestling, as well as things you can do to help the cause, visit the “Save UC Davis Wrestling” Facebook group, here: www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=114634831894117
Finally, it is encouraged to contact the following individuals by e-mail or telephone with your opinions on the situation with the UC Davis men’s wrestling program.
Cindy Spiro – Senior Associate Athletics Director
264 Hickey Gym
One Shields Ave.
Davis, CA 95616
530-752-5096
ccspiro@ucdavis.edu
Greg Warzecka – Athletics Director
264 Hickey Gym
One Shields Ave.
Davis, CA 95616
530-752-4557
gwarzecka@ucdavis.edu
Fred Wood – Vice Chancellor, Student Affairs
4th Floor Mrak Hall
One Shields Ave.
Davis, CA 95616
530-752-6866
fewood@ucdavis.edu
Linda Katehi – Chancellor
One Shields Ave.
Davis, CA 95616
530-752-2065
chancellor@ucdavis.edu
Arnold Schwarzenegger – California Governor
State Capitol Building
Sacramento, CA 95814
916-445-2841
