Thursday, June 21, 2007 1:09 AM CDT
Wrestling backers warn about fallout
BY BRIAN NIELSEN Sports Editor
bnielsen@jg-tc.com
For years some have claimed Eastern Illinois’ 22 sports were too many and that dropping some would ease the budget.
Since last month’s announcement that the university was eliminating its intercollegiate wrestling program, some are now saying the school will be hurt without it.
“I don’t believe (Athletics Director Rich) McDuffie realizes the fallout of giving this program the death penalty,” said Charleston’s Renny Garshelis, a former wrestler and official now in EIU’s Hall of Fame. “I don’t think people will continue to send students to Eastern. The fallout with be drastic for many years.”
Former EIU wrestling national champion and current Lincoln College coach and administrator Dave Klemm gives that indication.
“As a teacher and a coach at a junior college I have routinely advised students to transfer to Eastern Illinois University to further their education,” Klemm said. “I have always believed that Eastern’s size and friendly, helpful atmosphere is perfect for students transitioning into a four-year degree successfully. I can truly say that my vision of EIU is tarnished. It will now be hard for me to refer students to Eastern.”
Pat Flynn, a 1987 EIU graduate and wrestler who is now a middle school principal, has written the university about the significance of the wrestling program.
“I am sickened by this entire sport elimination process and lack of administrative awareness of what a wrestling program brings to its students and the university,” Flynn said. “To this day, I still cannot fathom what went through the little minds when this decision was made. I am an EIU grad who participated on EIU’s wrestling team. You probably will not remember me. I did not break any records, I did not qualify for the NCAA tournament, and I did not make any academic dean’s lists. But, when I left the campus at Charleston, I was a stronger man than when I arrived. I can say, without hesitation that my wrestling experience has made me who I am today. Without wrestling I would have never made it through college.
“Upon leaving EIU in 1987 I entered the teaching field. There I gave to hundreds of student-athletes the same guidance wrestling gave me: Strength, commitment, perseverance, knowledge, humility, trust and honor. You see, wrestling rooms across the state of Illinois understand they are the little guys in a sea of big sports. After all the basketball tryouts are over we would take the castoffs and show them the mat. We would talk to the students society turned their backs on and show them the mat. And to the student that just loved to be active and in the gym we would show them the mat.”
Many colleges have turned their backs on wrestling over recent decades.
Mike Moyer, executive director of the National Wrestling Coaches Association, plans to note other repercussions of EIU dropping wrestling when he speaks to the Board of Trustees at a Monday meeting by pointing out how college wrestling programs help produce middle school and high school coaches for the sport.
“Few parents connect the dots with how important these programs are and who is going to be mentoring their students at the elementary or high school levels,” Moyer said.
Moyer noted that 440 college wrestling programs were dropped between 1972 and 1999.
“We’re happy to say we brought back 45 intercollegiate teams,” he said.
Still, today Florida had 360 high school wrestling programs and no college intercollegiate teams while 52 high school programs in Georgia have no college program in the state.
For now, many tied with Eastern are just looking to revive one of the few college wrestling programs left in Illinois.
“I’m living every day in misery,” said Linda Trinka, a member of the Save EIU Wrestling committee, “because my son is one of the wrestlers.”
Contact Brian Nielsen at bnielsen@jg-tc.com or 238-6856.
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Overreact much? wrote on Jun 21, 2007 4:25 PM: