New programs
This year's crop of newly-announced college wrestling programs represents geographically diverse locations throughout the United States ... and one beyond our nation's shores.
At least two of the new programs are located in schools in the southeast U.S.
Virginia's Averett University has announced it will be adding a men's wrestling program to its roster of intercollegiate sports -- along with men's and women's lacrosse -- thanks to the support of an anonymous donor. All three are scheduled to begin NCAA Division III competition during the 2017-18 academic year at the school which describes itself as a four-year, fully accredited, private, co-educational college with a traditional residential campus and an enrollment of approximately 1,000 students.
The Reinhardt University wrestling team comes together before a dual meet against Allen UniversityMeanwhile, Georgia's Reinhardt University has expanded its sports roster to include men's wrestling -- along with men's and women's bowling -- which will all compete in the NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics). Located straight north of Atlanta, Reinhardt describes itself as a rapidly-growing four-year school affiliated with the United Methodist Church, with an enrollment that has more than doubled in a dozen years to 500 students.
A new-from-scratch wrestling program has come to the traditional wrestling hotbed of New Jersey. Jersey Coast Academy put out the word in 2016 that it was seeking a head wrestling coach "to lead a new junior collegiate wrestling team with the goal of developing a 2017/18 model NJCAA program." The school, located in Toms River, New Jersey, appeared to be eager to get the position filled, stating it wanted an individual who was available immediately.
Oklahoma is another state with a rich tradition of wrestling. Seeking to make the most of that heritage, Oklahoma Wesleyan University in Bartlesville, Okla. announced it would be adding a new NAIA wrestling program for the 2017-18 academic year. The four-year school located about 45 miles north of Tulsa describes itself as "an evangelical Christian university of The Wesleyan Church" with approximately 1,300 students.
Kansas -- a state that has seen considerable growth in the number of schools offering the oldest and greatest sport in recent years -- has welcomed a trio of brand-new college wrestling programs.
The University of Saint Mary, a private liberal arts university of approximately 1,000 students in Leavenworth, Kansas, announced it would be launching both men's and women's programs for 2016-17, and had already hired Chuck Kearney to coach both NAIA programs.
McPherson, Kansas-based Central Christian College revealed it was starting a men's varsity wrestling program in fall 2016, and had welcomed Tom Carr, assistant coach at George Mason University, as the new program's head coach. The four-year private college's mat program will compete in the NAIA.
In October, Cowley County Community College made it official: after months of research, the two-year public college in Arkansas City, Kansas added intercollegiate wrestling to its sports roster starting in fall 2017. The school, founded in 1922, has approximately 5,000 students; the new wrestling program will compete in the NJCAA (National Junior College Athletic Association).
Most of the schools that are establishing brand-new programs see wrestling as a way to boost enrollment by offering a sport not on the roster at similar schools ... while appealing to local wrestlers who would like to continue their education closer to home.
One last new wrestling program is about as far away from the U.S. heartland as possible: Jamaica's G.C. Foster College for Physical Education and Sport, which has produced some of the Caribbean island nation's most outstanding athletes and coaches in various disciplines, is adding wrestling to its roster of sports. The idea: to educate future coaches for the sport, who then can bring wrestling to schools throughout Jamaica. G.C. Foster College and Future Champs of Texas have signed a three-year memorandum of understanding, and plan to conduct additional wrestling workshops over the life of that contract.
Programs returning from the dead
A number of intercollegiate wrestling programs were resurrected after years away from the mat ... along with a program that was left for dead at one college, only to be given a new lease on life at another nearby school.
After an eight-year absence, Moorpark College -- a two-year, public junior college in Ventura County just outside of Los Angeles -- will bring back wrestling in the fall of 2017, along with sand volleyball, which is joining the sports roster at the California junior college in 2018. Moorpark's wrestling program will compete in the NJCAA.
Wrestling has already returned to Northeastern Junior College, a two-year, public residential college located in Sterling, Colo. near the Colorado-Nebraska border. The newly revived program, which came back to the mat this past fall as a NJCAA sport, had a successful run from the 1950s into the 1980s, claiming what remains to be the school's only national sports championship.
Two colleges in the state of Illinois are welcoming the return of their long-absent wrestling programs.
Judson University in Elgin -- a four-year, private school founded as a religious seminary a century ago -- is bringing back its wrestling program after more than four decades. The Judson Eagles, which last took to the mats in 1970, will start up again for the 2017-2018 school year, competing as a NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics) program.
Meanwhile, Joliet Junior College -- another school located just outside of Chicago, and the nation's oldest two-year public college -- celebrated its 115th birthday by reinstating its intercollegiate wrestling program which had been eliminated nearly 30 years ago. The school's Board of Trustees approved the establishment of a NJCAA wrestling program in fall 2017, if wrestling advocates raise the $30,000-$35,000 needed to relaunch the program by April 2017.
In New York State, SUNY Ulster has brought back a wrestling program that had been gone for 40 years, and hired Justin Signorelli as head coach. Also known as Ulster County Community College, SUNY Ulster is a public two-year college located in the Hudson River Valley, supported by Ulster County, New York, and the State University of New York, with a main campus located in Ulster, N.Y. The school has a total enrollment of approximately 3,800 students.
Now, here's a story of how one Kentucky college saved the wrestling program of another school in the Bluegrass State that was about to go out of business.
Louisville-based Bellarmine University came to the rescue of the wrestling program at St. Catharine University, a tiny college located in central Kentucky which had announced it was closing its doors at the end of summer. Bellarmine stated it will be "essentially absorbing the former Saint Catharine College team" -- wrestlers as well as coaching staff. The new Knights wrestling program, which took to the mats this past fall, competes in NCAA Division II, making it the first school in the Bluegrass to have a wrestling program in that division.
Grand Canyon falls into the abyss ...
Now for the bad news: In early March, Grand Canyon University announced it would be eliminating its intercollegiate wrestling program effective at the end of the 2016 season. (The school will still have a wrestling club.)
GCU, a private, for-profit, four-year Christian university located in Phoenix, Arizona, was in the third year of a four-year plan to move the Antelopes wrestling program from NCAA Division II to Division I. The school's terse, 100-word announcement did not provide any details; however, the Arizona Republic reported that Grand Canyon University had "attempted to become a non-profit school, but the Higher Learning Commission recently denied its request."
According to the East Valley Tribune, GCU wrestlers and coaches were ushered into a meeting with the compliance department to learn their fate. "They were simply told the program was being cut but their scholarships would be honored," said the father of a freshman wrestler at GCU. "No real discussion of a reason."
The program was established in 2007 as an NCAA Division II program, with R.C. LaHaye serving as head coach from the start before he was abruptly dismissed in the summer of 2014.
In the final four years with LaHaye at the helm, Grand Canyon compiled a 62-23 overall record, with four individual national champions, and 13 NCAA All-American honors. One of the program's brightest stars, heavyweight Tyrell Fortune, had been named NCAA Division II Wrestler of the Year in 2013. (Since then, Fortune signed a contract with Bellator MMA, and had a successful professional debut in November 2016.)
St. Cloud State wrestling's brush with death
Just days before the 2016 NCAA Division II Wrestling Championships, Minnesota's St. Cloud State University called athletes from all varsity sports for a major announcement concerning potential cuts to athletic programs. When the meeting was over, student-athletes learned that SCSU would eliminate men's and women's tennis, women's Nordic skiing, men's cross country and men's indoor/outdoor track and field at the end of the school year ... while the Division II team title-winning wrestling program was one of four men's sports forced to make roster reductions.
The St. Cloud Times reported the SCSU wrestling program would lose 14 roster spots, for a total of 38 roster spots for the 2016-17 season. By comparison, the average Division II wrestling program has 33 on its roster, according to SCSU Athletics Director Heather Weems.
The school located northwest of Minneapolis-St. Paul made clear the cutbacks were not caused by Title IX, but by declining enrollments and a $9 million budget shortfall.
Wrestling coach Steve Costanzo, whose program brought St. Cloud its first national title in any sport, said it had been "rumored for a while" that his roster would be taking a hit. "The hardest part is the team is so close," said Costanzo.
As SCSU wrestler Clayton Jennissen said after the meeting, "It's better than getting cut, like some of the other teams."
The St. Cloud State Huskies not only survived the death scare, but also successfully defended their team title at the 2016 NCAA Division II Wrestling Championships held that weekend in Sioux Falls, S.D.
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