This award is to recognize those individuals who have given significant time and effort to the sport of wrestling. Those efforts must have had significant impact on the preservation or promotion of the sport, through contributions that are financial, service and/or leadership in nature.
Greg Hatcher of Little Rock, Ark., John Licata of Fairfax, Va., and Steve Silver of Dallas, Texas have been named recipients of this award for their outstanding work in helping start wrestling, saving wrestling and promoting wrestling.
Hatcher has been the driving force behind the movement to start and sanction high school wrestling in Arkansas, which is one of two states that did not have wrestling as a sanctioned sport. Hatcher put up his own money to buy mats for over 10 schools in the state with the hope that enough schools would start wrestling as a means to give high school students another athletic option in the winter other than basketball.
This season, Arkansas held its first high school state tournament with Bentonville winning the championship in the 16-school field. The state needs 40 programs to start wrestling for the Activities Association to officially sanction the sport.
"People like Greg Hatcher represent what this award means," said NWCA Executive Mike Moyer. "He's been spearheading coaching education, additional avenues for kids, positioning wrestling as a way to combat Arkansas' childhood obesity problem and has been footing the bill for much of it."
"His altruistic approach to bringing wrestling into an area where it's been lacking speaks volumes about his love of the sport and his willingness to give the kids in his state additional opportunities to compete," added Moyer.
Information about Arkansas' growing wrestling movement can be found at www.arkwrestling.com
John Licata, a former wrestler at James Madison University, has been a vital cog in the movement to try to regain 10 athletics programs at his alma mater and dropped programs at Ohio University as well.
Licata is the founder and president of Equity in Athletics, a non-profit group aimed at reforming Title IX's interpretation and urging schools to keep and add opportunities rather than take them away in response to the proportionality prong of Title IX.
"A lot of us were saddened when James Madison elected to end the athletic careers of athletes in 10 sports," said Moyer. "What John has done is not take this sitting down and has been active in explaining the move and is fighting to regain these Olympic sports."
"He's not just focusing on this because it's his alma mater, he's focusing on this because it's taken away opportunities from men and women at other programs as well," said Moyer.
Licata has also been a generous donor to the NWCA and its Foundation for the Future, a donation fund set up to help program entrenchment, save threatened programs and start new wrestling opportunities nationwide.
Steve Silver, a Dallas-based businessman, is the third honoree and his support of wrestling has been broad and generous.
Silver has served as a team leader for various U.S. World Teams and was instrumental in bringing the NWCA All-Star Classic to the state of Texas for the first time. He's also on the committee trying to bring intercollegiate wrestling to the University of Texas.
"Steve's just a good man in every aspect of life, not just wrestling," said Moyer. "His contributions to the sport have been well-documented and he's been a key factor in the rise of wrestling in a state where there is not one single college varsity program."
"Without him, the 2006 All-Star Classic would not have been possible and it would have not been possible to showcase the nation's best wrestling talent in the Lone Star State."
Silver currently has son Luke wrestling at Oklahoma State.
"This group is phenomenal," said NWCA President Ron Mirikitani. "Even with their own wrestling careers long passed, they still find the time to try to improve and better this sport with their contributions and support."
The Dan Gable "America Needs Wrestling" Awards will be presented to Hatcher, Licata and Silver at the 2008 NCAA Championships in St. Louis.
Last year, The Hershey Company's Ray Brace, Fresno State's Dennis DeLiddo and Tim Cornish and El Molino High School (Calif.) Athletic Director Greg Dumas were recipients of the award.
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