What happened to the Edinboro program?

[wrestle87]

This is not meant as a troll or a whine post, it comes from a place of concern for the program.  What happened to Edinboro, and what caused them to go from powerhouse to doormat program?

Teams don’t hang out at this level for too long without second shoes dropping, especially when budgets are tight.

I know there was a re-org and edinboro got folded into a larger amalgamated university, I know they had Tim Flynn and Lou Rosselli for a while, both stellar coaches.  I know bruce baumgartner is in the organization, he left the AD role in 2018.  Why do they struggle so much now?  

 

[Gibby Haynes]

Void.

Edited January 15 by Gibby Haynes
Wasn't thought out

[Eagle26]

You kind of answered your own question. Baumgartner and Flynn were the reason for their success. After they left, Edinboro got a dose of reality. The reality is that they’re a small state school with bad winters and not a lot to offer a blue chip recruit. With the emergence of Penn State, a lot of top PA talent is going there, plus the “shrinking” of our country (due to ease of travel and long distance communication) makes it easier for recruits to go anywhere in the country. Sadly, it makes it hard for all these small PA schools to be successful. With good coaching, one or two of these programs should be able to do pretty well (like and Edinboro did and Lock Haven seems to be doing ok now), but I doubt we will ever see the days again when Lock Haven, Bloomsburg, Clarion, etc. all have great teams. 

[nhs67]

Lugo caused all of this.

That is the only logical explanation.

It was a preemptive strike by the Brands bros.

[KLCarnegieTech_1969]

A lot of these former D-1 programs dried up after long time coaches left.  Same thing happened to Slippery Rock, Clarion, Bloomsburg and California University.  Lock Haven is still respectable but yes the mighty have fallen.  

[Gantry]

I believe Flynn left because of the support and financial situation of the school, so to me that is the main driver.  He had opportunities to leave before the WVU job and never took them, but he left shortly after there was a lot of negative smoke about the Edinboro situation as an institution.

Edited January 15 by Gantry

[pumaunleashed]

Money, money and more (or less) money.

Hard to stay competitive in the sport today when you are living on 3-4 scholarships out of 9.9 and almost zero NIL money and a HS wrestling room.

[Jim L]

26 minutes ago, pumaunleashed said:

Money, money and more (or less) money.

Hard to stay competitive in the sport today when you are living on 3-4 scholarships out of 9.9 and almost zero NIL money and a HS wrestling room.

Where they always at 3-4 scholarships?

[pumaunleashed]

1 hour ago, Jim L said:

Where they always at 3-4 scholarships?

I believe so.  I should've also mentioned low coaching salaries to the point they are offensive.

[jdalu75]

Half a dozen years ago there was talk about Pennsylvania shutting down some of the schools like Edinboro, Lock Haven, etc., due to low enrollments.  Not shuttering the wrestling programs, shutting down entire colleges.  I think that was one reason Flynn left.  Kind of hard to recruit for a school that might not be there.

[ScarletKnight]

They were exciting for a time.   I can't imagine a lot of people knowing that school existed without the success they had for a while wrestling 

 

 

[wrestle87]

3 hours ago, ScarletKnight said:

They were exciting for a time.   I can't imagine a lot of people knowing that school existed without the success they had for a while wrestling 

 

 

Only reason I knew about it early on was they used to have a J Rob camp there.

[Jim L]

18 hours ago, pumaunleashed said:

I believe so.  I should've also mentioned low coaching salaries to the point they are offensive.

The fact that they were so good with so little money is amazing. The real question is how dud they ever compete (and win) against fully funded big time wrestling programs rather than what ever happen to them?

[Threadkilla]

Edinboro is now West Virginia.

[JimmyCinnabon]

There is certainly enough talent in PA to support a good Edinboro team.  It's a matter of getting those kids to want to wrestle at Edinboro, which is a hard sell. I've been to Edinboro plenty of times and my sister was even on an athletic scholarship there once upon a time and it's not a very enticing place to go to school if you ask me.

[Elevator]

On 1/15/2024 at 3:09 PM, jdalu75 said:

Half a dozen years ago there was talk about Pennsylvania shutting down some of the schools like Edinboro, Lock Haven, etc., due to low enrollments.  Not shuttering the wrestling programs, shutting down entire colleges.  I think that was one reason Flynn left.  Kind of hard to recruit for a school that might not be there.

There has been some consolidation, but I am too lazy to look up how it has been working and its impact on Edinboro and the teams of the consolidating schools.