Posted on 07/09/2003 2:02:21 PM PDT by Brookhaven
It's a tough position to argue.
There isn't really a way to make statements against Title IX without accusations of being sexist or trying to detract from the progress made by women's athletics in the last 25 years. A disagreement about the way Title IX is being implemented is often misunderstood as a criticism of the law and its spirit.
But it's an even tougher position to watch the sport that you've loved all your life die before your eyes. A sport you played in high school and college, a sport that shaped a large part of who you are. The competition, the triumphs, the dedication, the friendships -- athletes gain so much from sports that they carry with them throughout their lives. It isn't fair to ask them to turn their backs on the sports they love.
But many involved in wrestling and other so-called minor men's sports feel they now face the difficult choice of remaining silent or losing their sports to budget cuts and Title IX compliance.
The number of college wrestling programs has fallen from more than 400 in the 1970s to 257 last year. Wrestling is dropped by more athletic departments than any other sport, including 12 from 1992-95.
"In order to accomplish what is supposedly gender equity, it's very easy to cut men's sports," Michigan State wrestling coach Tom Minkel said. "Administrators are taking the easy way. It's a good law that's being applied poorly."
Surprisingly, college wrestling seems to be most threatened at a time when high school wrestling is quickly growing and American wrestlers are experiencing great international success.
"We've just made so much advancement in the last five years, and we're losing support for the sport," said Kerry McCoy, a Penn State wrestler and NCAA heavyweight champion. "If we had the support of a Division I football team, think how much greater this country could become in wrestling."
But because many schools are under pressure to comply with Title IX, wrestling is a prime target of athletic administrators. That is mostly because there is no comparable women's sport to balance the ratio of female/male athletes.
"A lot of people that are pro-Title IX really support men's sports, too. A lot of people would look at it and say equal is better," McCoy said. "It's just tough to make up a 200-year gap in 10 years."
It is the methods being used to enforce Title IX, rather than the law itself, that frustrates many players and coaches. Few of them will argue against providing opportunities for females athletes, but they say the focus on reaching compliance based on the ratio of male/female athletes is unfair.
"Title IX doesn't specifically say -- and that's the problem -- don't take away from men's opportunities," Syracuse wrestler Mario Mercado said. "It's not the athletes' fault. It's the administrators' fault for not implementing Title IX in a responsible way."
Mercado recently experienced the negative side of Title IX when Syracuse decided to drop its wrestling program. In an unusual move, the decision was announced during wrestling season, leaving the wrestlers a few months rather than a year to plan the rest of their college careers.
"No one really knows what to do. (The wrestlers) like it here. They've made friends here," Mercado said. "It's like starting college all over again. To me, that decision-making process is a year in the making. They should have informed the coaches and the wrestlers."
With the announcement that a women's lacrosse team will be added in 1998 and softball in 2000, Mercado said Syracuse's decision to drop wrestling was clearly made because of Title IX rather than budgetary constraints.
"To cut any sport and then add another sport, regardless of gender, is ridiculous," Mercado said. "Title IX was meant to be a good thing, but it's been distorted. It's been used as a scapegoat to take away from men's opportunities."
Few proponents of Title IX and women's athletics support cutting men's programs to achieve equity. Penn State reached compliance with Title IX by adding women's soccer rather than cutting the popular victims of wrestling, men's swimming, gymnastics and lacrosse.
"The issue and the challenge becomes: How are you assuring that people have access to programs?" said Ellen Perry, Penn State associate athletic director. "It was never the intent to deny opportunities to men. How do we do this and be fair?"
One solution proposed by many athletes and coaches is to remove football from all discussion of Title IX. They argue since there is no comparable women's sport to football, an unfair burden is placed on smaller men's sports to ensure equity is achieved.
Since football teams can have more than 100 members, they make it very difficult to achieve an equal ratio of male/female athletes. And since football teams can support both men's and women's programs with the revenue they bring in, it is argued football should be in its own category in college athletics.
"Football teams do so much for a university. It's really unfair to unduly penalize them," McCoy said. "But there are a lot of men athletes who are getting hurt because football teams are so sheltered."
But with a large percentage of some athletic budgets coming from one or two big sports, such as football, administrators are reluctant to risk losing future revenue by cutting those budgets. And as long as a fraction of a football team's revenue can support an entire wrestling budget, some coaches are happy to leave football alone.
"I think it's easy to forget that money for these programs comes entirely from football and basketball," Minkel said. "It's easy to always go to them."
But many in the wrestling community feel something must be done to save the sport at the collegiate level. Increased high school participation, Olympic medals and record ticket sales at the 1997 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships may not be enough to stop the decline in wrestling programs across the country.
"I would like to say in the next five years, we're safe," McCoy said. "But I'm sure they thought that 10 years ago."
The irony is wrestling is a much more accesable and easier sport to understand than most others. Virtually every young boy at one time or another has tried wrestling his friends for fun, and understands the basics of trying to pin your opponent.
You're right about beign the best athletes. You don't realize how demanding wrestling is until you try it. I can remember when I first started, I had just finished football season. I thought "I'm in good shape from football so I should be ready for wrestling." I thought I was going to die the first few weeks. I practicly crawled back to the locker room. When spring football came (which was right after wrestling season in our school), I noticed that the guys that had been on the wrestling team were in significantly better shape than the guys that had participated in other winter sports.
I was always in this boat.
My wrestling coach was the head varsity football coach and from double sessions for football in August until Track & Field started in the Spring...he and I were married. He rode me constantly. He was the greatest influence on me during my High School years and I'll never forget him.
He also took the time to teach me the Sanchin Kata of Uechi Ryu Karate Do. A foundation I used to great advantage and expanded on in later years. I am now teaching my son Sanchin.
Wresltling provided me with so many lessons during those years. Discipline, training, respect for my opponent and his capabilities, good sportsmanship and on and on.
One does not endure "Shark Bait" drills and remain unchanged.
PROGRESS!?!?!?!?!? What more non-lipstick lesbians with lucrative careers?
No education on my dime.
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