DSU drops wrestling

The Open Mat.com

By: By MIKE FINNEY • The News Journal (Original here)

Academic, economic woes, Title IX all factor into university’s decision

DOVER — There was no press conference. The announcement that Delaware State University will eliminate its wrestling program beginning next school year was made via an afternoon press release.
It was sad news to longtime Caesar Rodney High wrestling coach Dicky Howell and most others in Delaware’s tight-knit wrestling community. But it came as little surprise.

“I can’t say that I didn’t see it coming,” Howell said. “The school has not shown support to the program and they’ve gone through four coaches in four years.

“That falls back on the university, because they didn’t keep the coaches around. They didn’t support the program. They didn’t even have a wrestling area. Plus, they make the team practice at 6 in the morning. Those kinds of things all add up.”

With the decision, Delaware no longer has a college wrestling program. The University of Delaware dropped the sport in 1991.

DSU officials said several factors weighed into the decision, including economic concerns, academics and gender equity.

The wrestlers at DSU who are receiving athletic scholarships will continue to receive the same dollar amount as long as they maintain good academic standing in 2009-10.

Candy Young-Sanders, DSU’s interim athletic director, said that the school elected to make the announcement now so the wrestlers would be given a chance to transfer to other institutions.
“We don’t have the ability to put additional monies toward the wrestling program to give it needed improvements and support,” she said.

Young-Sanders pointed to the team’s low Academic Progress Rate (APR) scores. The NCAA uses the APR to track a college athletic program’s academic performance. Schools that don’t meet baseline standards can lose scholarships. According to DSU, the wrestling program’s APR was low enough to risk sanctions against the entire DSU athletic program.

According to the NCAA, Delaware State was subject to penalties in four sports based on the APR report from the 2006-07 school year: men’s indoor and outdoor track, women’s basketball and wrestling.

DSU officials said wrestling, along with football and men’s basketball, have been assessed penalties in the latest APR report, due to be made public on May 6.

That, according to Howell, is a direct result of the wrestling program being ignored by the university.
“They don’t support their coaches and then the kids leave,” Howell said. “They have trouble staying eligible because there’s nobody there long enough to watch over their grades and take them under their wings.”

While football and men’s basketball face penalties, too, they are classified as revenue sports.
But according to the U.S. Department of Education, DSU lost money on its football and men’s basketball programs in 2007-08, spending $5.4 million on the programs and generating just under $3 million in revenue.

By contrast, the school spent $36,752 on a 19-athlete non-revenue wrestling program that year.
Ironically, the Hornets made significant progress under first-year coach Ken Melchior last season. He kept the team in good academic standing and recorded more victories than the team had produced in a decade.

“Coach Melchior’s efforts in trying to get the DSU wrestling program righted over the past year [are] to be commended,” Young-Sanders said.

Young-Sanders said Melchior would be employed by the university through the end of the school year. The team’s regular season ended Feb. 22.

Delaware State officials also said gender-equity concerns led to their decision.

“Title IX is killing us in wrestling,” Howell said of the NCAA rule mandating equal athletic opportunities for men and women. “Don’t get me wrong, women’s athletics is a great thing. Title IX just does not seem to be worded very well. I’m just tired of seeing men’s sports get the short end of the stick and get cut.”

In the past two years, Delaware State has added women’s equestrian and UD has announced it is cutting men’s indoor track.

“Since Title IX there’s been 460 or so wrestling programs that have been cut,” Howell said. “Wrestling’s kind of out there on its own. With small revenue men’s sports it’s much easier to hack off than it is to tack on.”