Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Why Our Sport Needs More Matt Gentry's

I'm always trying to think of fun and exciting topics to write about that will intrigue wrestling fans and generate discussion.   I think a fun topic would be to interview wrestlers who grew up and wrestled in states that either provide no Division I wrestling opportunities or absolutely no collegiate wrestling programs at all.    The main question I would want to present to them, would be if they would have had the opportunity to stay at home and wrestle in their home state, would they have?

For example, let's take Josh Lambrecht who won a Southern Conference title for UT-Chattanooga and then transferred to Oklahoma where he finished his career as a three time All American placing 7th, 2nd and 3rd at the NCAA championships.    Had the state of Florida, where he wrestled in high school, had Division I college wrestling opportunities, would we have seen Lambrecht as a Florida Gator, a Florida A&M Rattler or a Florida State Seminole rather than an Oklahoma Sooner?

This question could be addressed to a numerous amount of wrestlers from Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, Kentucky, Washington, New Hampshire, Hawaii, Texas, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico and Vermont. 

Truth is, we would all love to see Division I wrestling in these states.   Inconvenient truth is, there are still a lot of wrestlers that would have left their home states to wrestle at more illustrious and successful programs.  

Delaware State University provided a Division I college wrestling opportunity for its high school wrestlers, but the best wrestlers in the state of Delaware weren't attending DSU when they graduated.    Arguably one of the greatest wrestlers to ever come out of Delaware,  Sheldon Thomas took his talents to Clarion, where he finished as a three time All American, including winning an NCAA title in 1996.    Had he have had that success at DSU, would that have helped to propel the program to new heights?  Would his success have gotten other recruits to want to go to DSU? 

In more recent times the state of Delaware has produced talent like Chris Diaz and Jarrod Garnett, both of whom where All Americans for Virginia Tech.   Garnett was a three time ACC champion.    If DSU wrestling had still be around, would either of these talented young men have been Hornets?   

How about Iowa heavyweight Bobby Telford?  The workhorse Delaware native took his phenomenal work ethic to the Hawkeye State where he took 5th-DNP-4th-5th at the NCAA championships, wearing black and gold.   Ask yourself an honest question.  If DSU still had a wrestling program when he graduated high school and they had made him an offer, would he have taken it? 

Would any of these guys?   Would Zach Roberson, Kansas native, who won an NCAA title in 2004 for Iowa State, have wrestled for Kansas, Kansas State or Wichita State had the opportunity been available?  

I ask this question because it is a very important question that we wrestling fans need to address.   If we're going to cry and complain every time a Wagner or a Duquesne or a Portland State or a Eastern Illinois drops its program, then we better be asking ourselves, why are these programs being eliminated?  Could it have anything do with the fact that they didn't generate much of a fan base?  Could the fact that they didn't generate much of a fan base have anything to do with the fact that they weren't competitive and successful in their conference and in the NCAA?   If so,  why weren't they competitive?   It may not be a question we want to look at directly in the face, but it is a question that we need to address.

In 2004, when Matt Gentry won an NCAA title for Stanford, he became the first and to this day, the only NCAA champion that the Cardinal wrestling team has ever produced.   He made a statement, stating that he wanted to be an example, a role model to young wrestlers everywhere that they didn't need to attend an Iowa, a Minnesota or an Oklahoma State in order to achieve their goals.   He went to a school, not known for it's wrestling program and he made it his goal to put Stanford wrestling on the map.    You know what?  That's exactly what he did.

If you look back through the history of Stanford wrestling, the Cardinal produced an All American about once every four years.   Dave Lee placed 5th in 1986, Steve Buddie placed 4th in 1990, Todd Surmon placed 7th in 1996 and Beau Weiner placed 7th in 1999.  

After Gentry won the NCAA title in 2004, Stanford wrestling climbed to new heights, producing All Americans seven out of the last ten years.

2006:  Tanner Gardner 8th
2007:  Tanner Gardner 7th,  Josh Zupancic 7th
2008:  Tanner Gardner 5th, Josh Zupancic 6th
2010:  Nick Amuchastegui 4th
2011:  Nick Amuchastegui 2nd, Zach Geisen 6th, Ryan Mango 6th
2012:  Nick Amuchastegui 2nd, Ryan Mango 5th
2015:  Jim Wilson 8th

Gentry was the match that needed lit to start the fire.   Our sport needs more wrestlers like him who are willing to take the risk and go to the Lock Havens or the Bloomsburgs or the Browns or the Bucknells to begin something.    I'm not knocking the kids who go to the Iowas or the Minnesotas or the Penn States to help continue to fuel a fire that is already burning hotter than the blazes of Hell.    I'm not saying anything against that at all, but I am saying that if a young man wants to try and be the beginning of something, if he wants to be the one who starts the fire, then by all means we as the wrestling community should be behind him, supporting him 100%. 

It is attitudes like the ones of Matt Gentry, who are going to save our sport.  It's attitudes like the one of Matt Gentry that are going to grow our sport.   Nathan Kraisser recently transferred to Campbell where he hopes to become the Camels first ever Division I All American.  I hope he's able to do just that, because that's exactly what the sport of wrestling needs.   That's exactly what Division I college wrestling needs. 





Monday, April 13, 2015

Every Division I College Wrestling Fan's Dream (For the schools who do not have wrestling, to get wrestling.)

 
 
Alabama A&M


Alabama State
 
Alabama Birmingham
 
Alabama
 
Auburn
 
Birmingham Southern
 
Jacksonville State
 
Samford
 
Southern Alabama
 
Troy
 
Arkansas State
 
Arkansas
 
Arkansas Little Rock
 
Arkansas Pine Bluff
 
Central Arkansas
 

Arizona
 
Northern Arizona
 
Cal State Fullerton
 
Cal State Northridge
 
Sacramento State
 
California
 


UC DAVIS
 
UC IRVINE
 
UCLA
 
UC-Riverside
 
UC-Santa Barbara
 
Long Beach State
 

Loyola Marymount
 
Pacific (CA)
 
Pepperdine
 
San Diego State
 

Akron
 
San Jose State
 
 
Santa Clara
 
USC
 
 
 
 
Colorado State

 

Colorado

Delaware


Delaware State


Denver


Connecticut


Central Connecticut



Hartford



Yale


Butler


Georgetown


George Washington


Howard

Bethune-Cookman


Central Florida


Florida


Florida A&M


Florida Atlantic


Florida Gulf Coast


Florida International


Florida State


Miami (FL)


North Florida


South Florida
 

Stetson

Savannah State



Mercer



Georgia
 

Georgia State



Kennesaw State


Georgia Tech
 

Georgia Southern


DePaul

Drake

Eastern Illinois

Hawaii

Idaho

Idaho State

Illinois State

SIU-Carbondale

Western Illinois

Bradley



Ball State

Evansville

Indiana State

Kansas

Kansas State

Notre Dame
Eastern Kentucky
Kentucky
Western Kentucky
Murray State
Louisville
Morehead State (KY)

V alparaiso
 

 

 
Wichita State






 


 
Grambling State

Louisiana LaFayette

Louisiana Monroe

Louisiana State

Louisiana Tech

McNeese

Nicholls State

Northwestern State

Southeastern Louisiana
Morgan State
Towson
Loyola (MAINE)
Coppin State
Mount St. Mary's
Maine
Xaiver
Bowling Greet
Dayton
Toledo
Cincinnati
Youngstown State
Wright State
Miami

Southern University
Boston
Boston college
Northeastern
Massachusetts
Alcorn State
Jackson State
Mississippi
Mississippi State
Mississippi Valley State
Southern Mississippi
Colgate
Canisius
Wagner
Iona
Long Island University
Manhattan





 
Stony Brook

St. Louis
Western Michigan



 
Western Carolina
Wake Forest
UNC-Greensboro
Eastern Carolina
High Point
Elon
St. Peter's
Seton Hall
New Hampshire
Monmouth
Dartmouth
Creighton
Nevada
New Mexico State
New Mexico
UNLV




 
Tulsa
Oregon
Portland
Portland State
Villanova
Temple
St. Francis
Robert Morris
La Salle
Duquesne
Syracuse
Wofford
Charleston Southern
Clemson
Coastal Carolina
Furman
Presbyterian College
South Carolina
Vanderbilt
Belmont
East Tennessee State
Lipscomb
Memphis
Middle Tennessee State
South Dakota
Tennessee
Tennessee State
UT-Martin
Texas Tech
Texas State
Texas Southern
Texas Christian
Texas Arlington
Texas A&M
Texas
Stephen F Austin
Sam Houston
Prairie View A&M
North Texas
Baylor
Houston
Lamar
Weber State
Brigham Young
Utah
Utah State
William and Mary
Virginia Commonwealth
Hampton
James Madison
Liberty
Longwood
Marshall
Norfolk State
Richmond
Vermont

Tulane











North Dakota