The truth of the matter is, at least in representation if not in accolade, Los Angeles could have easily been a wrestling city. I'll lay out for you in just a second all of the discontinued programs in L.A., L.A. county & within close distance to make my point. First though, I'm going to say how happy I was when the Warriors announced that they were going to field a wrestling program. We discuss discontinuation at many levels, especially at the state level, but we don't really think of it in terms of cities. I'll say knowing what I know, it was very rewarding to see wrestling pop up in San Dimas. Here we are a short six years later & it's already over. Angry, disappointed & above anything else depressed. It's added to a long list of teams in or near Los Angeles that have been discontinued.
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| 197 lbs Jeremiah Smith |
Jeremiah Smith's career is already said & done as the Warrior was a senior last season. He came within a nosehair of qualifying for the NAIA championships, losing only to four time All American/three time NAIA finalist Isaac Bartel of Montana State Northern in the Cascade Collegiate Conference semi-finals. He came back strong to take an impressive 3rd place finish in what many argue is one of the toughest conferences within all of the NAIA. He was one of the best the Warriors had during their short stint on the mat.
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Life Pacific gets added to a long list of collegiate wrestling programs in or near Los Angeles that are no longer around.
Now don't get me wrong. There still is collegiate wrestling in the Los Angeles area. Along with some competitive NCWA club programs we have the following varsity programs.
Vanguard - A solid NAIA program that produced 5 national qualifiers, two All Americans & two more that were a match away from All American. Located in Costa Mesa, just an hour outside of L.A.
East Los Angeles - Right there in Monterey Park, I tell you what. East L.A. may never be the top team in the CCCAA but they're always there. They're always competing & furthermore they've been around forever. I've always referred to ELAC wrestling as being similar to UT-Chattanooga in the fact that everyone else was dropping like flies around them and they stayed strong.
Mount San Antonio - Right there in L.A. county, Mount San Antonio won the last CCCAA team championship.
Rio Hondo - Another program in L.A. county. Again not the best team in the CCCAA, but they don't need to be. Point is it is a college in the Los Angeles area that offers wrestlers an opportunity to continue their wrestling careers post high school while getting a college education.
NOW....let's take a look at the programs we no longer have
*All of the schools I mention here are within an hour's drive (or close to it) of Los Angeles. Life is all a matter of perspective and I personally consider these schools to be L.A., L.A. County or by my standards close to.*
UCLA (DI)
Cal State Northridge (DI)
Cal State Los Angeles (DI)
U.C. Irvine (DI)
USC (DI)
Cal Poly Pomona (DI)
Long Beach State (DI)
Azusa Pacific (DII)
Biola (DII)
Pomona Pitzer (DIII)
La Verne (DIII)
Claremont Mudd Scripps (DIII)
Cal Lutheran (DIII)
Whittier (DIII)
Cal Tech (DIII)
Life Pacific (NAIA)
LA Valley (CCCAA)
LA City (CCCAA)
Santiago Canyon (CCCAA)
Antelope Valley (CCCAA)
Golden West (CCCAA)
Cypress (CCCAA)
LA Pierce (CCCAA)
Chaffey (CCCAA)
Hartnell (CCCAA)
Citrus (CCCAA)
Orange Coast (CCCAA)
El Camino (CCCAA)
Have I made my point? Los Angeles/L.A. County/near LA right now has four varsity collegiate wrestling programs. If it weren't for the massive amount of discontinuation there would be 32 programs in the L.A. area! 32!!
And maybe I'm wrong here. I grew up in a town of 2,200 people in nowheresville, Iowa. Maybe in an area with near 4,000,000 people 32 varsity programs still wouldn't necessarily make it a "wrestling friendly" community but I know one thing. 32 is a Hell of a lot more than 4.
I know something else too. We needed to go in this direction ↑, NOT in this direction ↓
Shame on you Life Pacific. Shame on you.
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