The youth wrestling families who are interested in this issue should look at the two topics on the high school and college forum today about the impending announcement by the University of Nebraska - Omaha that they are intending to drop both their football and wrestling programs. The wrestling program is one of the most successful NCAA D-II in the nation. It learned of this decision yesterday right after it had just won its 3rd National D-II team title in a row and the 8th in its history.
This is devasting news for college wrestling and it shows why it is so difficult to get a new D-I program anywhere including in our State of Kansas.
It is so important for the entire wrestling community to be aware of these issues and we need to support college wrestling financially. It is not too early for any new wrestling families who follow this youth forum to start getting involved. Study the issues and start to support the college wrestling programs in your state as soon as you can. We do not have D-1 wrestling in Kansas but we do have several schools like Fort Hays State, Labette Community College, Newman University, Baker University, Neosho Community College, Pratt Community College, Colby Community College, NW Kansas Tech and now Bethany College is starting a new program. I encourage the youth families to support these programs in your area thru attending their events and sending any annual contributions that you can afford to these schools. This will help support college wrestling in our State of Kansas. We need these smaller college wrestling programs in Kansas for college wrestling opportunities for our young Kansas wrestlers to prosper and grow. It is very very difficult to start a new D-1 wrestling program today so we have to support the programs we have. It is more likely that we will get more NAIA Kansas wrestling programs before we get any D-1 wrestling programs. And it is a very good thing for the entire wrestling community when a NAIA, D-II or D-III program is added. Not everyone can be a D-1 wrestler and it is good for those who cannot that these other opportunities are available. There is often a better balance between wrestling and academics at these NAIA, D-II and D-III schools too for the student athletes.
We have lost a lot of programs in the nation and in Kansas too over the years. KU and KSU once had college wrestling programs!
However you want to get involved in supporting college wrestling would be good. Your support is needed.
I wanted to bump this topic and post from back in March of this year that was shortly after UNO-Omaha shocked the national wrestling community by dropping their multiple national championship wrestling program now that we do have the Kansas College Wrestling Fund established within the USAW-Kansas organization. I think this is a great opportunity for the families of Kansas youth wrestlers to start to support the Kansas colleges and universities that will offer the opportunities for our young wrestlers to further their wrestling and academic careers in Kansas. Please support this fund with your contributions of money, time and talent. It is very important for the future of college wrestling in Kansas for all of us to support the colleges and universities in Kansas that have college wrestling programs.
