From the Wrestlers group on facebook.
Re: Carson Newman College Wrestling.

Hi. Are you the coach over there? Send me a link to the Facebook group and I'll put it up in the WRESTLERS group. Also I would suggest starting an online petiton and having everyone get as many signatures on that as possible. Also call every wrestling alumni you can find, see if they would be willing to help support the team and ask them to call into the AD's office, the president/head dean (which eevr you have) of the school, and the board of directors for the school. Tell them to demand the program be reinstated and if they're willing to donate, to mention that. Then ask them to send an email to those three and sign the online petition. This pressure is what saved Oregon. If you can find a couple wrestling alumni that are well off enough, they could potentially help fund the program (plus any fundraisers you can put together); that's how Arizona St was saved. In addition to putting pressure on the school administration and getting help from the alumni, get the whole state and the politicians to put pressure on them too. Write every statesman (mayor, governor, and senate man) that has ANYTHING to dow ith your school and have as many people as possible wirte them too. Have current wrestlers and kids who "won't attend if there's no team" write too. That's how Rutgers was saved.

Title IX, economics, and plain bias against wrestling has chopped too many programs. However as of late the wrestling community has been able to reverse several programs from being cut. Hopefully we can all pull together. Get me the link to the gorup and get some stuf fonline and send me that too and I'll put it on the WRESTLERS gorup.

time is of the essence here...

Carson Newman Wrestlers: 39
Scholarships given: 9
30 tuition's that the school recieves: $600,000
9 scholarships: $180,000
1 salary & 2 GA's: $35,000
Travel Budget: $26,000
Overall Revenue from the school after expenses: $359,000.....
--Now can someone explain how Carson-Newman will be better off financially after cutting the wrestling program, because the numbers don't add up....

****And look at the mens basketball team who has 2 full time coaches, 2 Assistants, a GA, 9 scholarships and only 16 guys on the roster. Tell me how they benefit the school financially over the wrestling team??

If anyone has any questions or a plan lease let me know and we will do whatever can to get this program up and running again.

Thank you,

Justin Ransom
Assistant wrestling Coach
(678) 409-8425
jkransom@cn.edu

Wrestling Community,

I could not believe the following email, so I went to the Carson Newman website to confirm it before sending this message. CN has decided to cancel its wrestling program beginning this fall. Here is a link to the story on the CN website http://carsonnewmaneagles.cstv.com/sports/m-wrestl/spec-rel/040209aaa.html

This will be a tremendous blow to the great sport of wrestling that we all hold so near and dear to our hearts.

- Coaches: lose an excellent camp through which your wrestlers improve, excellent schools to have standouts be recruited by, and a program of excellence that your young athletes can look to for guidance.

- High school wrestlers: lose another opportunity not only of furthering their education with financial assistance through scholarships, but also the overall pool of schools they can attend to further their wrestling career shrinks, again.

- Collegiate wrestling in the South East and Nationally: lose a tough opponent. Steel sharpens steel and when you remove Carson Newman's wrestling, the level of competition will diminish.

Dan Gable said, "Once you've wrestled, everything else in life is easy". I still work hard to achieve in life, but I owe a huge debt of gratitude to the lessons that I have learned from Don Elia and the great sport of wrestling.

With tears in my eyes, I type this email, and humbly ask for your help.
Please read the following email and make a call, send an email, or do something to make a stand to preserve wrestling at Carson Newman. We must be strong, resolute, and unified in letting the administration of CN know that with the right focus and creative thinking the program can be saved and continue to grow, prosper, and benefit so many as it has for so many years.


Thanks,

Robert S. Tucker
President, PDS Web Development
865-919-6831
CN Class of '93

-----Original Message-----
Subject: C-N Wrestling


I hope this email finds you doing well!

As most of you know, the administration at Carson-Newman has decided to drop the wrestling program. This program has been extremely successful for 32 years under the direction of Coach Elia. Dr. Barger (the Athletic
Director) met with the team today to inform them that their team is being discontinued and their scholarships taken away. In addition, Coach Elia was given a 90 day notice that his services would no longer be needed at CNC.

The administration claims financial hardships as the cause for this action.
However, a financial review of the program's sustainability indicates an excess of $300,000 each year (a profit for the school) after scholarships, salaries, travel, and program expenses have been paid. This figure is based on tuition fees only and does not include books, room & board that also generate revenue for the school.

If you are as disappointed as I am with this decision, please join me in an effort to change the minds of those in power. I do not believe the current administration understands the impact that Coach Elia and this program has had and continues to have on so many people. Back in the day, we (or I) would have already been to the administrative offices and beaten everyone up. Fortunately, we are older and can pursue more civilized actions.

I am suggesting that we generate as much contact with the administration as possible. This decision does not only impact the 40+ athletes and coaches.
It impacts all CN graduates, former wrestlers, and wrestling communities as a whole. This is a major blow to the sport and to the history many of us were a part of creating at C-N.

Please take 5 minutes out of your day to email or call the big dogs at C-N.
Contact your friends from C-N and friends in the wrestling world and ask them to contact the school. Power is always in numbers, and those receiving this email are not enough. Please spread the word! If you know anyone on the board at C-N, call them. If you know anyone at a Knoxville TV station, call them. I am sure the administration would like to cut the program and move on without a fuss. If you are OK with that, let me know where you are and I'll come kick your a$$.

Help! Let's try to save this program.

Contact information:

Dr. J. Randall O'Brien, CNC President
865-471-3202
robrien@cn.edu

David Barger, CNC Athletic Director
865-471-3372
dbarger@cn.edu

If nothing else, share your thoughts and feelings with Coach Elia.

Don Elia
865-607-6469
delia@cn.edu

Sincerely,


Rob Brown
Executive Director of High Schools
Douglas County School System
770-651-2100
Dr. J. Randall OBrien, CNC President
865-471-3202
robrien@cn.edu

David Barger, CNC Athletic Director
865-471-3372
dbarger@cn.edu

Don Elia
865-607-6469
delia@cn.edu

Carson-Newman Colleges Eagle Alums FaceBook address:
http://www.facebook.com/people/Eagle-Alums/1028080740

Mark Brown, Director of News and Media Relations
865-471-3203
mbrown@cn.edu
Kevin Gregg, Director of Online Services
865-471-2024
kgregg@cn.edu
Charles Key, Director of Publications
865-471-3203
ckey@cn.edu
Parker Leake, Vice President of Marketing & Communications
865-471-3452
pleake@cn.edu
Paige (Mattocks) Munroe, Editorial Assistant - College Communications
865-471-3203
pmunroe@cn.edu

Alumni Relations Office
C-N Box 71988
Jefferson City, TN 37760
865-471-3415
cnalum@cn.edu
David Buchanan, Director of Alumni Relations 865-471-3221 dbuchanan@cn.edu Amy Reed, Associate Director of Alumni Relations 865-471-3222 areed@cn.edu Carson-Newman College Alumni Association Board of Directors:
Executive Committee
President: Susan (Smith) Fendley, 68
Secretary: Greg Fay, 76
President-elect: Angelia (Morie) Nystrom, 89 Past President: Paul Grossman, 81 Executive Director: David Buchanan, 79 Associate Executive Director: Amy (Harrison) Reed, 99
Directors:
Sarah (Sanders) Cox 57
Stephen "Steve" Foster, 69
Lynn Denton, 66
Jean Love, 83 (Faculty Representative)
David L. McKenzie, 96
Angela L. (Anderson) McKenzie, 96
Ashleigh Smith. 05
Kathy Yancey, 80
Barbara Atchley, 67
Robert Bailey, 64
Sheridan Barker, 72 (Faculty Representative) David Chapman, 03 Jacqueline "Jackie" B. Dixon, 81 Bryan McCarter, 04 Jim Myers, 73 Floyd "Ward "Phillips, 87 Tracy Porier, 89 Susan (West) Carey, 86 Nicholas Cook, 06 Bryant Helton, 79 Jill Hobby, 96 Reggie Keaton, 80 Debbie Land, 81 Jann Walker, 82 (Staff Representative) Lisha Venable, 90

Carson-Newman Wrestling Program to be Discontinued
Program will not wrestle in '09-'10



C-N



April 2, 2009


JEFFERSON CITY, TENN. - Carson-Newman College will discontinue its wrestling program beginning in the 2009-'10 academic year, Carson-Newman athletic director David Barger announced today.

David Barger, Athletic Director, Carson-Newman College: "The difficult decision to discontinue wrestling came out of a desire to ensure the fiscal viability of the overall athletic program...I informed Coach (Don) Elia of the decision and met with members of the wrestling team. I explained the situation, and expressed my deep regret to those student-athletes. We want to continue to serve their educational needs, but understand that some may seek to continue their wrestling eligibility at another institution. We are arranging financial assistance counseling for each student in hopes that they will complete their degrees at Carson-Newman...We will forever appreciate Don Elia and those who have been a part of Eagle Wrestling."

I am a 2003 Carson-Newman Alumni. Sad to hear this news! The administration at CN always did have it's head in the dirt. They will go above and beyond the call for Ken Sparks, Head Football Coach, but never did a thing for Wrestling. If they could of pulled it off years ago, they would of dropped it.

They are a worthless group of people who will listen to nobody but each other.

church

A lot has happened in the last week. It has been a while since I have sent an update and I wanted to fill everyone in on recent progress and setbacks. This past week I had discussions with President O'Brien and David Barger, the athletic director. During our discussions, I learned that Carson Newman Althetics made a very big blunder by constructing the new football stadium and complex based upon pledges and not money in the bank. The edn result of that was the main donor backed out due to Carson Newman not meeting a stipulatioon that was set by the donor to give the money. This donor backed out and left Carson Newman with about a $5,000,000.00 loan on the new complex. What does this mean to us? This means, that in the infinite wisdom of the administration, CN drops the wrestling team to try to save money because the stadium has strapped them financially. Likewise, through our discussions with O'Brien and Barger, we have been given one and only one option to save the wrestling program. They want us to raise enough money to fully endow the program. They say that the program needs $100,000.00 per year to keep it at the competive level that it has achieved to this point. This means that we need to raise $2,000,000.00 to endow the program. For those of you who may not understand how an endowment works, the seed money (our $2,000,000.00 that we will raise) goes into an interest bearing account and this seed money is never used. The yearly interest that is produced by the account would be approximately $100,000.00. This $100,000.00 in interest is the money that would then be used every year to fund the program. So, we need to raise $2,000,000.00. Not only does the administration want the program to be endowed, but they want the endowment to be in place for 1 year before they will bring back the program. During our meeting, I asked if we raised $2,100,000.00 could we use the additional $100,000.00 to immediately reinstate the program and then we wouldn't have to wait an additional year. The administration agreed to this. So, in reality we need to raise, $2,100,000.00 to save the program.

This morning, I was interviewed by Scott Casber on Takedown Radio TV, which is a nationally broadcast program about wrestling. We had approximately a 15 min interview, and he plugged us really hard. He asked everyone to give to the program and gave out my contact information. Likewise, during the interview, I tried to show that we can save Carson Newman's Wrestling program at 1/4 of the cost that it took to Save ASU's program and what is projected to reinstate the University of Oregon's program. (Both of those program's cost over $8,000,000.00 to endow.)

We are still taking pledges, and we are assembling a board of directors for the Carson Newman Wrestling Endowment Fund. I would like the board to be composed of influential members who can make things happen adn who are willing to work to save this program. The board will be composed of 10-15 people. As soon as the entity "Carson Newman Wrestling Endowment Fund" has been formed we will start taking real donations and conveting the pledges.

Today, I had a conversation with Chris Vandergriff, who is full of ideas to help as well as one of Chris's friends, Buddy Landel. Some of you may now Buddy from his professional wrestling days. Buddy and I spoke for about 30 mins about the program and how we can save it. Buddy is also full of ideas and has a large number of influential contacts. Buddy and I are going to have a meeting on next Satruday to discuss plans to raise money and to save the program. Buddy is very energized about helping us and wants to make a differenc. Likewise, Chris and I are going to attend the High School wrestling coaches scheduling meeting on Tuesday to address the regional high school coaches for support.

Although, the goals that we have in front of us are lofty and road may be tough, I am not now nor have I ever been a quitter. We need to band together and save this program. It is too important to our regional wrestling and to the state of wrestling in general. Thank you for your support and keep up with the suggestions and pledges. Remember to contact anyone that you can and tell them about our struggle and ask for hlep.

Thank you all,
Paul