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New Mexico Highlands considering cutting wrestling #167272 03/31/10 12:21 PM
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klintdeere Offline OP
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Sad news for our sport. Any phone calls and or emails to NMHU would be appreciated. My son Gage attends NMHU and the team is a good group of wrestlers and kids that will be devastated by the loss of their program. Coach Moses is an amazing coach with limited resources.



College may ax two sports

By Dave Kavanaugh and David Giuliani

Highlands University’s wrestling and rodeo programs may be destined for the chopping block.

On Wednesday, the school’s Board of Regents will consider the administration’s proposal to cut the two sports. The university has seen its athletics budget drop by nearly 15 percent since fiscal year 2009 — the result of statewide spending cuts.

“This isn’t an easy decision to make. It’s not as if people are jumping up and down to get rid of these programs,” Highlands spokesman Sean Weaver said.

Highlands introduced both wrestling and women’s rodeo — to be funded under special legislative appropriations — in 2005, during the presidential tenure of Manny Aragon.

Sports Information Director Gavino Archuleta estimated that the original amount budgeted was roughly $350,000. However, he said, the amount available for those programs has dwindled since then.

He said the school has had to rent facilities for both teams — the Zamora arena for rodeo and the former Northeastern Regional Hospital basement for wrestling. (The latter was discontinued this past year.)

Highlands wrestling coach Doug Moses said he doesn’t understand administrators’ reasoning.

“We’re talking about young people’s lives and their educations and the sport they’ve been in and worked hard in all their lives. We’re the only (wrestling) program in the state and one of the only ones in the region. We ought to showcase it. It’s good for enrollment,” Moses said.

He said many of the wrestlers wouldn’t be in college if it weren’t for the program.

“We’ve got no less than seven former New Mexico state champs in our program. And we’ve got good kids. We’ve had national qualifiers every year that we’ve had the program (since it was reinstated in 2005-06). The program has some merits. I don’t understand where (administrators) are coming from,” Moses said.

He said the past season has been a “tough go,” noting that the team has had to practice off campus at Robertson High.

“We’ve just tried to make the best of it. I can’t say enough about the support and cooperation shown by Robertson’s coaches and administration,” he said.

Highlands rodeo coach Jon Peek said he had been in touch with Highlands’ brass.

“What it’s boiled down to is ‘What is the future of our program, where is it now, and what is it going to be? How can we get it to sustain itself?’ I’ve been talking with my team about this. It takes time (to come up with possible funding solutions and alternatives),” Peek said.

“Community support has been there. The community involvement we’ve had has been uplifting,” he said. “We’ve got such great community involvement from ranchers and others. We’ve been hoping to tie it all in.”

• • •

Wrestling has produced the last two national champions for the university. In 1987, Highlands heavyweight Hector Hernandez won the NAIA national title. Shortly thereafter, the university discontinued the wrestling program as part of a nationwide trend in light of Title IX gender equity mandates.

Those mandates called for athletic participation opportunities to more closely mirror the overall student populations on campus in terms of gender breakdown. Most schools, citing financial realities, opted to kill existing men’s programs — mainly in Olympic, non-revenue sports like wrestling, swimming and gymnastics — rather than add new women’s programs in order to address disparities.

Aragon’s administration reintroduced wrestling in part because New Mexico had no other collegiate program of its kind, which would make Highlands’ new program an instant draw for high school grapplers in the state and region.

Moses, who’d established a strong program at the University of Southern Colorado (now Colorado State University-Pueblo) before it fell victim to a budget ax in 2001, was hired to oversee Highlands wrestling.

In each of its five years, Highlands has had wrestlers qualify for the national tournament — Patrick Sharp and Charles Saguil; Ross Montour and Jesse Boggs; Boggs, Jesse Feinsod and Luke McPeek; and Boggs and Seth Wright this past season. This past season, Highlands 125-pounder Wright won the school’s first NCAA national championship. Sharp, Feinsod and Wright have all earned All-American status.

• • •

Rodeo, a club activity not sanctioned by the NCAA as an intercollegiate sport, began as a women’s team at Highlands but has expanded to include a men’s club as well. Each of the last two years, athletes from Highlands rodeo have qualified for and competed in the college national finals. Peek, a member of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association, is the second head coach in the program’s five years.

Ed Manzanares, Highlands’ athletics director, said the budget decisions have been difficult.

“This is a dark day for athletics,” he said.

At a glance

What: Highlands University Board of Regents meeting.

When: 1 p.m. today.

Where: Highlands’ Kennedy Hall.

Information: Call 454-3387.

Re: New Mexico Highlands considering cutting wrestling [Re: klintdeere] #167303 03/31/10 04:31 PM
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ike Offline
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Bad deal for a program that is definitely building. Seth Wright just won a title for them and they are talking about cutting the program! I don't know what Highlands costs to attend but I bet the wrestling budget and those kids tuition are pretty close to an equal amount. Shoot them an email or give them a call folks.

Re: New Mexico Highlands considering cutting wrestling [Re: ike] #167392 04/01/10 12:22 PM
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klintdeere Offline OP
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The team was told that they will have a month to raise funds for next year to keep the team. Will keep everyone posted on how they plan to do that and see if we can send some good vibes that way.

Re: New Mexico Highlands considering cutting wrestling [Re: klintdeere] #169611 05/07/10 03:40 PM
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Good News!

By Tammy Tedesco NWCA
05/07/2010

It took one month to turn around a decision that hit the hearts of the New Mexico wrestling community. On April 1, 2010, they were told that the only college wrestling program in the state would be dropped along with Women’s Rodeo. At this point, some quick thinking individuals stepped in to raise awareness and support for the program that they fought so very hard to reinstate after its eighteen year absence.

“This started to come together through keen insight from government officials and community leaders throughout the state of New Mexico. The youth needed to be taken care of. Over the past five years, the plan they put together to start wrestling program was working and gaining momentum. All of a sudden, it was in jeopardy of being dropped five short years after it was reinstated. The wrestling program at New Mexico Highlands was doing what many other programs were not. They were gaining prominent recognition at the NCAA Championships with their first NCAA Champion, Seth Wright. Both Wright and Coach Moses are putting NMHU on the map,” said legendary coach Dan Gable.

In 2005, legislative appropriations allowed for the reintroduction of wrestling to NMHU along with the creation of women’s rodeo. The problem was that this funding over the past five years has been dwindling. With the current economic situation throughout the country, it was only getting worse.

Mike Lujan, a high school teacher and wrestling coach for the past 28 years, is a tireless advocate for the opportunities that wrestling will give the youth of New Mexico as they get older.

“It is extremely important for New Mexico to have wrestling; this is our only collegiate program in the state. I would do anything for the sport of wrestling because without it, I feel that I would not be where I am today. In fact, I would probably be dead or in jail,” said Lujan. “Wrestling provided me the opportunity to go to college and become a teacher and a coach. Since receiving my teaching degree, I wanted to be able to give that opportunity back to the youth of New Mexico. Every state in the country is broke in this economy and this is not where cuts should be placed. This changes our country’s future by affecting the youth,” said Mike Lujan.

To Lujan, there was no other time than the present to get the ball rolling. He began making calls to key people within their state government in the hopes they could find a way to overturn this decision. He also organized a group of 180 people to go sit in on the Board of Regents meeting.

One of those people that Lujan contacted was State Senator Phil Griego, Senator Griego knew the background of the program at NMHU and did not want those opportunities to be taken away from the youth of New Mexico. Senator Griego had to act fast as it was two days before the Board of Regent’s vote. He made personal calls to each Regent as well as to the NMHU President. He eventually was able to get a 30 day reprieve so he could raise the funds necessary to keep the program.

Governor Bill Richardson played a large part in saving both women’s rodeo and wrestling. Having started an initiative to get the youth more involved in rodeo, saving the rodeo program was also important to him. He was able to allocate $100,000 toward the women’s rodeo program at New Mexico Highlands. That money was comingled with NMHU institutional funds so both save both programs could be saved.

“When I thanked the Board of Regents for making this decision, I wanted to make sure they realized what a powerful choice they had made for these future New Mexico Highlands students. To me, education and athletics go hand in hand. If you deplete one or the other, nothing works properly. At Highlands, the wrestling team gave New Mexico kids the hope of getting a wrestling scholarship to New Mexico Highlands. That, in turn, allows them to also obtain a college education which they otherwise might not have access to,” said Senator Griego.

Coach Gable continued, “This program is working in every way and has so many positive things coming from it. The only natural thing to do is to keep it going. To do so, it is going to need consistency to keep it going for years to come. This is still a challenge to make sure that this is not going to be a yearly happening due to lack of funding; NMHU needs longevity and planning to secure this program. Thank goodness for the relentless efforts of Coach Lujan, Senator Griego, Coach Moses, and the NMHU administration to save the program this time around.”

Building champions is exactly what this program has been doing in its very short five year history. Since the wrestling team was reinstated they had success both on the mat and in the classroom under head coach Doug Moses.

This year, they celebrated with their first Division II NCAA Champion, Seth Wright, who joins three other Cowboys who have earned All-AmPhilan status five times since 2005. Coach Moses has also had ten wrestlers achieve NWCA Division II All Academic honors to top off their list of accomplishments since becoming a Division II program.

“I am eternally grateful for the support of the state legislature and the New Mexico Highlands University administration for their efforts to save my wrestling program. This will enable our NMHU wrestling team to continue to provide quality educational and athletic opportunities for countless “in state” high school wrestlers throughout New Mexico,” said Coach Moses.

As states all around the country are facing tough economic times, it is important to realize that cutting back opportunities for youth is not the answer to the problem. It will more than likely create many long term problems down the road. In New Mexico, there are 1,461 high school wrestlers and only one “in state” college for them to compete at after high school.

“We dodged a bullet this time around. We can never let this happen again. Not at NMHU or any other college that sponsors wrestling. It is important for all of us to position every intercollegiate wrestling team to reduce its dependency on institutional funding with outside support from alumni, camps, clinics, and the wrestling community in each region. The NWCA looks forward to working with Coach Gable, Coach Moses, the New Mexico wrestling community, and the NMHU administration to develop a fundraising model that will protect the wrestling program indefinitely,” said NWCA Executive Director, Mike Moyer

New Mexico High reinstates Wrest. and Wm. Rodeo [Re: klintdeere] #169612 05/07/10 03:43 PM
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Good News!
New Mexico Highlands reinstates wrestling and women's rodeo

By Tammy Tedesco NWCA
05/07/2010

It took one month to turn around a decision that hit the hearts of the New Mexico wrestling community. On April 1, 2010, they were told that the only college wrestling program in the state would be dropped along with Women’s Rodeo. At this point, some quick thinking individuals stepped in to raise awareness and support for the program that they fought so very hard to reinstate after its eighteen year absence.

“This started to come together through keen insight from government officials and community leaders throughout the state of New Mexico. The youth needed to be taken care of. Over the past five years, the plan they put together to start wrestling program was working and gaining momentum. All of a sudden, it was in jeopardy of being dropped five short years after it was reinstated. The wrestling program at New Mexico Highlands was doing what many other programs were not. They were gaining prominent recognition at the NCAA Championships with their first NCAA Champion, Seth Wright. Both Wright and Coach Moses are putting NMHU on the map,” said legendary coach Dan Gable.

In 2005, legislative appropriations allowed for the reintroduction of wrestling to NMHU along with the creation of women’s rodeo. The problem was that this funding over the past five years has been dwindling. With the current economic situation throughout the country, it was only getting worse.

Mike Lujan, a high school teacher and wrestling coach for the past 28 years, is a tireless advocate for the opportunities that wrestling will give the youth of New Mexico as they get older.

“It is extremely important for New Mexico to have wrestling; this is our only collegiate program in the state. I would do anything for the sport of wrestling because without it, I feel that I would not be where I am today. In fact, I would probably be dead or in jail,” said Lujan. “Wrestling provided me the opportunity to go to college and become a teacher and a coach. Since receiving my teaching degree, I wanted to be able to give that opportunity back to the youth of New Mexico. Every state in the country is broke in this economy and this is not where cuts should be placed. This changes our country’s future by affecting the youth,” said Mike Lujan.

To Lujan, there was no other time than the present to get the ball rolling. He began making calls to key people within their state government in the hopes they could find a way to overturn this decision. He also organized a group of 180 people to go sit in on the Board of Regents meeting.

One of those people that Lujan contacted was State Senator Phil Griego, Senator Griego knew the background of the program at NMHU and did not want those opportunities to be taken away from the youth of New Mexico. Senator Griego had to act fast as it was two days before the Board of Regent’s vote. He made personal calls to each Regent as well as to the NMHU President. He eventually was able to get a 30 day reprieve so he could raise the funds necessary to keep the program.

Governor Bill Richardson played a large part in saving both women’s rodeo and wrestling. Having started an initiative to get the youth more involved in rodeo, saving the rodeo program was also important to him. He was able to allocate $100,000 toward the women’s rodeo program at New Mexico Highlands. That money was comingled with NMHU institutional funds so both save both programs could be saved.

“When I thanked the Board of Regents for making this decision, I wanted to make sure they realized what a powerful choice they had made for these future New Mexico Highlands students. To me, education and athletics go hand in hand. If you deplete one or the other, nothing works properly. At Highlands, the wrestling team gave New Mexico kids the hope of getting a wrestling scholarship to New Mexico Highlands. That, in turn, allows them to also obtain a college education which they otherwise might not have access to,” said Senator Griego.

Coach Gable continued, “This program is working in every way and has so many positive things coming from it. The only natural thing to do is to keep it going. To do so, it is going to need consistency to keep it going for years to come. This is still a challenge to make sure that this is not going to be a yearly happening due to lack of funding; NMHU needs longevity and planning to secure this program. Thank goodness for the relentless efforts of Coach Lujan, Senator Griego, Coach Moses, and the NMHU administration to save the program this time around.”

Building champions is exactly what this program has been doing in its very short five year history. Since the wrestling team was reinstated they had success both on the mat and in the classroom under head coach Doug Moses.

This year, they celebrated with their first Division II NCAA Champion, Seth Wright, who joins three other Cowboys who have earned All-AmPhilan status five times since 2005. Coach Moses has also had ten wrestlers achieve NWCA Division II All Academic honors to top off their list of accomplishments since becoming a Division II program.

“I am eternally grateful for the support of the state legislature and the New Mexico Highlands University administration for their efforts to save my wrestling program. This will enable our NMHU wrestling team to continue to provide quality educational and athletic opportunities for countless “in state” high school wrestlers throughout New Mexico,” said Coach Moses.

As states all around the country are facing tough economic times, it is important to realize that cutting back opportunities for youth is not the answer to the problem. It will more than likely create many long term problems down the road. In New Mexico, there are 1,461 high school wrestlers and only one “in state” college for them to compete at after high school.

“We dodged a bullet this time around. We can never let this happen again. Not at NMHU or any other college that sponsors wrestling. It is important for all of us to position every intercollegiate wrestling team to reduce its dependency on institutional funding with outside support from alumni, camps, clinics, and the wrestling community in each region. The NWCA looks forward to working with Coach Gable, Coach Moses, the New Mexico wrestling community, and the NMHU administration to develop a fundraising model that will protect the wrestling program indefinitely,” said NWCA Executive Director, Mike Moyer

Re: New Mexico High reinstates Wrest. and Wm. Rodeo [Re: smokeycabin] #169618 05/07/10 05:48 PM
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Awesome! That is great news. Governor Richardson stepped up to hear the NMHU faithful!


Eric Johnson


Acts 4:12


Re: New Mexico High reinstates Wrest. and Wm. Rodeo [Re: Chief Renegade] #169630 05/07/10 08:27 PM
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ike Offline
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That is great news. I'm going to make it a point to get over there this fall and get a butt in the bleachers.


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