Lobby for Louisville
Lobby for Louisville
Lobby for Louisville
Willie Saylor, Editor
Late last November, with college wrestling just into their season and high school getting set to start, the ACC announced the addition of Louisville to their conference.
It probably registered little with most wrestling fans, myself including.
But in February, The Louisville Courier-Journal posted this Tim Sullivan article in which he suggests the Cardinals, with their move to the ACC, are considering adding a men’s sport. This was deduced after U of L President, Tom Jurich conducted an audit of the athletic program, concluded that they need to expand, and admitted they were in the ‘talking stages’ of adding varsity programs.
Sullivan posits that the two most likely candidates for inclusion are wrestling or lacrosse. The ACC currently has six teams with wrestling programs and four with lacrosse.
Kentucky has seen a steady increase in both quality and quantity. Just a month ago, Kentucky placed 9th at FloNationals, crowning a Champion in Nathan Boston. Wrestling across the United States continues to grow and maintains Top Ten status nationally in terms of number of programs (8th) and participants (6th).
Although the state of Kentucky has no Division I program, and just three schools at the NAIA level, the Blue Grass State has been building momentum in its public support for wrestling. The State House of Representatives went so far as to pass a resolution urging state universities to include wrestling programs in its varsity program offerings citing wrestling value and virtues. Kentucky was also among the first states to endorse, through state legislature, the support of keeping wrestling in the Summer Games.
For the health and proliferation of the sport at the Division I level, a varsity program at Louisville would be a shot in the arm. Not only would it be an additional program in a southern region of the U.S. that desperately needs one, but it would encourage other universities that it is a viable and popular option, and a realistic one at that.
If we learned anything from the IOC/Wrestling in the Olympics debacle, we should know that preemptive measures are a much easier route to obtaining the choice outcome than reacting post facto. We often complain when a program is scheduled to be dropped despite not doing anything to insure its survival.
We have a shot with this one. Let’s be proactive. Get traction now. Gain momentum. Write the powers that be.
Tom Jurich - Louisville Vice President and Director of Athletics
tom@GoCards.com
Kevin Miller - Sr. Associate AD/Internal Operations
kevin@GoCards.com
Julie Hermann - Sr. Associate Athletic Director
julie@GoCards.com
Mike Moyer - NWCA Executive Director
mmoyer@nwca.cc
Pat Tocci - NWCA Chief Operating Officer
ptocci@nwca.cc
Steve Riggs - Kentucky Representative
http://www.lrc.ky.gov/Messages/H031.aspx
Willie Saylor, Editor
Late last November, with college wrestling just into their season and high school getting set to start, the ACC announced the addition of Louisville to their conference.
It probably registered little with most wrestling fans, myself including.
But in February, The Louisville Courier-Journal posted this Tim Sullivan article in which he suggests the Cardinals, with their move to the ACC, are considering adding a men’s sport. This was deduced after U of L President, Tom Jurich conducted an audit of the athletic program, concluded that they need to expand, and admitted they were in the ‘talking stages’ of adding varsity programs.
Sullivan posits that the two most likely candidates for inclusion are wrestling or lacrosse. The ACC currently has six teams with wrestling programs and four with lacrosse.
Kentucky has seen a steady increase in both quality and quantity. Just a month ago, Kentucky placed 9th at FloNationals, crowning a Champion in Nathan Boston. Wrestling across the United States continues to grow and maintains Top Ten status nationally in terms of number of programs (8th) and participants (6th).
Although the state of Kentucky has no Division I program, and just three schools at the NAIA level, the Blue Grass State has been building momentum in its public support for wrestling. The State House of Representatives went so far as to pass a resolution urging state universities to include wrestling programs in its varsity program offerings citing wrestling value and virtues. Kentucky was also among the first states to endorse, through state legislature, the support of keeping wrestling in the Summer Games.
For the health and proliferation of the sport at the Division I level, a varsity program at Louisville would be a shot in the arm. Not only would it be an additional program in a southern region of the U.S. that desperately needs one, but it would encourage other universities that it is a viable and popular option, and a realistic one at that.
If we learned anything from the IOC/Wrestling in the Olympics debacle, we should know that preemptive measures are a much easier route to obtaining the choice outcome than reacting post facto. We often complain when a program is scheduled to be dropped despite not doing anything to insure its survival.
We have a shot with this one. Let’s be proactive. Get traction now. Gain momentum. Write the powers that be.
Tom Jurich - Louisville Vice President and Director of Athletics
tom@GoCards.com
Kevin Miller - Sr. Associate AD/Internal Operations
kevin@GoCards.com
Julie Hermann - Sr. Associate Athletic Director
julie@GoCards.com
Mike Moyer - NWCA Executive Director
mmoyer@nwca.cc
Pat Tocci - NWCA Chief Operating Officer
ptocci@nwca.cc
Steve Riggs - Kentucky Representative
http://www.lrc.ky.gov/Messages/H031.aspx