All,
Last week we proposed the addition of wrestling to the Mid-South conference and it was passed. Below is the press release on the Mid South website. Franky James at Campbellsville and I presented the information. I was voted the Chair and Andy Medders at Cumberlands, KY was voted as the rater. The Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) is the only other NAIA wrestling conference. They(GPAC) have added three brand new programs since 2006-2007. We hope to do the same thing. I believe the NAIA is now up to 23 teams added since 1999.
Thanks,
Jarad Swint
Head Wrestling Coach
Cumberland University
One Cumberland Square
Lebanon, TN 37087
http://www.cumberland.edu/athletics/menswrestling
615-547-1292
fax: 615-444-2569
"Destiny is not a matter of chance; but a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for, It is a thing to be achieved"
---William Jennings Bryan
The Mid-South Conference athletics directors unanimously voted to add men's wrestling as a conference sport on Wednesday at the annual summer meeting at Campbellsville University.
Men's wrestling becomes the 18th sport sponsored by the Mid-South Conference and will begin competition in the 2009-10 season.
Campbellsville, Cumberland University, TN, University of the Cumberlands, KY, Lindsey Wilson College and West Virginia University Institute of Technology will make up the five-team conference.
"We're incredibly excited about the addition of wrestling and what the sport and its student-athletes will bring to our conference," Mid-South Conference Commissioner Mike Pollio said. "The Mid-South Conference continues to be one of the premiere conferences in the NAIA and we expect that wrestling will only strengthen that commitment to excellence."
Full-time MSC members Campbellsville, Cumberlands, Lindsey Wilson and West Virginia Tech are joined by Cumberland -- who prior to joining the MSC in wrestling was a football-only member -- to makeup only the second wrestling conference in the NAIA. The MSC joins the Great Plains Athletic Conference as the only conferences to recognize men's wrestling as a sport at the conference level.
The upcoming season will include the MSC Championships hosted by Campbellsville in late February prior to the NAIA National Championships scheduled for March 4-6, 2010 in Oklahoma City, Okla.
"We continue to look for ways serve our institutions, teams and most importantly our student-athletes," Pollio said. "The addition of wrestling is another example of the Mid-South Conference serving our student-athletes by embracing their accomplishments both in competition and in the classroom.
"Wrestling is an ideal fit with the other 17 sports in the Mid-South Conference and we welcome its coaches and student-athletes with open arms."
