Call to Action: Save Duquesne Wrestling
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P.O. Box 254 • Manheim, PA 17545 www.nwcaonline.com Phone 717-653-8009 • Fax 717-653-8270 Call to Action: Save Duquesne WrestlingFrom: Mike Moyer, Executive Director – National Wrestling Coaches Association Re: "Call to Action" – Save Duquesne Wrestling Date: January 27, 2010 As many of you have probably already heard, the Duquesne University administration announced that it plans to discontinue Duquesne’s intercollegiate wrestling program immediately following the 2010 NCAA Championships. It is very important that the local, regional, and national wrestling community express support for wrestling to the Duquesne administration via emails, phone calls, or faxes. As important as it is to express support, we must be polite and respectful in any communications with Duquesne. Although this whole situation is unfair, our side will be penalized for unsportsmanlike behavior: we cannot afford to be rude or disrespectful.
P.O. Box 254 • Manheim, PA 17545 www.nwcaonline.com Phone 717-653-8009 • Fax 717-653-8270 Speaking Point: Historically, the Duquesne University wrestling program has played a major role in replenishing the depleted pool of high school and middle school teachers/wrestling coaches in western Pennsylvania. In fact, there are currently 19 active teachers and/or wrestling coaches at the youth and/or scholastic levels who are alums of Duquesne University. The WPIAL is arguably one of the strongest high school wrestling areas in America.• One of the stated reasons the administration used to justify the elimination of wrestling was its inability to be competitive as a partially funded program.Speaking Point: On average, approximately 80-85% of all D-I schools with a wrestling program will advance at least one wrestler to the NCAA’s each year. This is primarily because we have approximately 260,000 high school wrestlers and only 220 NCAA member institutions (83 NCAA D-I colleges) with wrestling teams.Speaking Point: Duquesne University has a rich wrestling tradition under Coach Hartupee as evidenced by the fact that he has advanced 37 wrestlers to the NCAA Division I championships over the past 16 years.Speaking Point: The Office of Civil Rights has clearly stated that it is a disfavored practice to eliminate men’s sports to comply with Title IX. The spirit and intent of Title IX is to increase opportunities for women, not eliminate opportunities for men. Indeed, eliminating men’s teams does not help Title IX compliance at all, unless the school reaches participation proportionality. Even with these cuts, Duquesne does not reach participation proportionality.Speaking Point: In addition to participation proportionality, the Office of Civil Rights also requires scholarship proportionality, and the wholesale elimination of male athletes threatens Duquesne’s compliance with scholarship proportionality.Speaking Point: By NCAA standards, wrestling has one of the lowest "costs per student-athletes" of any male sport. If the administration provided some time, a substantial portion of the wrestling budget could be raised through private donations.Speaking Point: Some of our nation’s top political, military, corporate, and community leaders were athletes in traditional Olympic sports. These sports more closely support the educational mission of schools like Duquesne, and the athletes persevere and flourish in spite of lacking a fully equitable "overall quality experience." Duquesne should not use its own underfunding as a reason to de-fund these teams entirely.Moreover, Duquesne should take great pride in knowing that its wrestling team placed in the "Top 10" eight of the past eleven years in the NWCA Team Academic Rankings. P.O. Box 254 • Manheim, PA 17545 www.nwcaonline.com Phone 717-653-8009 • Fax 717-653-8270 |