By Mike Finn, W.I.N. Editor
The 1,700-seat gymnasium at St. Edward High School in Lakewood, Ohio, was the place to be the first weekend of February.
The Feb. 3 dual meet where St. Ed’s edged Blair Academy, 29-27, to capture the mythical national high school championship was reportedly very exciting, especially since the outcome wasn’t decided until the last match before a packed house.
And less than 24 hours later, nearly the same number of fans attended the Ohio State vs. Northwestern dual meet in the same gym, which the Buckeyes won, 18-16, on the final match. The college dual may have been even more successful considering a team from Columbus — located 150 miles away from this Cleveland suburb — drew that many fans on Super Bowl Sunday.
In the time that I’ve covered wrestling, I’ve noticed a disconnect from fans, who pack high school gyms, but don’t always take that love to college arenas. But in the case of Ohio State … and some other marketing-savvy college programs … these coaches are taking their product to fans in hopes of getting the same fans to come to their college campuses.
“It was a great success,” said new Buckeye coach Tom Ryan. “I’m learning that in the state of Ohio, people love wrestling. I think getting up to northeast Ohio and showcasing our program was important and a great success for us. We’re not the first team to do this. A lot of the bigger schools take their show on the road. I think that is really important for grass roots efforts to grow this sport on the college level.”
Ryan pointed out that St. Ed’s High coach Greg Urbas was the person who hatched the idea of bringing the Buckeyes to Lakewood.
“(Former Iowa State coach) Bobby Douglas years ago, when he was recruiting Jim Heffernan from St. Ed’s, told me back in 1982 that the words of wisdom were to promote our sport or lose our sport,” said Urbas, who has been with the Eagle program for nearly 30 years. We as coaches and the wrestling community have to promote our sport because it is an awesome sport and get the word out.”
But why does the college level not draw as much excitement as high school wrestling? Is the fact that prep wrestling, without riding time that happens on the college level, forces more action from its competitors? Or are college wrestlers simply trained to be so defensive that they shut down their offensive moves?
Ryan believes that college wrestling simply does not develop the relationships between its wrestlers and fans.
“In high school wrestling, you have such an incredible sense of pride for your community,” Ryan said. “What we are trying to do is get people in the state of Ohio to buy into the fact that we are an extension of them. We represent them when we step on the mat.”
Urbas also believes the lack of college opportunities for high school wrestlers also kills some of their excitement for the sport that was created and nurtured in high school but has no place to grow on the college level. Since 1972, nearly 20 college programs from the state of Ohio have been discontinued.
“In the great state of Ohio, we only have four Div. I programs (the others being Cleveland State, Ohio and Kent State) and two Div. II schools, Findlay and Ashland,” Urbas said. “There are about 517 high schools with wrestling in Ohio, but we only have four Div. I schools. That hurts.
“I just know there are great, great (high school) wrestlers and there are not that many places where they can go.”
Fortunately, the sport does have some energetic young coaches who realize if they want fans to get interested in their teams, they may first have to go find these fans who have gotten lost over the years.
(Mike Finn, who has covered amateur wrestling for the past 20 years, welcomes your comments at mikef@win-magazine.com.)