Wrestlers pin hopes on WSU

A sport's pride and a state's problem will both be on display at the Tacoma Dome this weekend when hundreds of high-school wrestlers converge for the Mat Classic state championships.

Coaches from NCAA Division I schools in Idaho, Oregon and dozens of other states will be on hand scouting some of the nation's top seniors. With one notable exception — Washington, a state without Division I college wrestling.

That's something the Committee to Reinstate Division I Wrestling in Washington (CRDWW) hopes to change.

The goal: to fully endow a program at Washington State University.

The means: endow two programs, including wrestling and a women's sport, to keep the university in compliance with Title IX.

The chances: better than previous efforts, but a long way from fruition — somewhere between a longshot and a possibility.

"This would be the first wrestling program reinstated at the Division I level," said Brent Barnes, Lake Stevens wrestling coach and a member of the committee. "It would be a huge turning of the tide — not just for wrestling, but for other minor sports as well."

The idea came up last May, when Steve McPherson, a committee member whose nephews wrestle at Lake Stevens, watched a Washington youth all-star team place second in a national competition.

The committee approached Washington and Washington State, and the Cougars showed more interest. Barnes gave a one-hour presentation in Pullman on Nov. 7.

It was a significant breakthrough for the wrestling community, which lost its last Division I program when WSU cut the sport in 1986. Money stands in the way.

"It comes down to the reason it was dropped in the first place: the amount of funding and the proportionality issue of Title IX," WSU athletic director Jim Sterk said. "It's not something that's going to happen overnight or even in the near distant future. But I never say never."

Sterk said female enrollment at Washington State has increased in the past few years, meaning the school — which has nine women's sports and six men's sports — might have to add a women's sport anyway. As far as wrestling is concerned, the committee has to raise enough money to fully endow two sports.

"We're not going to start a sport by patchwork," Sterk said. "We're going to fund it competitively. It's not fair to the student-athletes to do it any other way. We are in the conference of champions, after all."

Money issues aside, Sterk and the committee agree that bringing wrestling back to Washington State would have positive national and local implications.

Washington wrestlers help fill rosters at Oregon, Oregon State and Boise State. Three of the last four All-Americans at Boise State came from Washington. Other Washington wrestlers have gone to Columbia, Indiana and Duke, to name a few, in recent years.

Most believe there's enough in-state talent to stockpile a nationally ranked Division I program. Just as important, those wrestlers would be more likely to stay after graduation and improve coaching in the sport.

Otto Olson, a three-time state champion from Everett, went to Michigan to wrestle, but he would have stayed home if the opportunity was there. He started training year-round in eighth grade because a coach told him it would take four state championships to get a full-ride scholarship out of state. He coaches at Mariner in South Everett now, but he knows he's an anomaly for coming back.

"My sophomore year, there were four All-Americans from Washington," he said, "and all of them went out of state. It's weird and sad at the same time. But if we get into the right cycle, everything would improve."

"This could be a big boost for the sport," said wrestling legend Dan Gable, now a TV college wrestling analyst in Iowa. "A state like Washington is in the top 10 in numbers of high-school athletes, but it doesn't have a Division I program. So it's even more of a boost for the people who wrestle there."

History suggests an uphill climb. No wrestling program has been reinstated at the Division I level after being cut. And since 1972, when Washington and WSU had two of the top programs in the nation, 15 state schools have dropped programs — including Eastern Washington, Pacific Lutheran, Gonzaga and Western Washington. In Washington, only Central Washington, Highline Community College and Yakima Valley Community College have programs.

It comes back to two things: proportionality and money. The average cost of a Pac-10 wrestling program is about $505,000 a year. The average cost of a women's softball program — a sport WSU could add if it added wrestling — is between $500,000 and $700,000.

The committee has begun to search for potential donors and hopes to meet with Sterk to identify a target figure in the near future.

"I've got a good feeling about it," McPherson said. "I guess I'm a lifetime optimist anyway. What we're asking for is realistic.

"It's all momentum. It was momentum that took it down. Momentum can bring it back."

Said Barnes: "The truth is wrestling is a very healthy sport in our state. We're not getting our just due. We're the sixth-largest in terms of participants, and we're growing. There's no place for the kids to go. We're out here on and island, and that's wrong. That's why I think it's a perfect fit for WSU."

Greg Bishop: 206-464-3191 or gbishop@seattletimes.com