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Wrestling

Sam A. Blitz

Well-known member
Throwing this out there for fun discussion. Mods, feel free to move if you'd like to.

This weekend the Montana High School state wrestling tournament will take place at the Metra in Billings. The 2 day event typically draws over 23,000 fans each year and will feature nationally ranked high school wrestlers and wrestlers from nearly every county in the state. If you have never attended, I encourage you to check it out as it is one of the state's great sporting events.

Montana has a great high school wrestling tradition and produces several D1 level athletes each year. Unfortunately, the state of Montana does not have a D1 wrestling program. If kids want to wrestle in college, they either have to go out of state or settle for NAIA.

I find it interesting that our University does not have a program for a sport that is as popular as it is and has such a high amount of fan support state-wide. I would like to see us add a program or have it replace another sport. We have tennis programs that rarely have Montana kids on the roster and attract very little attendance. No disrespect to our tennis athletes, who I'm sure are very good student athletes, but it would make much more sense to replace tennis with something that would garner more attention.

Title IX might create challenges in accomplishing this idea, but I think it would be great for the University. It would provide Montana student athletes more opportunities, it would attract more interest from wrestling fans to our school, and it wouldn't require any new facilities or much expenditure.

Thoughts?
 
Title IX IS the reason. Look at how many NCAA Division I schools had wrestling prior to 1972. It has dwindled a ton. It's not just Montana. Major league Power 5 schools like Alabama and UCLA just to name two, don't even have a wrestling program. And they're not alone.

But, to your point, the state wrestling tournament is an incredible event, especially if you're from Havre :). After UM and MSU football, it's the biggest sporting event in the state annually, and actually, only the Griz-Cat game is bigger in terms of media coverage, and economic benefits. It's an amazing two days, and you really don't have to be a true wrestling fan to appreciate it.

In my many years of covering it, I drug my wife to it many times, and she loved it.
 
That is true George and I'm sure it is a major obstacle. However, NDSU has a men's wrestling team and they have the same exact women's sports we do. The only difference is that they do not have a tennis program. It isn't impossible to accomplish.

I agree with you. I wrestled that tournament in high school and it was such a great experience. It is a great to see it grow and improve.

BTW, what Havre has done with that wrestling program is incredible.
 
We once used to have a wrestling program at the U of M. I even seen the old wrestling mat at the Adams Center when I was walking on floor level in the early 2000's. I will be attending the all-class tourney this weekend also.
 
77matcat said:
How do the NAIA schools afford wrestling???

Western/Northern


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Aside from travel there really isn't much cost to wrestling. And even then, Western and Northern, as well as UGF, don't have to travel too far to find competition.

Wrestling is by far my favorite sport. UM or MSU would probably benefit to having it. At Wyoming it's one of the more popular Olympic sports. Big crowds, good environment. Montana could probably easily slide into the Pac12 with Boise and Oregon State being relatively close by.
 
When I lived in Billings this was one of my favorite weekends. Spent a lot of time at Tiny's with my Butte folks cheering on the Dogs. If you have never seen it, it is worth the drive to experience state wrestling
 
Sam A. Blitz said:
Throwing this out there for fun discussion. Mods, feel free to move if you'd like to.

This weekend the Montana High School state wrestling tournament will take place at the Metra in Billings. The 2 day event typically draws over 23,000 fans each year and will feature nationally ranked high school wrestlers and wrestlers from nearly every county in the state. If you have never attended, I encourage you to check it out as it is one of the state's great sporting events.

Montana has a great high school wrestling tradition and produces several D1 level athletes each year. Unfortunately, the state of Montana does not have a D1 wrestling program. If kids want to wrestle in college, they either have to go out of state or settle for NAIA.

I find it interesting that our University does not have a program for a sport that is as popular as it is and has such a high amount of fan support state-wide. I would like to see us add a program or have it replace another sport. We have tennis programs that rarely have Montana kids on the roster and attract very little attendance. No disrespect to our tennis athletes, who I'm sure are very good student athletes, but it would make much more sense to replace tennis with something that would garner more attention.

Title IX might create challenges in accomplishing this idea, but I think it would be great for the University. It would provide Montana student athletes more opportunities, it would attract more interest from wrestling fans to our school, and it wouldn't require any new facilities or much expenditure.

Thoughts?

I agree about title 9 being the issue. I would suggest they use the percentage of male/female athletes participating in HS sports as the percentage of male/female schollies in college. It would be pretty easy to come up with a national average and because of FB, I suspect it is something like 55/45 male/female, maybe even more. That would make it possible to have wrestling at college level.
 
MrTitleist said:
At Wyoming it's one of the more popular Olympic sports.

So glad it was reinstated by the Olympic committee. No longer being an olympic sport would have removed a lot of the luster from the sport. The whole thing was crazy from the get-go, with wrestling being one of the core events from ancient Greece! Sanity occasionally prevails...
 
Grizz Man said:
MrTitleist said:
At Wyoming it's one of the more popular Olympic sports.

So glad it was reinstated by the Olympic committee. No longer being an olympic sport would have removed a lot of the luster from the sport. The whole thing was crazy from the get-go, with wrestling being one of the core events from ancient Greece! Sanity occasionally prevails...

It doesn't happen often. There's a lot of shitty Olympic sports out there that should be cut, wrestling should not be one of them.
 
putter said:
When I lived in Billings this was one of my favorite weekends. Spent a lot of time at Tiny's with my Butte folks cheering on the Dogs. If you have never seen it, it is worth the drive to experience state wrestling

I would LOVE to see wrestling at UM and MSU :!: Montana is such a great wrestling state. This is a wrestling state, not a tennis state. :thumb:

Putter, remember our Senior year at Butte High? Our wrestling team won the 10th consecutive State Championship in wrestling that year in 1989...

Most years as a State Trophy Winner (Top 3 places)
All-Time

32 Great Falls High
First Place (7) 1959, 70, 72, 99, 13-15
Second Place (17) 1958, 60-65, 69, 74-75, 88, 91, 95, 97, 00-01, 12
Third Place (8) 1971, 90, 94, 98, 07-10

28 Glasgow
First Place (12) 1963-64, 66, 73, 77, 93, 01-02, 07-10
Second Place (10) 1959-62, 71-72, 74, 75, 81, 94
Third Place (6) 1965, 68-69,76, 96, 11

25 Butte High
First Place (17) 1980-92, 95, 97, 00, 03
Second Place (3) 1993, 98, 02
Third Place (5) 1964, 66, 96, 04, 06

21 Ronan
First Place (9) 1973-74, 76, 78-82, 91
Second Place (3) 1971, 89, 08
Third Place (9) 1983-84, 86-87, 90, 92-93, 99, 09

21 Sidney
First Place (8) 1989, 92, 93, 00, 03-06
Second Place (9) 1982, 90-91, 95, 99, 01, 13-15
Third Place (4) 1988, 94, 97, 08

19 Great Falls CMR
First Place (5) 1971, 75-77, 79
Second Place (5) 1968, 78, 82, 96, 07
Third Place (9) 1967, 69, 73, 80, 85, 97, 99-01

19 Missouls Sentinel
First place (12) 1957-58, 60-69
Second Place (3) 1956, 59, 73
Third Place (4) 1972, 74, 13, 15

19 Billings Skyview
First Place (6) 1993, 96, 98, 01-02, 05
Second Place (10) 1990-91, 99, 03-04, 06, 08-10, 13
Third Place (3) 2011-12, 14

19 Havre
First Place (12) 1969-70, 97, 99, 01, 07-10, 13-15
Second Place (5) 1983, 00, 02, 06, 11
Third Place (4) 1958, 75, 98, 12

18 Bozeman
First Place (5) 1962, 68, 71-72, 11
Second Place (5) 1964, 66-67, 94, 14
Third Place (8) 1956, 60-61, 63, 82, 92, 02, 10
 
Consecutive Titles:

16 Conrad 1994 - 2009
14 Missoula Sentinel 1956 - 1969
14 Butte High 1980 - 1993
10 Havre 2006 - 2015
9 Chinook 2007 - 2015
8 Great Falls High 1958 - 1965
8 Glasgow 1959 - 1966
8 Huntley Project 1986 - 1993
8 Sidney 1988 - 1995
8 Flathead (Kalispell) 2003 - 2010
 
Wrestling is a good sport, however, it doesn't come close to tennis in terms of support world wide. The program at UM is well established with excellent coaches beginning to attract talented players.
 
Please provide your source.

Find it hard to believe that tennis is a bigger sport throughout Eastern Europe and Asia.


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I said world wide. You look it up. Its not even close as wrestling hardly makes the list.77, have you ever attended the US Open?
 
Eastern Europe and Asia aren't world wide???

Oh your talking pro athletics.

Find it hard to believe that there is more support at the college and high school level.

Just count the folks on the teams.

If you don't have a source and are shooting from your hip that's ok. Just better to say I think before your assertion.


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I don't need a source. I have a bit of knowledge about tennis. You are the one shooting from the hip, 77.
 
77matcat said:
Eastern Europe and Asia aren't world wide???

Oh your talking pro athletics.

Find it hard to believe that there is more support at the college and high school level.

Just count the folks on the teams.

If you don't have a source and are shooting from your hip that's ok. Just better to say I think before your assertion.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

http://www.mshsl.org/mshsl/news/2013-14Participation.pdf

First link in Google. It is from 2013-14 and shows both Minnesota and National participation for all sports. Accounting for boys and girls tennis has more participation than wrestling nationally (and in Minnesota). Compare only boys tennis to wrestling and it was about 60% boys tennis/wrestling.
 
Nothing would make me happier than the University of Montana bringing wrestling back. It would likely generate more revenue than tennis, is more conducive to Montana weather, and would provide more opportunities to Montana athletes. We export a lot of talented wrestlers in this state, it would be nice to provide an opportunity for them to wrestle at division 1 in their home state.
 
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