Boo to CSU

While the wrestling community – and justifiably so – celebrated last Wednesday with the announcement that Cleveland State is not eliminating its storied program, that was never the agenda to begin with.

Honestly, what really happened was that men’s lacrosse was added and the CSU students, in a roundabout way, agreed to raise their student fees to allow that sport to be added as a varsity sport.

That’s the bottom line.

Wrestling had been established at CSU since it was Fenn College back in 1962. Lacrosse was the new sport that athletic director John Parry had been pushing to add.

Parry, who played and coached lacrosse in the past, has repeatedly denied that he had his own best interests at heart when he lobbied for the sport to be added. He cited studies that showed lacrosse was the “fastest growing sport in America” and felt that the sport would bring in to CSU a “different crop of students” than they have had, which would bring more money to the university.

The perception is that lacrosse is a “rich person’s sport,” so you can connect the dots there.

But what Parry may, or may not, have realized is that, while lacrosse may be growing fast nationally, in Northeast Ohio, lacrosse is an afterthought. In Lorain County, there are only five high schools that offer the sport.

Meanwhile, wrestling is offered all but three Lorain County high schools. And, Northeast Ohio just so happens to be a hotbed for amateur wrestling, one of the top regions in the country for it.

It’s unfortunate that it’s pitted the sport of lacrosse against the sport of wrestling, because that really isn’t fair to either sport. If anything, though, it caused people who cared little or nothing about lacrosse in the past to really care about it, albeit strongly against it. But they say bad publicity is sometimes better than no publicity at all.

Parry had lobbied to add the referendum to the spring ballot raising the student fees per credit hour $4-$6 to add men’s lacrosse and another women’s sport, but that referendum was shot down by the university president. However, when the word came out that the funding for lacrosse would come at the expense of wrestling, the students themselves pushed to add the referendum to the ballot, and it passed, 975-650.

Had the initial plan gone through to have the referendum just for lacrosse and another women’s sport, I have a feeling it would not have passed as convincingly as it did for wrestling, if not outright failing. It failed four years ago when football – a much higher profile sport than either wrestling or lacrosse – was being proposed by CSU.

The school, instead of instituting the full raise, will simply increase the student tuition fees to just $1 per credit hour to add lacrosse and keep wrestling alive for now. Eventually, though, they’ll have to add a women’s sport to satisfy Title IX, and that full increase will likely be implemented.

In essence, wrestling was used as a pawn to achieve what Parry wanted all along – a fee increase to fund his beloved lacrosse. And that’s just sad.

Once upon a time, I was a student at Cleveland State. I was the sports editor for the student-run newspaper for two school years (1997-99) and saw firsthand just how passionate the wrestling community can be.

During my first year at the school, the athletic director pushed for longtime head wrestling coach Dick Bonacci to retire. When Bonacci refused, he was fired. The response from the wrestling community – both alumni and non-alumni – was so strong that the decision was reversed, and Bonacci coached the Vikings for two more seasons.

Bonacci stuck around long enough to see his university and his program proudly host the 1998 NCAA Wrestling Tournament at the Wolstein Center, which was a tremendous event, especially for a “cub” sportswriter who had dabbled in wrestling coverage in his young career and still wasn’t quite sure what to make of the sport. Today, that sportswriter is proud to have covered local high school wrestling for 15 years with many more on the horizon.

The wrestling community deserves to take a bow. They knew they were being used, but the bottom line of saving the sport they love took precedence over everything. It was a Catch-22, because being forced to raise $5 million on their own to save a program – and don’t doubt that it wouldn’t have been done, because it would have – sets a dangerous precedent that I’m sure other universities would have took notice of.

Now, that cost is offset, and it is thanks to their tireless effort of spreading the word both locally and nationally that got the job done.

As for Cleveland State, the fact that they let one of their most storied athletic programs hang out to dry is shameful. If I were a wrestler or a coach of that program, I would probably be very conflicted. While it was clear the CSU community had their backs, the fact that the powers that be did not had to be heartbreaking.

I just hope that when lacrosse begins at Cleveland State in the 2016-17 school year, those players and coaches take a moment to thank and applaud their wrestling brothers. Because, if it wasn’t for them, they wouldn’t exist.

Until next time, remember that Cleveland Rocks!