I am sure many of you have wondered what the status of the Cal State Fullerton Wrestling Program is going to be for next year. We have been working with the Athletic Director to come up with a strategy to help make his decision easier as to what he can do to help keep the threatened wrestling program. Although we (the Wrestling Community) had done some amazing work the past 2 years to raise money to fund wrestling and gymnastics, it seemed to be too little. The Vice President, Dr. Palmer, seemed to want more than we could raise. He asked for two years of budget in cash, by March 1st, 2011. Not only was that discouraging but it really discounted all that the wrestling community had done to help be part of the solution.
Dr. Palmer retired in December. A new Vice President has been appointed who is much more positive, had a son who wrestled at Fullerton, and wants to look for solutions to stabilize the entire athletic department, that has been sinking faster than the Titanic.
Brian Quinn, our athletic Director told me on Wednesday, "I do not want to cut any sports". He has finally been able, with VP Si Abrego, to get to the president, Milton Gordon and begin working on a plan that would right the ship and allocate the necessary funding to athletics for all the teams to be out of survival mode. Brian told me, he, Si Abrego and the President discussed not singling out any sport to provide a short term fix to a much bigger department wide problem.
Brian, was hopeful that we would know more in the next week or two. He realizes that for recruiting purposes, program development , etc. we need a definite long term solution soon.
I wanted to say thank you to all of you who have supported our efforts to fight for college wrestling in California. Your phone calls and emails have been making a difference. The key decision makers are hearing and starting to respond. The positive nature of the calls and correspondence has amazed then. They fully expected to be bashed by the wrestling community. What they need right now is continued positive interaction, encouragement to find solutions and stories about how significant the sport of wrestling is to California and the western United States.
$250,000 year is not much money to keep wrestling alive a Fullerton. We have a great facility, in a great location, with great high school wrestling, and a state with great history.
The fact that we are a Regional Olympic Training Center for USA Wrestling allows us to offer automatic residency to out of state incoming freshman and transfers.
Our tuition is very cheap compared to most states. This alone is very attractive to many out of state, state champs in states with no four year college wrestling.
We could have a great program at Cal State Fullerton if we had long term stability.
Call to action:
Continue to consider donating to the program. Many of the people who committed to the program thru the Lasting Impact Pledge drive have been waiting to see what will happen. Rightly so. If and when the AD and president come up with a plan, we will need to be ready to help if he asks us to finish what we committed to for this year,10-11. A fully funded program like Iowa State has a budget of $750,000. ASU $650,000. In order to help our kids we may need to supplement the scholarship budget. My goal would be that the school pays for all expenses of having the program and money raised by us would go to providing the full 9.9 scholarships that would make us competitive with all the programs in the country.
Second, let them know we want the program to survive. Following are the key decision makers. Send a new wave of support calls and e-mails.
CONTACTS
Others to email Marsha Smith at The OC Register masmith@ocregister.com
Athletic Director Brian Quinn: bquinn@fullerton.edu; 657-278-2777 P.O. Box 6810, Fullerton, Ca. 92834
Vice President Si Abrego: Son Wrestled at Fullerton. Son is a big donor to the program. Si may be taking over responsibility for supervising Athletics as VP of Student Affairs when current VP retires in Dec 2010
sabrego@fullerton.edu; 657-278-3221 800 North State College Blvd.,Fullerton, Ca 92831
President Milton Gordon: mgordan@fullerton.edu; 657-278-3456 800 North State College Blvd.,Fullerton, Ca 92831
Our roster for next year includes five state champs, many who red shirted this year. We had 17 out of state champs interested in visits to campus and have delayed them until we know a definite answer about our future. With stability we can be a great program.
Again,Thank you!!! For being a great support to Risto and I and all the wrestlers at Cal State Fullerton.
Coach Hicks
________________________________________
Risto Marttinen
Assistant Wrestling Coach
California State University, Fullerton
Rmarttinen@fullerton.edu
Phone: 657-278-8550
Fax: 657-278-5957
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