“I thought he was coming in to congratulate us on the best year Cleveland State has had in the last decade,” said Davis, who missed advancing to the NCAA tournament by one match.
“From the moment he walked in, I knew it was bad news,” Corba said. “He has been in the wrestling room three times and all three times it was bad news.”
Sure enough, Parry informed the team that the university would be defunding wrestling beginning with the 2016-17 season to make way for men’s and women’s lacrosse.
In an interview on Short Time Wrestling with Jason Bryant, Parry laid out the original plan to increase student fees to cover the addition of lacrosse. When the decision was made not to raise fees, Parry said he had to cut something.
“We plan to fund (wrestling) fully through 2016 and fund any scholarships for any athletes who are still here, but there are strong efforts to raise funds to continue it past 2016,” Parry told Bryant. “It’s not a Title IX decision, but it does factor into it. … Wrestling became vulnerable in terms of number of participants and budget.”
The wrestling budget at CSU is $384,000 while the budget for lacrosse is expected to be $475,000, according to Parry. Parry also cited the increase in lacrosse teams in Ohio and the decrease in wrestling teams.
Parry told Bryant the numbers were 408 wrestling schools and “107 schools playing lacrosse with 16 waiting to make it a sport.”
The OHSAA does not track sports it does not sanction, but says the lacrosse numbers are around 110. There are 503 schools with wrestling, according to OHSAA numbers.
While at Butler, Parry had cut baseball to add lacrosse in the 1990s. Butler dropped lacrosse in 2007 after his departure and brought funding back for baseball. Parry’s wife, Candi, is the assistant women’s lacrosse coach at Baldwin-Wallace College and served for 18 years as supervisor of officials for lacrosse in the North Coast Athletic Conference.
“My initial thoughts were it was absurd and short-sighted,” Fairmont wrestling coach — and CSU alum — Frank Baxter said. “I understand lacrosse is an emerging sport, but he gave false numbers for both sports. It was not factual. It was an agenda. As someone from Cleveland, it makes no sense to cut the oldest program at the school in arguably the best wrestling area in the country.”
Plans have already begun to raise money to fund wrestling beyond next season. Corba said the team was told it would take $800,000 for two years and $5 million to endow the program. Information on how to help save the program can be found at www.crowdrise.com/savecsuwrestling.
“I bought into the program,” Corba said. “I want to fight to make sure it survives.”
Said Davis, “In the past two years, CSU wrestling and the university has been a great experience for me and it has taught me a lot about life and myself. But this has surely inspired me to re-evaluate my future plans and goals.”
It has also caused Covington junior Ryan Ford to take a step back. The three-time state placer has committed to CSU. His freshman year will be the first year after the program is scheduled to be defunded.
“I’m glad I heard when I did so I can keep my options open,” Ford said.
In a twist of irony, CSU will host the NCAA Tournament in 2017.
“It is not logical,” Baxter said. “Why would the NCAA put the tournament in a city that doesn’t support the sport.”
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