Had the message been posted a day earlier, it might have been seen as a horrible joke.
As it was, the April 2 announcement on the Carson-Newman College athletics Web site made a lot of people feel horrible. Athletic director David Barger revealed that the Jefferson City, Tenn., school was dropping its 30-year-old wrestling program.
“The difficult decision to discontinue wrestling came out of a desire to ensure the fiscal viability of the overall athletic program,” Barger stated in the posting.
Supporters of coach Don Elia’s program quickly challenged that reasoning. They cite figures showing that wrestling is a substantial money-maker for the school.
Contacted Friday, Barger — a Red Bank High School graduate and a CN athletic administration official since 1980 — pointed out that budget adjustments are “campuswide” and dropping a sport just happens to be the most publicly visible one. Beyond that, he wouldn’t say much.
“Our trustees will be meeting April 30 (and May 1), and we will make no further public comment until they meet,” he said.
This is a regularly scheduled board meeting, but the trustees must sign off on the cuts. Barger said they would be given “full disclosure” about all the decisions.
The trustees’ place in the process would seem to give hope to the quickly launched “save Carson-Newman wrestling” campaign (largely through Facebook networking), and reportedly some of the trustees were surprised by the wrestling news.
Still, would you go ahead and tell a team and a longtime coach “so long” without being sure their time was over?
“Sometime back we were charged with the responsibility of downsizing the budget,” Barger said. “It comes down to the financial health of the institution and the requisite savings that needed to be garnered from athletics.
“Such harsh economic times lend themselves to a very, very painful process. It makes you miserable to have to go through it.”
Elia fended off a threat to Eagles wrestling at least once before by showing how it was a tap rather than a drain for dollars.
Ron Case, the former athletic director who hired Elia from Maryville College, and his son are among the many who have sent letters to Barger and new Carson-Newman president Randall O’Brien on behalf of the program.
Wrote David Case, a University of Mississippi School of Law associate professor who worked for Barger in the sports information office in the early 1980s: “The wrestling program brings anywhere from 35 to 50-plus students ... every year that would otherwise not attend the college. The program only awards between five and six athletic scholarships at any given time. After all expenses of the program are considered, there is a net revenue gain to the college of between $350,000 and $500,000 every year. This is just from tuition and does not factor in whatever money the college would gain from these students paying for college-provided room and board, books, student fees, etc.”
This year’s roster has 37 wrestlers, including five from Ringgold, Soddy-Daisy, Madisonville and Cleveland, and Elia said Saturday that none plan to return for the fall semester except one set to graduate in December.
One is Matthew Sharp, a freshman from Cleveland.
“That’s a lot of students for a place like Carson-Newman,” former Cleveland coach Al Miller said. “It just doesn’t add up to me. Wrestling brings in more money and kids that will pay their way than any group on campus. Why would you drop that?”
Cleveland’s Nathan Jones, now in dental school in Memphis, was an All-American wrestler and CN’s most outstanding male senior athlete two years ago. TSSAA record-setter Tim Voiles from Lookout Valley was another Eagles standout.
Miller was very interested in succeeding Elia, who already had stepped down as financial-aid director when Miller had a long visit with fellow Red Bank alum Barger in the spring of 2007.
He said Barger expressed his support then for wrestling but confided that there was some grumbling to drop it.
“A lot of my wrestlers have gone there. My oldest son (Brett) went there and wrestled for Don,” Miller said. “Even though I didn’t go there, I’m really emotionally involved in this thing.”
He noted that many of the best wrestling coaches in East Tennessee, particularly north of Cleveland, are former Carson-Newman wrestlers. So is Jeff Pratt, recently hired as national chairman for Fellowship of Christian Athletes wrestling.
And while only Newberry College besides Carson-Newman among current South Atlantic Conference members has wrestling, future member Anderson (S.C.) and potential future member King also do. King’s coach wrestled for Elia at CN, by the way.
A few other NCAA Division II and NAIA colleges have added wrestling in recent years, but CN’s long tradition of national champions and All-Americans still give it a recruiting edge, even with a budget long overdue for a big upgrade.
“It’s almost embarrassing to see Don’s budget compared to King’s,” Miller said.
Maybe that’s really the reason for the new decision. Maybe Carson-Newman officials decided that if they can’t put up they need to shut down, and in this economic climate there could be no budget increase.
We’ll see what the trustees do next week.
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Thank you for this article. This the strangest decision. We can't make any sense of it. I am the person who started the Facebook group. http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=65.... You can view our Facebook Group Page by pasting the above link into your web browser. We need all the support that we can get. Also, we have nearly 4000 members on our Facebook group. We have also raised $12,240.00 in just 7 days. We have a goal of endowing the wrestling program in order to get it reinstated. Our current goal for the short term is to raise $110,000.00. Then, we will need to raise an additional $1.2M in order to fully endow the program. This amount would ensure that Carson Newman College does not have to financially support the wrestling program. Thus, endowing the program removes the financial reason for canceling the program. Please check out our Facebook page. You will find my contact information and ways to support the Carson Newman Wrestling Program.
Paul Tucker
Thank you for the article and coverage of this unbelievable decision at Carson Newman. No logical explantion for this to happen to Hall of Fame Coach Don Elia and the traditionally strong program he has built at CN.
I believe the AD thought Coach Elia would quietly accept this decision and let the school treat him and the wrestling program like they have for 30 years. He did not realize that Don Elia has 30 years of wrestling alumni that will not stop fighting until this program gets re-instated!
I'm glad to see that the Times published an article about the plight of the Carson-Newman College wrestling program. Wrestling is unique in that it is an individual sport based upon a person's weight. A 100 lb. person can compete in a varsity sport as well as a 250 lb. person. The person who works the hardest by giving their all to reach their goal can compete. This is not determined by favoritism which is dominate in most other school sports. It was the main event in the original Greek Olympics thousands of year ago. Free Style and Greco-Roman wrestling are big events in the modern Olympics. Wrestling has a vast world wide participation, and to compete in this global sport America needs more wrestling programs, not fewer.
Wrestling Community,
This will be a tremendous blow to the great sport of wrestling that we all hold so near and dear to our hearts.
- Coaches: lose an excellent camp through which your wrestlers improve, excellent schools to have standouts be recruited by, and a program of excellence that your young athletes can look to for guidance.
- High school wrestlers: lose another opportunity not only of furthering their education with financial assistance through scholarships, but also the overall pool of schools they can attend to further their wrestling career shrinks, again.
- Collegiate wrestling in the South East and Nationally: lose a tough opponent. Steel sharpens steel and when you remove Carson Newman's wrestling, the level of competition will diminish.
Dan Gable said, "Once you've wrestled, everything else in life is easy". I still work hard to achieve in life, but I owe a huge debt of gratitude to the lessons that I have learned from Don Elia and the great sport of wrestling.
I humbly ask for your help. Please join the facebook group Save Carson Newman Wrestling, make a pledge, make a call, send an email, or do something to make a stand to preserve wrestling at Carson Newman. We must be strong, resolute, and unified in letting the administration of CN know that with the right focus and creative thinking the program can be saved and continue to grow, prosper, and benefit so many as it has for so many years.
I think another wrestling program being axed is sending the wrong message to our kids. One of the most disciplined and respected sports that molds so many young men for life is being brushed away year after year at school after school. As educators, board members, trusties or whatever I think its a responsibility to make sure that wrestling programs not only survive but thrive and multiply. Please consider reinstated the program.
This decision doesn't seem to ring true as it relates to specifically the funding etc of a wrestling program especially one of the prestige that CN has produced over time. I empathize with every institutions challenges with the economy, but this sport seems to reinforce all that we seek out of our student athletes especially in today's society. I hope they review this decision.
I wrestled for Coach Elia for 4 years. His program was the best thing that ever happened to a lot of guys. Coach Elia is a great man, and to do away with the program he built is a huge disappointment. I am confident that with informative articles like this and the support of the wrestling community, that this program can be saved. Thank you for taking the time to write this article and keep the public informed of the situation.
GREAT ARTICLE. WE NEED TO WORK TOGETHER AS A WRESTLING COMMUNITY TO SAVE THIS GREAT PROGRAM. PLEASE DO YOUR PART BY WRITING LETTERS AND PLEDGING MONEY TO SUPPORT THIS PROGRAM.
THE ANIMAL
I certainly sympathize with the athletic directors efforts to keep Carson-Newman athletics financially viable, but it seems that a more reasonable approach would be to trim all the teams' budgets rather than whacking targeted programs. I was a member of CN's 1985 and 1986 wrestling teams and was Carson-Newman wrestlings first national champion. The people I wrestled with were happy just to be wrestling in college. We would've made many sacrifices to keep the program alive. I'm sure the present wrestlers feel the same way now. Minor sports are not expendable just because they're minor. The student athletes participating in minor programs deserve better treatment.
We have made some real progress. We now have over $20,000.00 in pledges, but need more. Visit our Facebook Group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=65.... Or send your pledge to Paul@TuckerEmail.com. Thank you for your support,
Paul Tucker
WOW! we are not at $28,550.00. Please keep pledging. I know that we can get over $30,000.00 before the meeting tomorrow. Every dollar helps.
Thank you
Paul Tucker