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?
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?