(Photo/Bellarmine Athletics)On Wednesday, Bellarmine announced that they hired Ned Shuck as their next head coach. After the official announcement, we put together an article that documented some of Shuck's history prior to his hiring.
Today we're focusing on the job that Shuck will inherit rather than his background. Bellarmine is a school that most probably don't know about as it is new on the DI landscape.
Spencer Adams was the Knights previous head coach and stepped down in late May after leading the program since 2016. Prior to that, he was the leader of the St. Catherine program, and we'll explain later how he moved from St. Catherine to Bellarmine. Along with Adams, the rest of the coaching staff will not return.
To explain the Bellarmine job, we'll focus on a handful of factors that will impact the school. This is an exercise we did prior to the hirings at Illinois and Stanford, earlier this offseason.
The Conference
Just over a year ago, on July 1st, 2020, Bellarmine's athletic department formally began a transformation from Division II to Division I status. Most sports will compete in the Atlantic Sun Conference, but since they do not sponsor wrestling, Bellarmine has joined the Southern Conference (SoCon).
The SoCon has traditionally received the least amount of national qualifiers and, in turn, has produced the lowest number of All-Americans over the last decade. Since 2012, only nine SoCon wrestlers have gotten onto the NCAA podium. That doesn't include four wrestlers that garnered first or second-team All-American honors when the 2020 national tournament was canceled.
Despite a so-so history, the conference could be on the upswing. Campbell received a shot in the arm when Cary Kolat transformed the team from an afterthought, nationally, to one regularly among the top-25. Despite Kolat's departure, top assistant Scotti Sentes has taken over the Camels and continued to recruit well and produce on the mat in 2021. Campbell logged their third-straight SoCon regular season and tournament title and sent seven wrestlers to St. Louis. Campbell had one wrestler advance to the 2021 NCAA Round of 12 and another earn a top-15 seed.
Appalachian State continues to improve and has been excellent at developing under-the-radar recruits. 149 lber Jonathan Millner was the conference's lone AA in 2021. Chattanooga has long been a traditional force in the SoCon. Under fourth-year head coach Kyle Ruschell, the Moc program should continue to gain steam.
New head coaches are a theme for the bulk of the conference. Davidson, Presybetrian, The Citadel, and VMI all have leaders that have been at the helm for less than five years. This is important because most have new blood on staff that has reinvigorated their respective squads.
Initially, Bellarmine could have difficulties getting wrestlers through to nationals, like the rest of the league. But, the SoCon is improving and could see its automatic qualifier number rise in the future.
The School
After the transition, Bellarmine became the only private DI institution located in Kentucky. It is also a Catholic institution. Located in Louisville, Bellarmine has approximately 4,000 students, with about 2600 being undergraduates. Academically, the school is best known for its nursing program and majors within the healthcare industry.
Bellarmine's tuition is over 40k per year, which is steep; however, they have very generous financial aid packages. Average financial aid is over 30k per student and almost all of their student body received some sort of assistance.
The campus is located close to downtown Louisville, in the city's Belknap area. So while Bellarmine may be more of an urban campus, compared to most schools that offer DI wrestling, it's not totally in the midst of a big city. Those factors could be attractive to some recruits, while a turnoff for others.
The Roster
The Knights roster carried almost 30 wrestlers during the 2021 season. Oftentimes, during coaching changes, a bit of attrition is expected. This will undoubtedly be the case with Bellarmine. The athletic department announced in 2019 the move to DI status, so there are plenty of wrestlers on the roster that signed with the expectation to compete on the DII level.
Though the school was not permitted to participate in postseason competition, due to the transition, Bellarmine wrestled a SoCon schedule in 2021. As one may expect, the bulk of their lineup took some lumps. 165 lber Eric Beck and 174 lber Devan Hendricks were the only Knight wrestlers to finish with a .500 record or better. Beck was 6-4, while Hendricks was 7-3. Digging deeper into the results, all three of Hendricks' losses came to eventual NCAA qualifiers. Beck was able to produce a win over Bilal Bailey, who was a notable recruit for Campbell in the Class of 2020.
No offense, but Shuck will need to upgrade the roster for the Knights to be more competitive against DI foes.
The Facilities
Bellarmine's facilities are in the midst of an upgrade, which is common as schools undergo a transition to DI status. Below you will see a picture of their current wrestling room.
(Photo/Bellarmine Athletics)You may be able to tell it was converted from a church. It has locker rooms, as well and will continue to improve.
The Salary
The actual salary for the position is unknown. But from what we've been able to obtain, it will not stack up with Power Five schools. Because of that, you didn't hear the usual suspects that are assistants in the Big Ten associated with rumors surrounding this position. Even so, Bellarmine was able to hire a high-quality candidate in Shuck.
The entire coaching staff from 2020-21 has left, so two assistants and a graduate assistant will need to be hired. Again, salaries are unclear for these positions, too. Expect to see some young, hungry recent graduates fill these roles.
The Administration
Before we get into the actual administration, the story of how Bellarmine's wrestling program even came to be is pretty unique. In 2016, St. Catharine College, located in Bardstown, approximately 45 mins away, shut down due to financial problems. Not the wrestling program, the entire school. Bellarmine absorbed the wrestling team. Members of the St. Catherine team were allowed to transfer in and Adams remained the head coach.
Seeing that the school took on a wrestling program that they never started is a positive sign. They must have really wanted to add wrestling. Most schools wouldn't have batted an eyelash in a similar predicament.
The entire department is led by Scott Wiegandt, a Bellarmine alum that has held the position since 2006. Since Wiegandt presided over the relocation of the wrestling team, he has to have some appreciation for the sport and its place at Bellarmine. Wiegandt is a baseball guy; he was drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies and spent ten years playing professional baseball.
At smaller institutions, having a football team can prove to be detrimental to the health of wrestling and other "non-revenue" sports. Dedicating so many scholarships to football, along with funding, can place the program on shaky footing (see: Eastern Michigan/Old Dominion). Bellarmine does not have a football team. On the other side of the coin, having a team gives a school promotion and level of prestige that is difficult to replicate otherwise.
Now that isn't to say that football won't be at Bellarmine, sort of. In the fall of 2022, sprint football is coming. The team, which will not be sanctioned by the NCAA, has a 178 lb weight limit and will compete against a handful of other institutions in the Midwest Sprint Football League.
InterMat plans to speak with coach Shuck in the coming days and weeks to obtain a possible plan for growth. The wrestling team is not fully funded, so we'll see if there are any plans or avenues in place to increase scholarships.
The Recruiting Base
Bellarmine is the only DI wrestling program in Kentucky. Being the only school does have plenty of advantages; however, Kentucky has not been traditionally a hotbed for DI talent. Since 2010, ten Kentucky natives have combined to qualify for the NCAA Tournament on 14 occasions. The last All-American from the state was Kyle Ruschell (now head coach at Chattanooga) in 2010. The 2021 national tournament saw two Kentucky natives compete in St. Louis (Saul Ervin - SIU Edwardsville and Ben Barton - Campbell).
Wrestling in Kentucky does appear to be on a slight upswing. After Ruschell's graduation, only one Kentucky resident (Caleb Ervin - Illinois) made it to nationals between 2011-15. With two last year and in 2019, things are headed in the right direction. Wrestling, as a whole, is improving in the south, led by Georgia, Florida, and, to a lesser extent, Tennessee. Could Kentucky be next in line?
Even as Kentucky grows, it will be a long time before Shuck can rely primarily on in-state talent. He'll have to look outside its border and most likely to the north in Ohio. His track record recruiting in Ohio and his history coaching at Heidelberg is well documented.
Aside from Ohio, Louisville is located on the Indiana border and less than two hours from Indianapolis, so getting recruits from that vicinity should also be a priority. Looking even further away, Illinois, then St. Louis, are not that far, in the grand scheme of things.
Once the rapidly improving talent from Tennessee gets college-ready, Bellarmine could get into some recruiting battles for kids that otherwise may have looked at staying in-state and wrestling for UTC.
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