Wrestling's lulls are great for long reads about the emotional connection we as fans have to the sport. Wrestling heads are different than fans from major sports fans. Many of us competed, or have children who have competed, and the connections we feel to the athletes and the traditions of the sport are personal. For many, the sport has helped defined our human existence.
Last week I wrote about the professionalization of youth sports, and in particular the problem with a sharp increase in youth wrestling tournaments. I stick by my stance that there is just too much wrestling for too high a cost, but as always there is more to the story.
There was, as always, some backlash to the article. There were the ranters and the haters, but there were also two very touching personal essays, and those quality stories is what I hope to share with you this week.
The FARGODOME in Fargo, North Dakota serves as the venue for the Cadet & Junior National Championships every summer (Photo/John Sachs, Tech-Fall.com)The emotional connection to wrestling is what drives me to link the following two emails. Both are well-written stories about the relationship with family and friends sometimes built around wrestling -- in this case the preparation and competition of Fargo.
Hope you enjoy them as much as I did, and be sure to leave your thoughts in the comments section below.
Link: Nate's story
Link: Sharon's story
To your questions ...
Q: I saw your comments about women's wrestling and gender equity. How could an NCAA wrestling program even add women to their roster? Who would they wrestle?
-- Dan S.
Foley: The most obvious solution would be to create a women's team with independent funding. Wrestlers on the female team would be given scholarship money and be treated exactly the same as men, but wrestle freestyle instead of folkstyle.
That option is riddled with complications, largely that there isn't enough budgetary leeway to make such a program viable for many schools, and that many programs can't handle the extra responsibilities necessary to stay compliant. The other option -- and this is only an idea -- would be to trim two weight classes and combine that with two other women's weight classes to create four total. That would make the balance 2-1, but if instituted across several schools could pump life into the sport.
Women's wrestling is more popular than you might think. Last year at the World Championships several thousand people viewed each and every one of the female wrestling matches and their comments constituted much of the social media traffic.
The upside to cutting two men's weight classes would be to concentrate the talent and allow for more competitiveness throughout the country. Are you tired of dynastic wrestling powers and fear that a new dual meet system might further stratify the 'have's' from the 'have not's?' Then trimming the men's side to eight weights is a great solution.
The downside is that there are fewer weight classes for young men to compete. But that is only initially. Adding a female wrestling component and limiting the men's to eight would actually create MORE opportunity because it would make the cost for entry into men's wrestling much more (there would be nothing stating you must have a women's program).
I know that it would be unpopular, but it would be even more unexpected and could provide wrestling with the type of thoughtful pre-emptive strike that could prevent it from being on the chopping block once the football and basketball players start accumulating paychecks.
Q: I was wondering if you had access to the data surrounding the FILA broadcasts of their international wrestling tournaments (i.e. Golden Grand Prix, Cadet World Championships, Senior World Championships)? Do you know how many viewers are actually tuning in? If so, what proportion is American and what portion is from the rest of the world? I am extremely grateful for these broadcasts and I tune in regularly. But I'm wondering how many other people have the interest and ability to watch in the early hours of the morning in the U.S.
-- Eric S.
Foley: I do have access and can tell you that hundreds of thousands of viewers tune in to watch the livestream of the World Championship. In fact, now that FILA has a somewhat reliable streaming platform (far-flung destinations don't always have reliable internet) the numbers in 2014 have been positively incredible.
More than a quarter of a million people tuned in ONLINE to watch the European Championships -- a tournament that was broadcast live on television around the continent and also played on tape delay.
As for Americans, I'd have to dig deeper into the numbers, but based on social media interaction numbers you'd have to assume roughly half come from the states.
MULTIMEDIA HALFTIME
Proof that no Westerner will ever fully understand China ...
Link: Kabbadi, Kabbadi, Wrestling
My good pal Ben Lowy -- a friend of wrestling -- has launched a new commercial site for his photography. It includes work from our projects, but all of it rocks.
Q: What do you think of Henry Cejudo signing with the UFC? Didn't he miss weight in his last two fights?
-- Mike H.
Foley: I give up on the UFC. The first gut-punch was the news that Uncle Dana was in hot pursuit of former MMA fighter turned Hollywood actress Gina Carano to fight Ronda Rousey. The fight is a total joke and is the most obvious money grab in many years for an organization that increasingly gives two craps about being seen with their hand in the jar.
Cejudo being signed means that the UFC is now into celebrity boxing matches. It's been stated across the Internet that Cejudo has yet to fight anyone of merit and has missed weights his last two fights, and event skipped shows altogether. His professionalism in MMA is abysmal, though some of that might owe to a sport that is largely devoid of good business people.
I would love to see Cejudo succeed if I thought he were as passionate about MMA as he was about wrestling. However, I think his larger goal is to maintain a level of notoriety that affords him the option to speak publicly, sign books and address business gatherings in Phoenix.
MMA is a real sport and the UFC has the best practitioners in the world. For that I'm thankful, because at least at some point Cejudo will be forced to make the decision between eating the 4 ounce leather gloves of his highly skilled opponents, or leaving his own 4-ounce gloves in the center of the octagon.
COMMENT OF THE WEEK
By Paul L.
I could not agree with you more
I live in Calgary Alberta originally from East Detroit, three of my teenaged cousins play hockey 10.5 months a year
They go from regular league to camps to spring tournaments to camps to pre try outs to dry land training to AUGUST try outs -- can you believe that crap AUGUST try outs for hockey in winter
I tell their fathers please don't tell me how well the kids are doing from April to September because it means "nothing."
I told them for all their effort and commitment they better get full rides to American universities when it's all said and done. Yes, all three are on pace for it but from here on it gets TOUGH, it's going to interesting to see if they do get the rides
One of my cousins is bust, broke from his three kids in hockey, he is OBSESSED with one his sons going to the NHL, I said his goal should be paid for education and four years of the greatest time of his life
It's gotten to the point, where you ask your kid at 2 years old to pick a sport, because if you don't do it 24/7/365 you won't make the dumb ass team
Even Wayne Gretzky and his brothers played baseball in summer, Wayne loves baseball. His son is the minor's leagues
Wayne said kids need to play other sports. It gives them a mental break and assists them in becoming a better-rounded athlete. It develops other motor skills
I said this for years:
It's going to take the top 10 sophomore/junior stud wrestlers or hockey players to say, to hell with summer wrestling or hockey were playing baseball and the next season these kids STILL excel
Once the other kids see the top tier kids enjoying the climb, playing other sports and going waterskiing they will follow
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