You get what you deserve, goes the old saying. But Adin Dueñas and Armando Gonzalez didn’t deserve this.
If you remember, a few weeks ago the two Gilroy High wrestlers were blind-sided with the news that Fresno State was dropping its wrestling program. One day before the high school’s graduation ceremonies, the two highly-recruited All-Americans, who had signed on to join the Bulldogs in the fall, were suddenly left with no place to wrestle.
Imagine that. You’ve devoted the last decade of your life to wrestling. From the time you could fit into the smallest singlet made, you spent dozens of hours a week training year-round. While your friends and classmates were hanging out and having fun on the weekends, you were competing at all-day tournaments.
As Dueñas and Gonzalez’s practice time and experience mounted, they reaped the rewards by winning prestigious tournaments, becoming CCS champions and state placers.
But the crowning jewel and ultimate prize was a Division I scholarship. The wrestlers chose Fresno State because of its wrestling program. Now, it no longer exists.
Unfortunately, Dueñas and Gonzalez are learning the hard way that life can dish out some pretty raw deals – without reason. Companies downsize, people lose their jobs. And the university’s move was just about as cold as that.
No one involved with the Fresno State wrestling program saw this coming. Not even coach Shawn Charles. Administrators called recruits and current wrestlers to break the news. The coach didn’t get a chance to do it himself.
But someone within the Fresno State athletic department knew this was going to happen. Someone knew that canceling the wrestling program was an option months ago. Surely athletic director Thomas Boeh did. Couldn’t the program have been warned that it was in the red? With how popular the sport of wrestling is in the Central Valley, the Bulldogs probably could have rallied some type of financial support from its fan base had they been given the chance.
Instead, Fresno State unleashed a press release, announcing men’s cross country would take wrestling’s place, mainly to cut costs. Other reasons included:
– Wrestling is not a sponsored sport with the Western Athletic Conference (however, Fresno State and seven other schools had formed the new Western Wrestling Conference for 2006-2007).
– The sport lacked a dedicated practice facility, locker room and cost-efficient competitive venue.
– Wrestling doesn’t have a like women’s program.
– The team’s recent poor academic achievement.
(By the way, those Fresno wrestling supporters launched a Web site dedicated to saving the wrestling program, www.savefresnowrestling.com, just after the announcement was made. Have a visit.)
Although the university claims this was not a move to help it better comply with Title IX, it has all the markings of an easy and convenient way to do just that. Wrestling has long been the victim not of Title IX, but of the corner-cutting ways athletic departments use to comply with the law, which basically states that men and women must have equal opportunities to compete in college sports. Football and men’s basketball programs drive an athletic department’s budget. Didn’t Fresno State football have quite a successful season this past fall? Isn’t it likely it will only build on that success and thus earn more money to be spread around the athletic department? Enough to perhaps save the wrestling program? Or add a women’s sport? The Title IX argument could go on forever.
What bothers me most is that the athletic department didn’t express an ounce of sympathy to those whose careers it jeoparodized when it cut the program. Boeh could have taken the opportunity to at least acknowledge the effect cutting the program was going to have on the wrestlers or coaches. Not one part of his announcement expressed that. First-year coach Charles was brought in last year to help revamp the program. Shouldn’t he be thanked for his effort, which helped the team find a conference to compete in and yielded a nationally-ranked recruiting class? Shouldn’t the athletes who worked hard to be a part of that nationally-ranked recruiting class be recognized?
They should. But Fresno State couldn’t do that.
And now they’ve lost two quality student-athletes. Dueñas and Gonzalez are talented enough wrestlers and have solid enough reputations in wrestling circles that they will likely find new schools to wrestle at. No, they didn’t deserve this. But their hard work will be rewarded. And they will appreciate it even more.
