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Discussion Topic: My "little brother" (NCAA D1 National Qualifier) is now looking for a program
Dan Cosimi added to this discussion on March 29, 2011
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Royal Brettrager II, a wrestler who I coached throughout his high school career, no longer has a program to wrestle for after qualifying for the NCAA Division 1 national tournament at 174 pounds.
Why? Because Liberty University cut their program today. LU was the third wrestling program to get cut in the last week.
Royal was a two-time All-Ohioan for Kirtland High School, placing fifth as a junior and third as a senior.
He is also an outstanding student and possibly the best person (in terms of character) that I've ever met.
If he has his heart set on wrestling in Division 1, we have four great schools in the state of Ohio. Something tells me that a school like Campbell University could also work its way into the mix because Royal really liked the religious atmosphere of Liberty University.
If he chooses to go to a small school, Ohio has a lot of options. His #1 choice (pre-Liberty) was a small school in northeast Ohio. I have to imagine that transferring there would be a very likely possibility now.
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Discussion Topic: My "little brother" (NCAA D1 National Qualifier) is now looking for a program
Ethan Moore added to this discussion on March 29, 2011
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Very sad news about Liberty. Has there been any meetings with congress or the house about the negative side of title IX? I think all wrestlers support women having opportunities in athletics, but there has to be some common sense utilized.
Has Jim Jordan spoken out about this?
Bottom line - the wrestling community should be in panic mode about how easily, and quickly, university leadership can cut the sport. Just like that.
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Discussion Topic: My "little brother" (NCAA D1 National Qualifier) is now looking for a program
Brady Hiatt added to this discussion on March 30, 2011
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I feel terrible for Royal. I was on the LU team in '94 (along with Matt Dernlan) when that program was dropped. This is a huge slap in the face to the team that's performed so well the past 3/4 years and Coach Castro who has worked so hard to build the team. Coach Castro deserves better. The team deserves better. Surprised they were told so "early", when I was there and the program was dropped, I got the call in late July.
They had something like 34 guys on the team. Minus the 9.9 scholarships and that leaves 25.1 guys PAYING to go to LU and wrestle. 25.1 x $35K per year is $878,500 per year. They should all leave. After accepting the huge donations that were made for the new wrestling room and for other athletic improvements, the admin should be ASHAMED of themselves -- but unfortunately, just like in '94, they aren't and won't be.
Words can't express how po'd I am right now.
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Discussion Topic: My "little brother" (NCAA D1 National Qualifier) is now looking for a program
Hank Kornblut added to this discussion on March 30, 2011
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Liberty had gone through a period several years ago when they dropped their program but reconsidered. I know Jerry Falwell has a personal interest (is he still alive?). Surprised they did it again.
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Discussion Topic: My "little brother" (NCAA D1 National Qualifier) is now looking for a program
Brady Hiatt added to this discussion on March 30, 2011
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Quote from Hank Kornblut's post:
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"Liberty had gone through a period several years ago when they dropped their program but reconsidered. I know Jerry Falwell has a personal interest (is he still alive?). Surprised they did it again."
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Yes -- they dropped it in 1994 when Dr. Falwell was alive, he has passed away since then.
Having gone through it myself, sadly I'm not surprised. It is the easy way out and they took it.
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Discussion Topic: My "little brother" (NCAA D1 National Qualifier) is now looking for a program
Jim Kessen added to this discussion on March 30, 2011
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Quote from Dan Cosimi's post:
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"Royal Brettrager II, a wrestler who I coached throughout his high school career, no longer has a program to wrestle for after qualifying for the NCAA Division 1 national tournament at 174 pounds.
Why? Because Liberty University cut their program today. LU was the third wrestling program to get cut in the last week.
Royal was a two-time All-Ohioan for Kirtland High School, placing fifth as a junior and third as a senior.
He is also an outstanding student and possibly the best person (in terms of character) that I've ever met.
If he has his heart set on wrestling in Division 1, we have four great schools in the state of Ohio. Something tells me that a school like Campbell University could also work its way into the mix because Royal really liked the religious atmosphere of Liberty University.
If he chooses to go to a small school, Ohio has a lot of options. His #1 choice (pre-Liberty) was a small school in northeast Ohio. I have to imagine that transferring there would be a very likely possibility now."
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I know John Carroll could use a stud like him. I always enjoyed watching him wrestling because he was always looking to pin.
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Discussion Topic: My "little brother" (NCAA D1 National Qualifier) is now looking for a program
Patrick Campbell added to this discussion on March 30, 2011
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Discussion Topic: My "little brother" (NCAA D1 National Qualifier) is now looking for a program
Brady Hiatt added to this discussion on March 30, 2011
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Quote from Patrick Campbell's post:
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"Wow...another one gone."
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Patrick -- this one really hurts me personally. I wrestled for Coach Castro on an Athletes in Action team and he is a fantastic coach and even better man of God.
Bottom line is LU CHOSE to make this cut. They did not HAVE TO do so. The AD is being a "wussy" hiding behind Title IX.
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Discussion Topic: My "little brother" (NCAA D1 National Qualifier) is now looking for a program
Brady Hiatt added to this discussion on March 30, 2011
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Dan -- did the team have any warning prior to the news being released?
Is Royal planning on transferring or staying put? Difficult decision as you get to love a school, coach, teammates ( and the lovely co-eds).
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Discussion Topic: My "little brother" (NCAA D1 National Qualifier) is now looking for a program
Dom Cribari added to this discussion on March 30, 2011
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New program, Right down the road not going anywhere and getting ready for big things. Come check us out
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Discussion Topic: My "little brother" (NCAA D1 National Qualifier) is now looking for a program
Dan Cosimi added to this discussion on March 30, 2011
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Thanks for all the positive feedback everyone.
The news was announced yesterday to everyone (including the team). I asked Royal if they had any idea this was coming and he said that they didn't.
Royal continued on his weightlifting program. He wrestled at 174 which wasn't too difficult for him to make. He manages his weight well. He was a very lean 174, though, and would like to be wrestling at 184. He certainly has the frame for it.
As for what he's going to do now...
He said, "I need to pray about it and leave it up to God to lead me on the right path." He needs time to digest what happened, see what his options are, think about the pros and cons, then after that he'll make a decision.
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Discussion Topic: My "little brother" (NCAA D1 National Qualifier) is now looking for a program
Brady Hiatt added to this discussion on March 30, 2011
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Just listened to Jason Bryant's interview with the AD's and LU. Sickening. I believe about 20% of what Barber said. That 20% consists of "we chose to use prong 1" and "we have no intentions of doing so" when asked if they planned on returning the donations give to LU specifically earmarked for the wrestling program.
Dan, listen to Bryant's interview. Listen carefully to his words and you'll hear the pathetic-ness of his answers and his integrity. Be warned, it'll make you want to show this guy a nice tight front headlock.
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Last edited by Brady Hiatt on March 31, 2011; edited 1 time in total
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Discussion Topic: My "little brother" (NCAA D1 National Qualifier) is now looking for a program
Brady Hiatt added to this discussion on March 31, 2011
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Coach Castro and the LU team should pull a UNO, find a nearby college and all transfer to together. This was taken from themat.com forum.
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UNO wrestling team ---> Maryville University wrestling team
by fudge_tunnel ยป Wed Mar 30, 2011 1:46 pm
Rumor on a couple of wrestling message boards I've seen today, including one substantiated by one of the (former) UNO wrestlers' mother, is that UNO's coaches and wrestlers will be going to Maryville University (in St Louis) to wrestle next year. Apparently there will be no probationary period (they've moved from NAIA to D2) and they will be eligible to wrestle in 2011-2012.
Interesting...."
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Discussion Topic: My "little brother" (NCAA D1 National Qualifier) is now looking for a program
Patrick Campbell added to this discussion on March 31, 2011
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Quote from Brady Hiatt's post:
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"
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Quote from Patrick Campbell's post:
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"Wow...another one gone."
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Patrick -- this one really hurts me personally. I wrestled for Coach Castro on an Athletes in Action team and he is a fantastic coach and even better man of God.
Bottom line is LU CHOSE to make this cut. They did not HAVE TO do so. The AD is being a "wussy" hiding behind Title IX."
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Yea, I knew this was not going to be the best news of the day for you. I remember when Jeff was down there coaching. I'm guessing that was when you and Mat were there.
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Discussion Topic: My "little brother" (NCAA D1 National Qualifier) is now looking for a program
Brady Hiatt added to this discussion on March 31, 2011
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Quote from Patrick Campbell's post:
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"Yea, I knew this was not going to be the best news of the day for you. I remember when Jeff was down there coaching. I'm guessing that was when you and Matt were there."
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Yes, I was entering my senior season, Matt had just finished his red-shirt year. We got a call in late July informing us we weren't a team any longer. Awesome timing.
I get po'd at every program dropping (wrestling or another sport because I know the pain caused), but more at those that take the coward way (UNO and LU) out and hide behind numbers that they could have make work.
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