Kansas Wrestling Forums General Discussion College Baker University - hired Jimmy May first coach

Vince;
This is kind of going down a road that can get a little ugly but hey since we are just sort of debating here, I will take that ugly little road. My biggest fear, and one that I see being a bigger and bigger problem, is that wrestling, like Baseball, Tennis, Golf, and so many other sports are going to become sports for the rich and famous. Kit wrote, "The typical BU student has strong academic credentials and qualify for much financial aid (need, scholarships, dual sports, etc.). Or they are just simply wealthy enough to pay the tuition amount". In a perfect world that would happen. I coached and taught in this very imperfect world and I can tell you that kids who are disadvantaged monetarily are working so hard to stay alive that academics sort of suffer. They are smart enough but they are spending most of their energy surviving in poverty. Some of them are tremendous wrestlers. None of them will be going to school at Baker. They also didn't go to Rockhurst, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. James, or a lot of other very wonderful but pricey institutions. They could not afford to pay several thousand dollars for camps, freestyle tourneys, private coaching and all the other advantages that I see more and more kids being able to take advantage of.

I hate to see wrestling become a sport for the affluent but it is headed down that path right now. Now those people who are in that advantaged position will rise up and deny that this rift exists, but I worked for a good deal of my life on the other side of that rift and believe me when I tell you that it is a very wide canyon. Baker is on the wealthy side of that canyon. Nothing wrong with that but it is an obvious fact.

I am glad another school in Kansas is wrestling. I wish it was in a place that could give many kids hope. My fear is that it is not. This is not a right or a wrong, it is simply the way things seem to be going. I am not disparaging Baker. I coached against them for a while and I have much respect for them. See it is an ugly road isn't it. I didn't really want to go down it but hey it is reality.

By the way we used to carry around a "sample award letter" when we recruited too. The fact is very very few kids got award letters that resembled the "sample" that we showed them. There is a reason why schools in the Heart of America and the KCAC are so small. It is not because they are not quality they certainly are. It is because they cost like and Ivy League school.