This article was published yesterday in the Omaha World Herald.
UNO to celebrate and then on the move...
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Published Wednesday April 13, 2011
St. Louis college could be a fit for Mavs
By Rob White
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
The discontinued University of Nebraska at Omaha wrestling program is holding a final farewell Friday night at Sapp Fieldhouse.
“We're waving goodbye,” coach Mike Denney said. “We're going to celebrate and honor the 62 years of wrestling tradition at Omaha U. and UNO.”
A social hour with refreshments is set for 6 p.m. Beginning at 7, all returning lettermen will be introduced.
“We'll bring them to the center of the mat,” Denney said, “and they can place something of significance there.”
Denney said the theme of the evening is “We Are One.”
The school's seventh Division II national championship team also will be honored. UNO won the national title for the sixth time in eight years on March 12, hours before discovering the program would be scrapped as part of the school's plan to move to the Division I Summit League.
The school also won an NAIA national championship in 1970.
Denney said the farewell will include tours of the wrestling room, updated to show this year's achievements.
“It's open to the public,” Denney said of the event. “Anybody who wants to come can. We want the place packed.”
Maryville University, a school making the transition to Division II in athletics, has been identified as a possible destination for the disbanded University of Nebraska at Omaha wrestling program.
Whether a mass transfer of the program is possible, or just what level of interest Maryville would have, remains to be seen.
“All we can say is that for a while we’ve been looking at adding sports here, and wrestling has been one of the sports on the list,” said Marty Parkes, Maryville’s associate vice president for marketing and community relations. “That’s all we’re prepared to say.”
Maryville, in St. Louis, is completing its transition from the NAIA to NCAA Division II and is expected to be eligible to compete for national championships beginning this fall.
Rather than starting from scratch in wrestling, the school could potentially inherit many members of a program that won its third straight national championship last month. Just hours later, UNO announced that it was dropping wrestling and football as part of its move to Division I.
Coach Mike Denney and assistant Ron Higdon visited Maryville last week, and other wrestlers also have toured the campus. Three-time All-American Esai Dominguez is among a group that plans to visit this weekend.
Denney, who also has talked with Creighton, Bellevue University and Benedictine (Kan.) about moving the program, is cautious about where things stand with Maryville.
“We’ve progressed further with Maryville,” Denney said.
Creighton is a Division I program, while Bellevue and Benedictine are NAIA schools. Maryville would seem to be a pretty good fit.
“We’re just working on it,” Denney said. “They’re interested.
“But there’s a lot more to it than just saying we’re going to go down there. There’s so much involved.”
Title IX ramifications are a typical problem, though Maryville has no doubt considered adding women’s teams to stay in gender-equity balance.
The differences in tuition costs — Maryville is a private school — and the financial commitment from the school to the sport also would have to be weighed.
And many members of the program, particularly older students such as Dominguez, could potentially have to change majors.
The former UNO team would hope to start competing immediately.
Meanwhile, Maryville is looking for an athletic director.
“Our athletic director hire will not necessarily affect our decision to bring on a particular sport,” Parkes said.
Denney said his current emphasis is based more on Friday’s program sendoff at UNO’s Sapp Fieldhouse, where the intention is to celebrate the history of wrestling at the school.
Meanwhile, many of Denney’s wrestlers have begun taking visits to other schools, though none has officially decided to transfer.
“I’ve been telling our guys to expect a miracle, and that could happen in a lot of different ways — it could be that we all stay together, or it could be that they all get to a place that is really the best place for them,” Denney said.
“I feel kind of like the Pied Piper, but I’m not sure anyone is behind me. It’s hard for me to let go.”
Dominguez, who said he will probably visit Nebraska, which offers the same major and is obviously within the same system, makes it sound as if the Mavs will be behind their coach.
“Most of us are looking to stay together,” he said. “I think 98 percent of us will stay together.
“It sounds like they (Maryville) really want us down there.”
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