UPDATED: Wayland Baptist in Texas adds men's and women's varsity wrestling teams
Rhane Jeffress Wayland Baptist Univ.
10/13/2009

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Wayland Baptist University's athletic website

2000 Olympic champion and USA Wrestling Assistant National Freestyle Coach Brandon Slay spoke at the press conference announcing the first Texas college to sponsor varsity wrestling in 26 years. Photo courtesy of Wayland Baptist University

Plainview, Texas (October 13, 2009) – Wayland Baptist University will add men’s and women’s wrestling as intercollegiate sports, Athletic Director Dr. Greg Feris officially announced at a press conference today.

“Intercollegiate wrestling is a win-win situation for the university. It will generate additional students while providing an additional competitive sport for the university community,” said Ferris.

The WBU wrestling program will compete in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) beginning with the 2010-11 school year. Thirty-seven NAIA schools currently sponsor wrestling for men, ten for women.

There are currently no intercollegiate wrestling programs in the state of Texas, despite recent statistics that show an excess of 245 high school boys’ wrestling teams and 198 girls’ teams in the state. In the Texas Panhandle area, there are approximately 375 boys and more than 125 girls participating in the sport. The boy’s team from Randall High School and the girl’s team from Caprock High have recently won state championships.

Search for a new coach will begin right away. Feris says he hopes to have someone in place sometime after the first of the new year.

A standing-room only crowd attended the announcement, including numerous media, plus local wrestling athletes and coaches. Among those who spoke at the press conference were:

* Olympic gold medalist and USA Wrestling Assistant National Freestyle Coach Brandon Slay

* Olympic gold medalist, World champion and retired Univ. of Iowa coach Dan Gable

* Dr. Claude Lusk, WBU Vice President of Enrollment Management

* Mike Moyer, Executive Director of the National Wrestling Coaches Association

Slay was a graduate of Amarillo’s Tascosa High School (TX), a two-time NCAA runner-up for the Univ. of Pennsylvania and won the gold medal in freestyle wrestling at the 2000 Summer Olympic Games in Sydney.

"I was extremely honored they asked me to be part of the press conference," said Slay. "As a wrestler born and raised in the Lone Star State, to have the first varsity wrestling program in a quarter century in Texas, I was ecstatic. It was something everybody in Texas wrestling has talked about for so long. Now we can say we have a college team at Wayland Baptist University, who are the pioneers for the sport."

Slay hopes to see other Texas colleges following the lead set by Wayland Baptist.

"Now that Wayland Baptist started wrestling in the Texas panhandle, we hope more schools will start wrestling," said Slay. "It would be great if West Texas A&M, a Div. II school in Canyon, would also add wrestling. Our dream would be to add colleges on the Div. II and Div. I level here. Wrestling programs at Texas Tech, Texas A&M, Texas, that would be our dream."

Gable, who did not give up a single point on his way to the gold at the 1972 games in Munich, won two individual NCAA titles as a student-athlete at Iowa State University and 15 NCAA team titles as head coach at the University of Iowa.

“The sport is growing and is very popular in many regions of the country,” added Feris. “Wayland is fortunate to be located in an area where several communities have embraced the sport at the high school level. I think we are going to fill a void in the area for fans of the sport. In addition, we are excited to be able to offer these young student-athletes a new opportunity to continue to participate in a sport that they love while at the same time obtaining an outstanding education in a Christian environment.”

The new WBU two teams will practice in the James P. and Nelda Laney Student Activities Center. Dual or tournament events will be held in Hutcherson Center. The addition of the wrestling programs brings Wayland’s athletic offering to a total of 14.

Click here for additional information on college wrestling in Texas, and women's college wrestling in the USA