http://www.hswrestling.net/2011/03/13/trev-alberts-uno-athletic-directors-epic-failure/

The phone and email for Trev was published in the above article
Phone: 402-554-2305 Email: trevalberts@unomaha.edu

Anybody wanna make bets on how long it takes for him to change his number after all the calls he will receive from pissed off supporters?

I already sent a very stern email to him! He is a coward and should not be in charge of running the rec program at the YMCA well enough a great Division II program like UNO athletics!

If this does fall through, will this be a Dana college like exodus? Where may they end up?

That phone number is for the UNO athletic office, I left a msg for them, also emailed him.

I attended this weekends Division 2 National Championships in Kearney, NE. and it was sad to see them work so hard to win the title again (6 out of the last 8 years)this weekend only to be told the program was being dropped within minutes of the last match being over. Their is never a good time to break the news but you have to be one "cruel SOxxxxB" to do it by phone and this way.This AD needs to be fired!!!!!! On a brighter side, Congrats to Mitchell Means from Goddard (Fort Hays State)on a 4th place finish as a Freshman.

Trev Alberts doesn't care a hoot about wrestling. Two things you can do to help:

1. Contact the Regents - they are the ones with the vote. See info below.

2. Join our Facebook group - UNO Maverick Wrestling. This is where we will be posting all current info and ways you can help.

Here are the Board of Regents and their emails. They are public officials and all this is listed under the Board of Regents website.

Timothy Clare-District 1
tclare@nebraska.edu

Howard Hawks-District 2
hhawks@nebraska.edu

Chuck Hassebrook-District 3
chassebrook@nebraska.edu

Bob Whitehouse-District 4
bwhitehouse@nebraska.edu

Randolph Ferlic-District 8
rferlic@nebraska.edu

Jim McClurg-District 5
jmcclurg@nebraska.edu

Kent Schroeder-District 6
kschroeder@nebraska.edu

Bob Phares-District 7
bphares@nebraska.edu

Good question. Hasn't coach Denney coached several of the other college coaches there in Nebraska? I am thinking Manning and Bauer of UNK both come to mind. Maybe another DII will just spring up and add wrestling in the area ala Midland with NAIA swooping up the Dana kids, and then finishing a great year with 3 national finalists and a top 10 showing! I could also see kids maybe going to NAIA Bethany College which just added wrestling and is going to be coached by Jacob Marrs a former UNO standout. But first thing is first, nothing is official yet in UNO being totally done, I believe a team in California dropped wrestling and was saved late in the game. A decision should come fast though to ensure adequate assurance of recruitment/retention of new and current student athletes.

Here is my big question...How much revenue does the city of Omaha make the week of the Kaufmann Brand Open which is billed as the largest open tournament in the Nation? Say 30 teams bring 30 guys...then each team puts 4 in a room for hotels and say a hotel runs $80 a night, that is $18,000 alone brought in because a wrestling tournament is in town! Say 1/3rd of the 900 wrestlers have someone get a room to spend the night before or after a long day of wrestling (300 x $80)= $24,000. Combined between athletes and spectators you are at $42,000 just for lodging. Now lets say just 2 meals are eaten over the weekend by the 900 wrestlers, 100 coaches, 300 fans and a meal is $8 a piece. 2 meals at $16 x 1300= $20,800 alone for that! I would get area merchants to come and fight for the team!

I have sent and email to each of the Regents and every friend I have in Nebraska.

To hell with Trev Alberts, don't waste your time. Use your time wisely folks, the regents and the chancellor.

I urge each of you to take the time to at least send an email to these folks. Just make it a short email about why they should consider keeping this program. I just wrote a few sentences but included in there that I had told my wife, "this is a program where young men come out better than they went in".

Regents: tclare@nebraska.edu; hhawks@nebraska.edu; chassebrook@nebraska.edu; bwhitehouse@nebraska.edu; jmcclurg@nebraska.edu; kschroeder@nebraska.edu; bphares@nebraska.edu; rferlic@nebraska.edu; unkregent@unk.edu; unlregent@unl.edu; unmcregent@unmc.edu; unoregent@mail.unomaha.edu; johnchristensen@unomaha.edu

Chancellor: Call and email here-
Office Telephone: 402.554.2311
Fax: 402.554.3555
E-Mail: johnchristensen@unomaha.edu

Mr Alberts,

I have become very familiar with UNO wrestling over the last few years because some of the kids I coach in wrestling have made there way to Omaha to wrestle. This is one of the top wrestling programs in the nation in any division and what is happening is a totally absurd. The program has not had their budget increased for many years. They self fund a lot of their activities thru fundraising and donor sponsors. What other programs have the dedication to do the same thing? Your Head Coach and Staff are outstanding role models as well as coaches and you are taking away from the athletes who are there to get an education and wrestle. This is a miserable leadership decision on the President and yourself to allow this to happen to Wrestling as well as football. If other schools have joined this same conference and kept wrestling and football then why can’t UNO.

We as wrestling coaches teach these young men to be good role models as well as athletes and to become successful members of the communities they reside in. By allowing this to happen and not having enough courage to stand up for these young men and coaches shows me and a lot of others that you should have been coached by us or Coach Denney and this may not have happened. Soccer and Golf ...really.... these are worthwhile programs to replace successful ones.
If the message was given to the team after they had won their National Championships and at the timing it had actually happened, then you should be ashamed of yourself and the instituition you represent.

I hope the Omaha Community supports the young athletes and coaches and helps keep this from happening.

This is a copy of the letter I sent to Mr Alberts and I also sent one similar to the regents.

http://www.omaha.com/article/20110314/NEWS01/703149908&frompost=1

Here is an Omaha article that has a comments option. Support the fight everywhere you can.

Apparently they are getting a few emails, as this was the response I got from one of the regents.

I will be out of the office starting 03/13/2011 and will not return until
03/17/2011.

Due to the large volume of emails I am unable to respond at to each
correspondence individually. I do thank you for your concern and interest
in UNO Athletics and for sharing your thoughts with me.
Respectfully,
Bob Whitehouse
University Regent

same response I got

I wish this forum had a "like" button as Facebook does, because I love a lot of your responses and actions.

Rumor has it that not all 8 of the Regents are committed to voting for this crazy idea. Please keep emailing them respectfully and we may be able to influence their vote even if we receive canned responses.

Posted this in the high school forum, but thought it was fitting topost it here as well.

If anyone has not listened to DB Alberts (I mean AD Alberts, no DB is correct I guess) in the press conference and on the podcasts from 1620 (an Omaha sports radio station) definitely check it out. You can google Omaha 1620 and it comes right up. The podcast with DB Alberts is on March 14th. His rationale is ridiculous. I liked Flo's letter, but I wrote my own and sent it to the regents as well. After listening to AD/DB I had to point out how stupid he sounded. If anyone else wants to copy the e-mail and send it to the regents you have my permission. If anyone wants to repost it on Flo or on any other forum you also have my permission. Keep contacting the regents!

_________________________________________________________________

Subject: UNO Wrestling Program- Thank you for reading!

To: Nebraska Board of Regents
From:
RE: UNO Wrestling

Nebraska Board of Regents,

I am writing to express my dismay that UNO is planning to move to the Division 1 level and leave behind it’s most decorated and successful program. I am an avid wrestling fan, and follow UNO wrestling as it is one of the closest (and most successful) collegiate programs in the area. Even though I am from Kansas, I consider UNO to be “my” program as there have been numerous Kansas high school wrestlers who have achieved great success at UNO.

I understand the need for growth and change in UNO’s current athletic program, and I am aware that many difficult decisions needed to be made to best make this move. I however do not understand the rationale for eliminating your most successful sport. I empathize with the football team, but understand the budgetary and Title IX need to eliminate this largest and most expensive male sport, but eliminating the wrestling program while also starting a men’s golf and men’s soccer program is nonsensical.

In listening to AD Trev Alberts defend this position at both the press conference and also on radio 1620 in Omaha, I have become more convinced that this is a poorly contrived solution. The initial reason given for the elimination of programs was strictly financial. AD Alberts has since backpedaled from this explanation in regards to the wrestling program. The wrestling program’s operating budget has not risen in the last 30 years, and with the exception of the coaches salaries costs UNO’s athletic department very little in comparison to other sports. The UNO wrestling team fund raises over one-hundred thousand dollars annually to fund its travel and competitions. The vast majority of the materials (mats, equipment, uniforms, etc. ) are already purchased and will only require regular upgrades as opposed to purchasing an entire new uniform set for the newly established programs. In addition wrestling is a very inexpensive sport to sponsor because it is an indoor sport which will require no practice fields or competition fields. Soccer will certainly incur this additional cost and I would assume the golf team would be required to purchase tee times from the local golf courses to practice which will be a recurring, yearly cost. AD Alberts also discussed that the wrestling team cost the university a total of $450,000 per year- but this cost also included grants and academic scholarships that the wrestling team received in addition to the operational costs. Does AD Alberts not expect the golf or soccer team members to receive grants or academic scholarships? Why is this money being counted as an expense for the wrestling team when in fact it is an expense for UNO students- who just happen to be athletes on the wrestling team.

During AD Alberts interview on radio 1620 March 14th (which are available via podcast), his rationale became even more convoluted. He backed away from the budgetary rationale, but stood by his decision to remove the sport of wrestling. Basically, his rationale went as follows:
1. The Sport of Wrestling has been very successful at the D-II level. (No arguments here).
2. To compete at the same high level in D-I would require an increase in budget.
a. Based on the budgets of some of the D-1 programs in the area.
3. If no budget increase was allowed, the UNO wrestling program would be a mediocre D-1 program at best.
a. Based on D-1 wrestling programs with similar budgets as UNO’s current budget.
AD Alberts’ Conclusion:
4. Since UNO Wrestling MAY NOT be able to compete at the highest level, the program should be eliminated in favor of starting a golf program and soccer program to better fit in the new conference.

There are so many flaws with this line of reasoning that it is hard to decide where to begin, but here goes.

1. The wrestling programs AD Albert’s was comparing to are in no way near as successful as UNO’s. Winning 6 of 8 D-II championships is surely a sign that they are ready to compete at the highest level. UNO has had wrestlers compete very well against the best D-I talent, having several Midlands champions in addition to a US World Team member.
2. By AD Alberts’ own admission on the radio, the golf and soccer programs will not be fully funded. Essentially the plan is simply to offer some additional sports to fit in to the new conference and to provide opportunities for area high school students to compete at the D-I level, but he stated they would not be funded in such a way to allow them to compete for championships- conference or national. Basically these sports would be club sports that offer scholarships, but the school will not commit to competing for championships.

My question is why eliminate what makes UNO unique and is a major part of its identity nationally in favor of starting programs the athletic director and department do not intend to make competitive. Why not allow the UNO Wrestling program to compete at the D-I level and see if they can in fact achieve success, when the two new sports are not even expected by the AD to compete for championships in the conference let alone nationally. As AD Alberts’ indicated in his press conference- Omaha supports excellence. You can find no higher achieving collegiate program in Omaha than the UNO wrestling program. I hope that you, the board of regents see fit to continue to support this excellence.

Thank you for the time spent reading this e-mail.

Sincerely,

I've emailed that piece of crap Trev Alberts 3 times and he doesn't even have enough class to send me back a BS form letter response. I even called him out for not responding in my last email and still. . . no response.

He was probably in St Louis watching his beloved UNO hockey team lose in their Regional. We heard the Chancellor caught a plane immediately after the Regents Meeting.

Not sure if it has been posted here on the Kansas Forum, but when the team & boosters arrived back at UNO after the meeting in Lincoln, their wrestling room and locker room locks were changed. They seem to know nothing about the character of Coach Denney and the wrestlers who respect him.

In another low class move, UNO auctioned off wrestling team memorabilia last night to raise money for the athletic department that just kicked them to the curb! I keep wondering how low Trev will go, but his insensitivity knows no bounds.

http://www.omaha.com/article/20110331/MAVS/304019982