Several of us believe the time has arrived to start a Kansas College Wrestling Endowment fund. We all have an idea of how many wrestling programs have been lost over the last few decades. The recent announcement that perennial D-II wrestling powerhouse the University of Nebraska-Omaha (UNO) was planning to drop its wrestling team has sent shockwaves thru the entire national wrestling community. Who would have thought that an university whose team that had just won its third national title in a row could be considering dropping its program?

If this could happen to such a program we all know any college wrestling program is vulnerable. We have seen it happen all to often over the years. Everytime a program drops we lose more opportunity for our young wrestlers to continue their wrestling in college and for some of them their chance at a college education that will benefit them for the rest of their lives.

How do we combat this slow but steady erosion of college wrestling programs in our nation and for us especially in our own state of Kansas? Many of us believe that the wrestling community has to step up and financially support the current programs and to build an endowment fund that will give a level of current support to the Kansas college programs that are already in existence and to build the fund so it can also help fund future programs including a possible D-1 program at WSU, KSU or KU.

If this fund had started thirty years ago and it had been marketed well to the Kansas wrestling community and supported annually by the many wrestlers, parents, coaches, referees, fans and other interested parties of the Kansas wrestling community, we can all imagine how large this fund could be today and the level of support it could be providing to the current schools and who knows how many other programs could be in existence in Kansas today because of it.

I have been in contact with Mike Juby, Chairman of Board of Directors, USAW-KS and Sean McCarthy, former NCAA wrestler and STA club head coach, this week about the possibility of the USAW-KS organization being the adminstrator of this Kansas College Wrestling Endowment Fund. Mike Juby has expressed some interest in the USAW-KS becoming the adminstrator of such a fund. Mike has said that he would present it to the USAW-KS Board for approval for their organization to offer administrative support, their 501(c)(3) exemption for the purposes of accepting contributions to an endowment fund, management of investments, distributions of funds to the fund beneficiaries per the fund parameters, and reporting of results.

What Mike has asked of me is that we need parameters of the funds so the donors will know how, when and where the monies will be utilized and this will provide the blueprint for USAW Kansas to follow in managing the fund.

Mike has asked us to come up with a document on what the mission and function of the fund will be. Mike suggested that I also work with Sean McCarthy and any other interested parties in putting together a marketing plan to potential donors.

Once we present this plan to Mike Juby then he will present it to the Board of USAW-KS for approval. All that will need to be done before the fund could actually start accepting contributions.


So Do NOT Send Any Contributions to USAW-KS yet as this is not an official fund yet and needs USAW-KS Board approval first.

What we need from you now though is ideas on the plan that we need to come up with on the business plan of the fund with its mission statement, parameters of the fund for how the money will be used, marketing plan ideas, etc.

I will be meeting with Sean McCarthy (Smokeycabin on our forum) after Kids State to start this document if anyone would like to also join us in these planning meetings, please let us know.

Hopefully this will become a fund that will serve the Kansas wrestling community for decades to come. For it to become successful it is going to need the contined participation of all of us in the Kansas wrestling community. We will all need to support it with our contributions of money, talent and time for it to succeed.

We do not want to hear of an another announcement like UNO's last week for our Kansas colleges. We want to have more of our colleges announcing new programs like Bethany College made this year. Let's make our college wrestling colleges grow in Kansas!

You can send me private messages with ideas or interest in becoming part of the planning process. You could also post ideas on this topic.

Thank you.

You might consider a general fund that could extend funding for the first D1 school willing to create a program. Sub-funds for each of the D1 schools could also be created with a marketing effort that would create a competition between them might be a good idea too. Maybe publish an annual winner?

It would also be great to know what each university would require from a benefactor to be able to start a program so a goal could be set.

Thanks for working on this! Great Idea!

Trent Schell

Trent:

I appreciate the input. One of the goals of the fund would definitely be to have funds available one day that could be used to entice a Wichita State, Kansas State or Kansas University to start a Division I program. It would not be the sole or primary purpose of this fund. Another major goal would be to provide continual support for the Kansas colleges and universities that already have teams and to also be able to entice more Non D-1 universities and colleges in Kansas to start wrestling programs. These would be universities like Emporia State, Washburn, Pittsburg State, Johnson County Community College, Kansas City, Kansas Community College, Hutchinson Community College, Ottawa University, and Mid-American Nazarene to name a few. There are a lot more.

We need to become like Iowa with the number of colleges and universities that have teams. It is not just the D-1 teams in Iowa (University of Iowa, Iowa State and Northern Iowa) that have wrestling programs. There are a lot of smaller colleges in Iowa with teams. That in itself helps hold down expenses for the teams due to more economical travel and it also allows for some heated dual rivalries between these schools. The great result is that this creates a tremendous amount of opportunity for Iowa high school wrestlers to extend their wrestling careers beyound high school and it also gives many of them, who might not otherwise be able to attend college, the opportunity to attend college and prepare for a lifetime career in their field of study. I imagine many of these colleges and universities also have wrestling camps and other promotion type events that benefit the Iowa youth wrestlers.

I know that the D-1 appeal is a major goal for a lot of people. It is probably the first thing that motivates us to want to participate in making college wrestling grow in our State of Kansas. It is been a major goal for me too. It still is. I really want to see programs someday at Kansas, Kansas State and Wichita State. I do believe it should be a major goal of this fund. However, I do believe that we need to take care of the programs currently in existence and work to build new programs at all levels. The environment for adding a college wrestling program is a little different at some of the smaller schools and it actually works in our favor to get new programs added at those schools vs. a bigger university like our D-1 schools. That is why we have additions of programs at schools like Newman, Baker and now Bethany in recent years. Right now we have four 4 year universities with programs: Fort Hays State, Newman, Baker and Bethany. We have five junior college wrestling programs in Kansas at Labette (long time national power), Neosho, Pratt, Colby and NW Kansas Technical College. We need to make sure all these smaller Kansas colleges thrive and that maybe will entice the growth of more smaller programs and possibly eventually a D-1 school will take notice. Perhaps Baker University was influenced to add a program by seeing Newman University starting one. And perhaps the recent addition of the Baker program and it's early success helped influence Bethany College to announce that it was adding a wrestling program next year.

Trent, on your suggestion are you saying that we should have a general fund but also allow donors an option to designate a percentage all the way up to 100% to a college of their choice? Say as an example that the General Endowment Fund is set up to take donations and pay out on an annual basis 40% of the General Fund balance to the nine Kansas schools that have programs and reserve the rest for future expenditures for both the current schools and potential new programs including a potential D-1 programs. Are you suggesting it would be a good option to allow a donor to opt out of this general allocation and instead choose to designate their entire gift for future use for a new D-1 program at a specific school like Wichita State, Kansas State, or Kansas? I know that could probably be done although it would make administration and accounting for the Endowment Fund a little more difficult. Another question on that would be how long would you leave that designated money without ever using it if the particular university just will not add a new program? For example say you have a million built up in a fund designated for Kansas University but they still say no but Kansas State or Wichita State would say yes if that amount was available to them. I am just posing the question. I am not ruling out your suggestion. I prefer just a general option where a Board of directors of the fund would set up and vote on a general uniform policy of how funds are used, spent and accumulated for current and future programs. But I do know there are many in wrestling community whose sole purpose is to have a D-1 wrestling program started at WSU, KSU or KU. So I too thought about maybe an option should be given to the donor to designate a percentage for that purpose. I had not thought about designating a portion to a specific school and keeping separate funds for the individual schools within the General Fund.

It would be interesting to hear how others thoughts on this.

I know most of you are understandably focused on the upcoming State Championship tournament in Topeka this weekend. I wanted to make you aware though that our Kansas wrestling community received more good news this week that could someday have a positive effect on your young wrestlers future college plans. More future college wrestling opportunity was created this week for our young Kansas wrestlers. Another Kansas NAIA wrestling program is being started in Kansas with the announcement this week that Benedictine College of Atchison, Kansas is starting a college wrestling program for the 2012-2013 wrestling season. Benedictine College will first hire a coach whose main work will be recruiting during the next season 2011-2012. This is the second new NAIA college in Kansas to announce a new program this year as Bethany College a new program earlier in the year. This is great news for our Kansas wrestling community. It is especially important for the members of the Kansas wrestling community with young wrestlers like the ones who are wrestling this weekend in Topeka. Your young wrestlers will now have more opportunities to extend their wrestling and academic careers due to this growth of college wrestling programs in Kansas.

Remember though what is happening at UNO this month where the AD announced the intention to drop the very successful current 3 time defending NCAA D-II national championship wrestling program the day after it just won this year's national championship. Too many college wrestling programs have dropped over the last several decades including programs at the University of Kansas and KSU. It is good that Kansas is on a recent trend over the last few years of adding programs at Newman, Pratt, Baker, Northwest Kansas Technical College, Bethany and now Benedictine College. This is the way we want to go. However, as a wrestling community is very important that we support these programs. Wrestling is not a sport that gets a lot of extra financial support from interest generated by the general sports public like football and basketball. Consequently if we want these programs, the wrestling community itself needs to financially support the programs. If we all do our part we can make this happen. That is what this proposed Kansas College Wrestling Endowment fund is about. It is an investment in the future of our young wrestlers. For it to be a success it will need the active participation and support of the families of the youth wrestlers.

I really believe as a wrestling community if we actively commit to this proposed endowment fund and participate in it that the trend of growth in college wrestling will continue to grow and thrive at our state colleges and universities. And maybe someday a D-1 university in Kansas will take notice and also add a D-1 program at WSU, KSU or KU.

Good luck at State this weekend.

Well said Vince. So who's going to march in on Saturday with a "support Kansas college wrestling" sign! Don't know if it'll help but it's a start. Getting the kids and their parents started young, grass roots, has always been a good start. Politicians have been at the parade in past years.

Bronson,

You are right this weekend with the large attendance of the Kansas wrestling community from across the state would be a great venue to enthuse the Kansas wrestling community about this Kansas College Wrestling Endowment Fund and it would not hurt for the politicians to see that enthusiam for college wrestling in Kansas from so many voters in one place.

It is a little too late to get that to happen this weekend. And probably premature on the Endowment fund since it will still need to be approved by the USAW-KS Board. It would be great though if next year a new Board approved Kansas College Endowment fund could be briefly talked about at the start of this event.

About the most I could see happening this weekend pertaining to this would be if someone at the start would announce the exciting news that two colleges have announced this year new college wrestling programs starting up (Bethany and Benedictine). Also I think it would be good if at a grass roots level in the auditorium if some of you in attendance would start to talk amongst each other about this proposed new Kansas College Endowment fund and the new college programs that have started in recent years and the two new ones announced this year.

I'm wondering what the backlash would be if a club announced that they were going to donate $1 per entry fee to a fund like this.
Do you think people would support it or complain about paying and extra $1 per entry fee?

I think that is a potential good fundraising idea for a club. I think the Endowment Fund is going to need fundraising activity from the clubs and high schools to be successful in the long run.

As far as the potential backlash of this from meet participants I can only speak for myself. My son started wrestling in the first grade and he is now a sophomore in college at Baker University. Personally I would not have had a problem with that. I was aware early in his participation that college wrestling programs were dropping and that could someday hurt his chances to wrestle in college. So personally I bought into the need to support college wrestling in some way early in my son's participation in wrestling. I would have added some money to our entry fee for any tournament that had say a voluntary option to add a contribution to our tournament entry fee to support the fund on the entry blank. Perhaps that would be a way for a tournament to contribute to the Endowment fund thru their tournament. It seems to me if we can educate everyone of the need and the good the fund can do for our future generations of wrestlers that people would not mind if some percentage of their entry fee was donated to this fund. It would be interesting to hear other feedback on that question.

Hi Vince,
Sorry it has been a few days since I have been on.

Yes, my suggestion would be to have a general fund but then have separate funds that cater to the desires of the donor. The accounting would be a little more challenging but not too bad and you may be able to get people interested that would not be otherwise. Sub-funds might include KU, KSU, WSU and other school specific funds, KS kids wrestling in KS scholarships, Facilities, etc.

I think a donor could choose to fund any of these options or place it in the general fund if they wish. You had also asked what amount of time that the money could be left in the account before it is given to a different school. Do we need a time table on it? These schools have not had wrestling in the past 30 years and if it takes us 30 more years to save up funds so that they can all have a wrestling program then so be it. If that is a goal of this fund then we may as well start saving for it now. When the money gets to be substantial enough, I think the schools will take action.

This is a great project and hopefully some others will see the benefit and add in their .02.

Trent

Trent:

I appreciate your reply. That was a very good post and suggestion.

A small group of us who are going to work on a business plan for this proposed Kansas College Wrestling Endowment Fund have our first meeting scheduled for next Tuesday night 4-5-2011 a week from today.

I will put forth your suggestion at this meeting. I will also put forth BLT and Paratroop's suggestions and anyone else who wants to contribute any ideas for the mission statement, paramenters of the fund and marketing ideas for the fund.

Any input before next week will be appreciated. Thank you.

Vince,

I recommend you get with Eric Hinckley. He did a lot of work on this about 4-5 years ago. He may have some insights and data that you can use. PM and I will send you his contact info.

Shawn Budke

Great idea, Shawn. I agree. I sent you a PM on it.

BLT-
You certainly read my mind to add a $1.00 additional charge in entry fee in tournament fees//or add $5.00 on top of the USAW-KS card fee.

Perhaps adding $5.00 for each sub/dist/state fee could bring in even more funds.

It appears that the smaller KS Colleges & Universities are where the funds will be allocated. I don't foresee we have the opportunity of Pennsylvania wrestling with > 15 D1 wrestling schools----but Kansas has begun to recognize that $$ is a need indeed.

Thanks for your suggestions, BLT and in it to win it.

Our first planning meeting is tomorrow night. I am including your suggestions along with the others in this topic in the discussion for tomorrow night.

I live in the Andover area but would like to get in involved in helping with your plans to raise funds for wrestling endowment. I have experience in raising money for conservation, unrelated but live outside Wichita and have connections to WSU and BCCC. When the time is right I could get ahold of Eric Sexton AD or whoever you need and get the numbers needed to get the ball headed in right direction. Also I thought instead of tacking onto tourney fees maybe one idea would be to start with events. Have a tournament specfically for the raising funds for endowment? Local Alumni of universities that have the means to donate to programs ect. Also Butler County Community College looked at bringing in wrestling not long ago located in Eldorado. Just some ideas shoot'em or keep'em.


Jamie Davis
Andover, Ks


It is not how you start, but how you finish that is important!

Jamie:

Good idea on a specific tournament designed for benefiting the Endowment Fund. We are in the very early stages of working on one for the Kansas City area.

Ultimately it would be an optional decision of a tournament organizer whether they wanted to add on to entry fees. However, they could make a decision not to raise their fee but to keep their fee consistent with previous years for example $15, but decide to donate $1 of that $15 to the fund, so basically taking a $1 an entry out of tournament profits.

I like the idea of having an optional line for each entrant so that they could voluntarily add on to their tournament fee if they choose to. So if the regular tournament fee is $15 they might decide to add $5 to it for the Fund and send in a total of $20 instead of $15 for the tournament. I think another thing that could be done at future local tournaments would be for the tournament site to allow an informational table that would be staffed with individuals who are dedicated to marketing and fundraising for the Endowment. They could provide educational material on the Fund and possibly hand out envelopes to people who might want to send in a donation.

We appreciate your offer to help on the fund raising plans. If this Kansas College Endowment Fund is approved by the USAW-KS it will need grass roots community efforts and leaders to make it successful. Of course the Wichita area would be crucial for the long term success of the Fund. Perhaps you will be able to work with some others in the Wichita area to lead that effort in the near future. I will keep you advised and talk to you about your potential role in this soon.

Having a takedown tournament on a Friday night before a kids tournament where the proceeds go this fund is my next suggestion.
I know the schedule is already jammed packed so maybe something on a Friday night. Find a club where everything is already set up and maybe get some refs that might be willing to donate some time. Get a few clubs in the area willing to donate some table workers.
Couple hundred kids should raise a few thousand dollars after medal expenses.
Maybe charge everyone $2 to get in (it is for charity), there another $500 to $800.
Let the club run a concession stand for their time.
Do a few of these through out the year is $10k
Plus its good mat time!
But this would take a lot of people to step up and be very selfless!

BLT, Another very good idea. I think these type of ideas. the local effort and spirit that it would involve to implement these ideas are exactly what would be needed to make this Fund work. You are right about the type of effort that would be required from a lot of people. I think it will have to be local, state wide and persistent.

Thank you for another very good suggestion.

Thanks Vince!
AFTER this program got in place I would hope that we/you would ask/require programs that recieved help from this fund maybe try to give back via camps or personal appearances. Let the people see where their money is going. I think a few more camps in Kansas would be a great thing especially if some of that money stays right here to help this fund.

Few more fund raising ideas are "I Support Kansas Wrestling" wristbands or tee shirts. Advertise here, send fliers to clubs, maybe set up at a few tournaments.
The wristband thing is big right now and its only a few bucks each so it lets everyone who wants to help do so! Plus its a great way to advertise the cause.

We also have the Senior Classic, why not have an Under Classmen Classic... the future champions in Kansas! Try to invite college scouts to showcase our talent and the proceeds go to the fund.
or
A duel format..
Freshmen vs Sophmores vs Juniors
Proceeds go to the fund

Not sure when these could take place but where theres a will theres a way.

I really want to see this happen. I hope everyone dont mind my random thoughts and ideas! lol

If every wrestling club (200 plus), every high school wrestling team (200-300), and the colleges were to get at least 1 business to donate $250 (bronze level, $500 (silver level) and over $500 (gold level). Each College could try to get 5 to 10 businesses. This would be a true grass roots effort in developing this fund. $1 entry fee at every event held in Kansas in kids, high school, and college events, spring and summer wrestling. Some areas of the state are going to have more success raising business funds.
Statewide there are 75,000 private sector businesses - Sedgwick county accounts for 12,000 businesses and Johnson County accounts for 15,000 businesses. So over 1/3 of the states businesses are in 2 counties. This does not include business owners who live in the state and have kids wrestling in the state - but own businesses outside of the state. A draft proposal is being put together. It is going to take a joint effort - with the ultimate goal of giving more kids in Kansas an opportuity to get a college education in state.