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YSU Penguin Athletics => YSU Penguin Athletics => Topic started by: IAA Fan on February 25, 2019, 02:07:01 PM
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Youngstown State will add a men's swimming and diving program as well as a women's lacrosse team in the near future, Executive Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Ron Strollo announced on Monday.
Men's swimming and diving will become the 20th Division I sport currently offered by the YSU Athletic Department when it begins competition this fall. YSU previously competed in men's swimming and diving from 1964 through 1984 and 1949-51. Women's lacrosse is scheduled to debut in the spring of 2021.
"We're excited about this new opportunity to recruit high school students from Ohio, the region and internationally to pursue their academic and athletic goals at Youngstown State in both sports," Strollo said. "Our swimming facility is one of the best in the area and we look forward to showcasing it with both our men's and women's programs. The growth of women's lacrosse in Ohio and throughout the Midwest has seen an increased number of schools sponsor the sport and we are thrilled to add it at Youngstown State."
The lacrosse program will utilize Farmers National Bank Field at the Covelli Sports Complex during their spring season. The men's swimming and diving program will compete at the newly-renovated Beeghly Natatorium.
Both sports have comparative roster sizes. The men's swimming and diving team will offer a chance for 20-25 to be part of Youngstown State's enrollment this fall. The women's lacrosse program will have a roster size of approximately 25 and will begin to offer opportunities to attend YSU starting in the fall of 2020.
YSU will be the seventh Horizon League program to sponsor men's swimming, joining Cleveland State, Milwaukee, Green Bay, IUPUI, Oakland and UIC. Of the seven schools who currently sponsor women's swimming, Youngstown State is only one that does not have a men's swimming program. YSU will join Detroit Mercy as schools in the Horizon League who will participate in women's lacrosse.
Questions about the men's swimming and diving program should be directed to Assistant Director of Athletics Rebecca Fink at rjfink01@ysu.edu
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This is huge. Now the Akron game possibly makes a bit more sense. Hard to say because we already have the facilities for both.
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No wrestling? The state of Ohio has become one of the top states in the country for high school wrestling. We are missing out on a sport that people would pay to go see.
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There has been no official comment, by the HL, that the conference is adding LaCrosse. Akron and CSU have both recently added LaCrosse. I know that the MAAC is looking for Lacrosse members and 2 HL teams are already in the conference for Lacrosse (CSU and UDM). The MAC has several teams that play LaCrosse. What does everyone think? Don't let the "A's" confuse you. MAAC=Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. MAC=Mid-American Conference.
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I'm not sure I understand, are you saying it could go either way? As in YSU may join EITHER the MAC or MAAC?
And that was why scheduling Akron may make sense?
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No wrestling? The state of Ohio has become one of the top states in the country for high school wrestling. We are missing out on a sport that people would pay to go see.
Bingo. They used to have a wrestling program. Not sure what year that ended ?
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Would rather have wrestling or mens soccer. Swimming is a loser.
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Would rather have wrestling or mens soccer. Swimming is a loser.
Wrestling is like ice hockey. Those that are into it are REALLY into it, but to the rest of us -0-. Other than football, basketball (2) nothing is going to be a home run, but soccer is the coming sport and we need to be in soccer going forward.
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Would rather have wrestling or mens soccer. Swimming is a loser.
Wrestling is like ice hockey. Those that are into it are REALLY into it, but to the rest of us -0-. Other than football, basketball (2) nothing is going to be a home run, but soccer is the coming sport and we need to be in soccer going forward.
Have you been to a high school wrestling match around here? It outdraws basketball games at most schools and the talent locally is superior to that of swimming and soccer. I'm sorry, but I don't think people are going to line up to spend money to go to a soccer game over a wrestling match. Wrestling matches at Beeghly would do very well with paid attendance with the cult-like following that wrestling has around here. You want to talk an up and coming sport around here its wrestling.
I'd gladly pay 20 dollars to not have to sit through a soccer game/match.
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but at the end of the day, when you are at the mercy of someone like Rick Love to market a sport/event your screwed.
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Would rather have wrestling or mens soccer. Swimming is a loser.
Wrestling is like ice hockey. Those that are into it are REALLY into it, but to the rest of us -0-. Other than football, basketball (2) nothing is going to be a home run, but soccer is the coming sport and we need to be in soccer going forward.
Have you been to a high school wrestling match around here? It outdraws basketball games at most schools and the talent locally is superior to that of swimming and soccer. I'm sorry, but I don't think people are going to line up to spend money to go to a soccer game over a wrestling match. Wrestling matches at Beeghly would do very well with paid attendance with the cult-like following that wrestling has around here. You want to talk an up and coming sport around here its wrestling.
I'd gladly pay 20 dollars to not have to sit through a soccer game/match.
As I said, those into wrestling are REALLY into wrestling. That makes a couple hundred fans, Great, will outdraw bowling and track. Big deal. UP and coming sport? You can't possible be serious?
You have athletics to promote the school and more kids MILLIONS more kids are playing soccer than wrestling. I don't care about you (or me) I care about my grandkids and THEY are interested in soccer.
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I was watching Spectrum Sports and they had a Women's LaCrosse game between Ashland and NDC. The announcer mentioned that there will be 6 new DI (in Women's LaCrosse) Universities, in Ohio, by the end of spring 2020. Ashland will be DI in the sport. YSU is one of those and that would explain our move; an Ohio-based conference. I was thinking we would be adding the sport to meet the guidelines of another all-sports conference ...but it does not look that way.
I too watch OSN and Spectrum sports wrestling. It is nice to watch that instead of pro wrestling. However I was at OSU on multiple occasions for the men's conference finals. They had a great deal with a free ticket to the OSU hockey game on the same day. Both for $10. Yes, there was a solid crowd at the wresting meet (probably a couple of thousand, or more); but let's not lose track of the fact that just about every team in the Big-10 was represented here. I cannot say the crowds would be that large for a dual meet, so it probably would not justify the expense at YSU. LaCrosse is a huge sport in the US ...but you would have a valid point that probably not in NEO ...more attention in NE, West Coast and down South. Big in the Parochial universities as well. Exciting to watch and gets coverage on ESPN. Swimming will be like track (at best). If we happen to land a local stud diver that is.
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I look at YSU as a local university that supports local programs - especially in the olympic and non revenue sports. Please, someone tell me how many men's swimming and women's lacrosse teams there are in the Northeast Ohio area? There are not enough student athletes in those sports to locally support those programs. Wrestling on the other hand is supported by numerous schools in the area with some of the best wrestling in Ohio - besides the Catholic Cleveland schools. Who from this area is going to go support women's lacrosse? Men's swimming? Someone please send me a pic of the crowd at the first home women's lacrosse game and men's swimming meet. If YSU had a wrestling program, I can guarantee it would be supported by local wrestling programs - from youth to high school. Canfield, Austintown, Boardman, Girard, West Branch, Beaver Local, etc...all have top notch wrestling programs. That does not include the rest of the EOWL (Eastern Ohio Wrestling League) that goes from Ashtabula to Lousiville to Wellsville. Those schools alone could supply enough wrestlers to have a program. Title IX has destroyed wrestling programs throughout the country. It has increased women's programs, no doubt, but at the expense of wrestling. Another big mistake by the YSU athletic department that is out of touch with the local area athletes.
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No wrestling? The state of Ohio has become one of the top states in the country for high school wrestling. We are missing out on a sport that people would pay to go see.
Bingo. They used to have a wrestling program. Not sure what year that ended ?
It ended in 1984 - Tressel was AD and Title IX was the issue. Plain and simple.
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Stick,
A few questions for you. Which universities in Ohio still have wrestling? How about western Pennsylvania? Are those wrestling programs in some kind of conference?
I agree that choosing to add swimming over wrestling is ridiculous. Perhaps the only justification is that swimming would have a ready-made home in the Horizon League while travel costs for wrestling would be prohibitive.
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Lacrosse has over 200 teams in Ohio and it is growing as a sport. So I can see why we added it.
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Can we just be thankful YSU is adding sports while many schools are eliminating sports. Lacrosse is a growing sports in Ohio and throughout the Midwest while being entrenched on the east coast. There is a wealth of excellent high school players looking to continue playing in college.
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Wrestling at YSU would do well and draw crowds. The majority of schools in Ohio are playing club level lacrosse at best. Wresting here could be a legit D1 sport.
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Wrestling at YSU would do well and draw crowds. The majority of schools in Ohio are playing club level lacrosse at best. Wresting here could be a legit D1 sport.
Oh nova, you have committed a grave sin here. You have ignored the key issues with college sports, MEN'S wrestling, vs WOMEN'S Lacrosse. Why do you think we have a women's bowling team? Because it draws crowds or because it helps balance Title IX? My advise? Keep your eye on the important issue, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS!
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Wrestling at YSU would do well and draw crowds. The majority of schools in Ohio are playing club level lacrosse at best. Wresting here could be a legit D1 sport.
That's completely wrong. Lacrosse is pretty big in Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati. Of course not in Youngstown where everything is 30 years behind the times.
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Wrestling at YSU would do well and draw crowds. The majority of schools in Ohio are playing club level lacrosse at best. Wresting here could be a legit D1 sport.
That's completely wrong. Lacrosse is pretty big in Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati. Of course not in Youngstown where everything is 30 years behind the times.
Let me see, where is YOUNGSTOWN State University located? Cleveland? NO Columbus? NO Cincinnati? NO. Let me look it up.......By God, it's located in YOUNGSTOWN! Amazing. Maybe we should have a water polo team, I hear it's really big in Southern California! WOMEN'S lacrosse is all about Title IX with a minimum of expense. We have a field, we need minimal new equipment, a coach and we can suit up 20 WOMEN for a NCAA sport. We have women's NCAA bowling, a sport even Ohio State doesn't compete in because you use publicly available bowling alleys. OSU has WOMEN'S archery to get the head count up, which is more expensive for the university than bowling. This is ALL NCAA Title IX gamesmanship.
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It’s not POLITICAL CORRECTNESS! It’s the law!
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Lacrosse was a smart move it’s a legitimate growing sport. As for why we added it Due to government or NCAA requirements are not true. Aren’t we already at the mandated requirements? I think adding a sport is a good thing.
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Wrestling at YSU would do well and draw crowds. The majority of schools in Ohio are playing club level lacrosse at best. Wresting here could be a legit D1 sport.
That's completely wrong. Lacrosse is pretty big in Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati. Of course not in Youngstown where everything is 30 years behind the times.
Let me see, where is YOUNGSTOWN State University located? Cleveland? NO Columbus? NO Cincinnati? NO. Let me look it up.......By God, it's located in YOUNGSTOWN! Amazing. Maybe we should have a water polo team, I hear it's really big in Southern California! WOMEN'S lacrosse is all about Title IX with a minimum of expense. We have a field, we need minimal new equipment, a coach and we can suit up 20 WOMEN for a NCAA sport. We have women's NCAA bowling, a sport even Ohio State doesn't compete in because you use publicly available bowling alleys. OSU has WOMEN'S archery to get the head count up, which is more expensive for the university than bowling. This is ALL NCAA Title IX gamesmanship.
This is why Youngstown is a sh*thole and going to get worse.
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Wrestling at YSU would do well and draw crowds. The majority of schools in Ohio are playing club level lacrosse at best. Wresting here could be a legit D1 sport.
That's completely wrong. Lacrosse is pretty big in Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati. Of course not in Youngstown where everything is 30 years behind the times.
Let me see, where is YOUNGSTOWN State University located? Cleveland? NO Columbus? NO Cincinnati? NO. Let me look it up.......By God, it's located in YOUNGSTOWN! Amazing. Maybe we should have a water polo team, I hear it's really big in Southern California! WOMEN'S lacrosse is all about Title IX with a minimum of expense. We have a field, we need minimal new equipment, a coach and we can suit up 20 WOMEN for a NCAA sport. We have women's NCAA bowling, a sport even Ohio State doesn't compete in because you use publicly available bowling alleys. OSU has WOMEN'S archery to get the head count up, which is more expensive for the university than bowling. This is ALL NCAA Title IX gamesmanship.
This is why Youngstown is a sh*thole and going to get worse.
Let me get this straight. Youngstown is a sh**hole because we don't love women's lacrosse as much as wrestling? Seriously?
Perhaps you should consider changing your username? Personally if I though Youngstown was a sh**hole, I wouldn't want ytown in my username!
Youngstown certainly has it's "issues" and I'll not document any of them here, we all know several. However, we have historically been pretty good supporters of sporting events we enjoy. If we don't enjoy lacrosse, then so be it, but it is NOT a blackmark on the entire community of ytown. Rather your slam of "sh**hole" is a slam against the whole community and by definition all of us her and frankly I don't appreciate you description.
I was raised by a loving family here, got a great education here, raised a great family of my own here, have had a pretty successful life here, and will always call the valley "home". If you think of it as a sh**hole, then perhaps a place is what YOU make of it!
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Stick,
A few questions for you. Which universities in Ohio still have wrestling? How about western Pennsylvania? Are those wrestling programs in some kind of conference?
I agree that choosing to add swimming over wrestling is ridiculous. Perhaps the only justification is that swimming would have a ready-made home in the Horizon League while travel costs for wrestling would be prohibitive.
Cleveland State, Ohio State, Kent State, Ohio U, - D2 - Tiffin (both mens and women's) Findlay, Lake Erie, Ashland, Urbana, PA - Pitt, Edinboro, Clarion, and some Michigan teams and most if not all of the OAC schools. DII schools include Notre Dame, Wrestling would have traveling issues but why not be a leader in the area in bringing it back. 5 EOWL Teams won sectional titles and there are 45 EOWL wrestlers ranked to place in the state tournament in two weeks. YSU could join the D2 schools and wrestle mostly Ohio and PA teams besides some out of state tournaments and D2 regionals and nationals. (11 PA Division 1 schools, 8 D2 PA Schools, 14 D3 PA Schools.) Travel to these D2 schools in Ohio and PA is the same as the Horizon League.
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Thanks Stick. My suspicion is that swimming was chosen before the renovations to the pool, and that a sport like wrestling never got any consideration.
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There are only 80 schools in Division 1 that have Wrestling programs in the NCAA. Ohio St, Kent St, Cleveland St, and Ohio University are the only D1 colleges in Ohio. Ohio and Pennsylvania are ranked in the top 4 for HS wrestling. From what I can find wrestling programs have 9-10 full rides that are split up between 26-35 kids per a team.
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Just settle down here. A said, thank goodness we have an AD the thinks about the future. Consider a few things:
1) Lacrosse is HUGE. Wrestling does not even come close beyond High School.
2) There clearly seems to be a growing movement in Lacrosse in the state of Ohio. This is a university, not a prep school. It makes no difference how big wrestling is at Canfield. We are making a move to join other regional colleges and universities.
3) We have the facilities for both LaCrosse and Men's Swimming ...no added cost for that.
4) Women's collegiate wrestling is growing. So if we add men's wrestling, we will have to add women's. Women's rights groups could care less if we have a men's LaCrosse program and we already have a women's swim team; so they cannot complain to the NCAA.
5) How many DI NCAA-sanctioned men's wrestling programs are there in Ohio? Maybe 4 or 5?
I agree wrestling would be exciting it it was not devastated by title-IX. It is not a viable collegiate sport any more. It makes a great HS sport as it can include boys of any size or background. IN college, that just means more required athletes and scholarship dollars
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Just settle down here. A said, thank goodness we have an AD the thinks about the future. Consider a few things:
1) Lacrosse is HUGE. Wrestling does not even come close beyond High School.
C'mon man, 1AA the buzz-kill. Trying to kill off the vicious battle between men's wrestling and women's lacrosse?!?!
Lacrosse is HUGE?!?!? On which planet would that be true? Certainly not this one. Tell me the best teams in college lacrosse (without looking it up, we all have google searches)
Football draws, Men's BB draws, Women's BB draws pretty good, but only about 1/4 of MBB, and EVERY OTHER COLLEGE SPORT draws fans by the dozens. If it wasn't for parents and personal friends, it would be 1/2 that.
Arguments about whether lacrosse will outdraw wrestling in really lame. Hasn't ANYBODY been to a spring practice? How does Waid look? THAT is the only real sports question for YSU this year!
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I checked Kent st wrestling and they had a dual meet with Wisconsin and Iowa and only had 1100 people attend. The other events they hosted had no announced figures and the schools were not as notorious. So I don’t see what you are seeing at the collegiate level. I think we need to trust the Athletic department on this one.
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Just settle down here. A said, thank goodness we have an AD the thinks about the future. Consider a few things:
1) Lacrosse is HUGE. Wrestling does not even come close beyond High School.
C'mon man, 1AA the buzz-kill. Trying to kill off the vicious battle between men's wrestling and women's lacrosse?!?!
Lacrosse is HUGE?!?!? On which planet would that be true? Certainly not this one. Tell me the best teams in college lacrosse (without looking it up, we all have google searches)
Football draws, Men's BB draws, Women's BB draws pretty good, but only about 1/4 of MBB, and EVERY OTHER COLLEGE SPORT draws fans by the dozens. If it wasn't for parents and personal friends, it would be 1/2 that.
Arguments about whether lacrosse will outdraw wrestling in really lame. Hasn't ANYBODY been to a spring practice? How does Waid look? THAT is the only real sports question for YSU this year!
No, between wrestling and Lacrosse. Lacrosse is huge ...quite ...much more so than wrestling. I have no idea on the women's teams, but traditional powers in men;s Lacrosse are very well-known now, thanks to Duke. Some of those are Loyola, Johns-Hopkins, Duke, St. John's and Notre Dame. Average attendance for DI men's lacrosse is usually between 2,500k (JHU) and 6,000k (Syracuse). Largest championship attendance was Maryland vs. Loyola at 30,816 just a couple of years ago. The largest sanctioned DI lacrosse game was in Philadelphia and drew 59,501. "And those figures ain't shrinking"!
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I checked Kent st wrestling and they had a dual meet with Wisconsin and Iowa and only had 1100 people attend. The other events they hosted had no announced figures and the schools were not as notorious. So I don’t see what you are seeing at the collegiate level. I think we need to trust the Athletic department on this one.
" I think we need to trust the Athletic department on this one." You mean on other issues they check with us for approval? I believe we have to trust the athletic department on all, and if JT doesn't trust them, he will have to change them. (and trust me, there is NO chance the AD made these additions without JT signing off first!)
I don't see us as having much of a roll except trolling from the cheap seats!
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I look at YSU as a local university that supports local programs - especially in the olympic and non revenue sports. Please, someone tell me how many men's swimming and women's lacrosse teams there are in the Northeast Ohio area? There are not enough student athletes in those sports to locally support those programs. Wrestling on the other hand is supported by numerous schools in the area with some of the best wrestling in Ohio - besides the Catholic Cleveland schools. Who from this area is going to go support women's lacrosse? Men's swimming? Someone please send me a pic of the crowd at the first home women's lacrosse game and men's swimming meet. If YSU had a wrestling program, I can guarantee it would be supported by local wrestling programs - from youth to high school. Canfield, Austintown, Boardman, Girard, West Branch, Beaver Local, etc...all have top notch wrestling programs. That does not include the rest of the EOWL (Eastern Ohio Wrestling League) that goes from Ashtabula to Lousiville to Wellsville. Those schools alone could supply enough wrestlers to have a program. Title IX has destroyed wrestling programs throughout the country. It has increased women's programs, no doubt, but at the expense of wrestling. Another big mistake by the YSU athletic department that is out of touch with the local area athletes.
You ever think it's not necessarily about the 'local' recruits? But more so about getting more 'national' and 'international' recruits?
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I look at YSU as a local university that supports local programs - especially in the olympic and non revenue sports. Please, someone tell me how many men's swimming and women's lacrosse teams there are in the Northeast Ohio area? There are not enough student athletes in those sports to locally support those programs. Wrestling on the other hand is supported by numerous schools in the area with some of the best wrestling in Ohio - besides the Catholic Cleveland schools. Who from this area is going to go support women's lacrosse? Men's swimming? Someone please send me a pic of the crowd at the first home women's lacrosse game and men's swimming meet. If YSU had a wrestling program, I can guarantee it would be supported by local wrestling programs - from youth to high school. Canfield, Austintown, Boardman, Girard, West Branch, Beaver Local, etc...all have top notch wrestling programs. That does not include the rest of the EOWL (Eastern Ohio Wrestling League) that goes from Ashtabula to Lousiville to Wellsville. Those schools alone could supply enough wrestlers to have a program. Title IX has destroyed wrestling programs throughout the country. It has increased women's programs, no doubt, but at the expense of wrestling. Another big mistake by the YSU athletic department that is out of touch with the local area athletes.
You ever think it's not necessarily about the 'local' recruits? But more so about getting more 'national' and 'international' recruits?
Again, the point is they wanted to add men's swimming and diving to match with women's swimming and diving. We are the only women's only team in the Horizon League. Next issue? You add a men's team, you HAVE GOT TO OFFSET IT WITH A WOMEN'S SPORT FOR TITLE IX. Lacrosse can use existing facilities so it becomes a relatively now cost to men's swimming. This is NOT about lacrosse vs wrestling, it is about Title IX
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I look at YSU as a local university that supports local programs - especially in the olympic and non revenue sports. Please, someone tell me how many men's swimming and women's lacrosse teams there are in the Northeast Ohio area? There are not enough student athletes in those sports to locally support those programs. Wrestling on the other hand is supported by numerous schools in the area with some of the best wrestling in Ohio - besides the Catholic Cleveland schools. Who from this area is going to go support women's lacrosse? Men's swimming? Someone please send me a pic of the crowd at the first home women's lacrosse game and men's swimming meet. If YSU had a wrestling program, I can guarantee it would be supported by local wrestling programs - from youth to high school. Canfield, Austintown, Boardman, Girard, West Branch, Beaver Local, etc...all have top notch wrestling programs. That does not include the rest of the EOWL (Eastern Ohio Wrestling League) that goes from Ashtabula to Lousiville to Wellsville. Those schools alone could supply enough wrestlers to have a program. Title IX has destroyed wrestling programs throughout the country. It has increased women's programs, no doubt, but at the expense of wrestling. Another big mistake by the YSU athletic department that is out of touch with the local area athletes.
You ever think it's not necessarily about the 'local' recruits? But more so about getting more 'national' and 'international' recruits?
Again, the point is they wanted to add men's swimming and diving to match with women's swimming and diving. We are the only women's only team in the Horizon League. Next issue? You add a men's team, you HAVE GOT TO OFFSET IT WITH A WOMEN'S SPORT FOR TITLE IX. Lacrosse can use existing facilities so it becomes a relatively now cost to men's swimming. This is NOT about lacrosse vs wrestling, it is about Title IX
Yes, which is why we wanted women's Lacrosse. You brought up a good point there go guins. There are at least 4 or 5 member schools that do not have S&D (men). I am interested in how many teams are required to stay NCAA sanctioned in Swimming. We lost 2 and picked up one. We do not have S&D or Soccer, which are HL sports. We do have all of the women's sports the conference offers. I noticed that the MAAC, SoCon and several other conferences allow WLAX-membership only. UDM and Central Michigan just joined the SoCon (a new conference for women's lacrosse). It will be interesting either way.