The Super 32
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Title IX
About three years ago the wrestling leadership - including these two organizations - asked me study the problem of survival and tell them what to do. I told them then that it was long past time to stop talking and time to start doing. Nobody had any ideas about what to do. So I suggested that the number 1 thing that wrestling must do is to get organized, get mobilized and start to "do" by determining the position of every lawmaker on proportionality. It was my conviction then (and still is my conviction) that it is proportionality that will kill wrestling unless we can get it abolished. "Everyone" agreed. To make a short story long, after 3 years, the leadership is still not organized or mobilized, and I have never heard from one coach telling me what the position of his Congressman was or is. (Let me say that again.) This crucial task would have required an hour or two at most. This "task" was, and is, crucial for numerous reasons which I explained to the leadership (and they agreed upon). I will not elaborate in detail for reasons of space. Suffice it to briefly mention a couple of important practical reasons and anecdotes here. A couple years ago Congressman Hastert began to collect signatures for an important letter he wanted to send to Norma Cantu. Since none of the coaches had educated their Congressmen, we had to begin from scratch. When I called the leadership to help me call Congressmen to help Hastert, all of coaches were too busy to help. So I had to make calls alone for four days. The exact same thing happened a few weeks ago when Hastert was trying to get his colleagues to sign the Congressional brief which we wanted to file with at the Supreme Court. Again, the coaches took a powder. (It is possible that a few coaches made a few calls. I don’t know. I do know that not one coach has ever informed me what his Congressman’s position is on proportionality.) Next, I have asked the wrestling leadership to fight the legislation being introduced all over the country by the militant feminists at the state level. I have also asked the leadership to help to introduce legislation protecting male athletes at the state legislative level. the only coach who started this process was LeRoy Smith (ASU). Because the wrestling leadership has done nothing, the radical feminists have introduced legislation - that is going to kill wrestling - at the state level - in at least 20 states. Finally, I have asked the wrestling leadership to begin to aggressively protect male athletes at the college level by introducing resolutions and rules which I gave to the leadership. To the leadership’s credit, these resolutions were distributed to every wrestling coach in the country. These coaches apparently used the resolutions, etc. to line the bottoms of their bird cages. I did, and I do, however, criticize the leadership because they did not follow-up on this important project. Okay, so what can the task force do to show that they are doing something productive during the next year?.(First, it had a great opportunity at the NCAA tournament to assign tasks. Instead the task force talked. But that’s now water under the bridge.) Here’s how you can know that the task force has done something productive during the next year. 1. Has the task force determined the position of every congressman on proportionality? The task force should be able to distribute to every wrestling (football, baseball, lacrosse, etc.) fan in the country whether their (your) Congressmen are friends of wrestling (i.e they oppose proportionality) or they are enemies of proportionality (i.e. they take any other position). The wrestling leadership should be able to disseminate this information by the beginning of next year. That way, leaflets can be distributed at every high school and college event in the (your) Congressman's district. The leaflet would simply say that the target Congressman is either our friend or our enemy. You will be amazed at how much Congressmen hate to have leaflets distributed in their districts that are negative like this. (ON the other hand, when Congressmen are for us everybody ought to know that too.) Presently, there is probably not one person within the wrestling community who knows the position of his Congressman on this vital issue. Therefore there is no way this information can be disseminated by leaflet, etc. 2. Has the task force gotten state legislation "protecting" wrestling introduced in at least 5 states by next year? This is very simple to do and simply requires that the task force begins to get moving. 3. Has the task force gotten the student-athlete resolutions passed at least 100 schools and introduced a resolution at the NCAA that states that it is wrong to eliminate male athletes to achieve proportionality? (I told them to do this years ago. Again, it’s very simple.) Let me say a few other things in conclusion - 1. Read the statement of the task force. Try to find one "do" statement in announcement of the task force. I see this same mission statement, etc. every year, and they are as meaningless this year as they were in years past. Contact the task force and ask them what they intend to do and when it will be done. There is an e-mail address for them. 2. Frankly, I got far more response from the wrestling fans, etc. on line in three weeks than I got from the wrestling (athletic) coalition in three years. It is obvious to me that if this war is going to be won, it will be won by the wrestling parent/fan who will take the initiative. I would bet that the people reading this message will "do" a whole lot more toward accomplishing the above tasks in the next year than task force. 3. Please judge the task force by its actions rather than by its words. This is a task force, and it must "do tasks" in order to be a success. In conclusion, I don’t want to be overly critical or negative here, but we’ve screwed around too long already. If the task force doesn’t begin to do tasks (particularly fighting and funding) and soon, wrestling is going to go under. I will let everybody know whether the task force has accomplished these tasks by next year. (Better yet, just do it yourselves. That way, you’ll know it got done.) Thanks for your help. Dale Anderson
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