KEARNEY ” Dan Gable hopes to see the Golden Age of wrestling in the near future.
“I would like to see it at the top of the podium where football is,” Gable says.
But, as someone who probably knows the way to the top of the podium better than anyone else in the world, Gable knows there’s a lot of work that needs to be done.
An NCAA wrestling champion, Olympic champion, world champion and a coach of champions, Gable understands wrestling as well as anyone. Since retiring as coach at the University of Iowa nine years ago, Gable has spent his time promoting wrestling.
This weekend, he attended the Midwest Classic, the University of Nebraska at Kearney’s primary fundraiser. The meet drew more than 1,000 wrestlers from seven states, competing in every age group from 6-and-under to 18-and-under.
The event reflects a positive growth in wrestling. Gable didn’t have similar opportunities.
“I didn’t have any competition. My first experience was at the YMCA in the fifth grade. “¦ My first organized match, with a referee and a whistle and everything, was in the seventh grade,” he said.
While awarding medals and trophies to dozens of young winners, Gable said the state of wrestling at the youth level couldn’t be healthier. But at the higher levels, wrestling needs improvement.
While more than 250,000 compete at the high school level, only 7,500 compete at the college level. Opportunities beyond college are more limited.
“It’s really on the upswing. But every time we make a couple steps forward, we go backwards. But we were going kind of backwards, not so much in the youth and in high school, but in the colleges,” Gable said.
Thirty-nine colleges have added wrestling in the past couple years, and even though a few have been dropped, it’s still a net gain.
“A lot of those were added because they need students. It’s a quick way to add 25, 30, 40 students,” Gable said.
While colleges see the benefit of adding students, Gable said wrestling has been added, “Because we’re improving our sport.”
“We’ve removed a couple black eyes from our sport, like weight loss and not doing it correctly. “¦ The U.S. Department of Agriculture is looking to our sport for healthy nutrition. Instead of us looking like the bad guys, we are now becoming the good guys as far as healthy weight loss.”
Wrestling also provides other positives, Gable said.
“Wrestling is one sport that fits all sizes “¦ and it’s a unique situation for developing self confidence,” Gable said.
Someone lacking self-confidence, someone who finds himself ” or herself, since girls are a growing aspect of wrestling ” nervous in a public or pressure situation, are those who will get the most out of wrestling, Gable said.
“You shouldn’t try it and then walk away from it. You should try it and stick with it, then you will have learned something from it. A lot of kids try it and don’t like it, and those are probably the kids who need it the most,” Gable said. “Stay with it long enough to get your had raised (as a winner). If you don’t get your hand raised, you don’t get the feeling of being successful.”
For the sport to get its place in the public eye raised, Gable said the sport needs to make some changes. He said Real Professional Wrestling, which has garnered some television time, has helped. So has cable broadcasting of events like the NCAA championships.
But, he says, there needs to be more action on the mats.
“We need highlights to hook people,” he said. “Good wrestling fans will watch any wrestling and enjoy it and understand it. If you want to hook someone, you can’t just put something in front of people that they don’t understand and doesn’t have any action.
“If you show a product on TV, it has to be exciting. There has to be contact and scoring. “¦ We just had the (NCAA) nationals on ESPN, and there really was only one really exciting match. We have to work on that a little bit so the average person can go ‘wow’ without even being hooked.”
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