From the Des Moines Register, as posted at TheMat
Douglas: Top matchups key as sport faces crisis
Cyclone coach says meets like today’s at home against Gophers will help wrestling.
By DAN McCOOL
REGISTER STAFF WRITER
January 9, 2005
Iowa State wrestling coach Bobby Douglas said he’d like this to be the last time the Cyclones and Minnesota have only one scheduled meeting in a season.
Douglas said a home-and-home series with the Gophers could begin as soon as next season. That’s quite a change from recent years, when the two schools agreed to keep each other off the schedule because of conflicts.
“I will just say that we matured, “Douglas said. “There were mistakes made on both sides. We had no business trying to air this out in the media. Comments were made that were, in my opinion, unprofessional by both sides and out of anger.”
Today’s 2 p.m. meeting at Hilton Coliseum is a top-10 matchup. Iowa State is No. 3 and Minnesota No. 7 in the National Wrestling Coaches Association rankings. The Cyclones (10-0) take a 13-meet win streak as well as a three-meet run of success vs. the Golden Gophers into the matchup.
The meet will be televised live by Iowa Public Television.
“I think you have to look at (home-and-home) from a marketing point of view, “Douglas said. “We’re trying to do the same thing with Iowa and possibly another team that would guarantee us three quality dual meets every season, and the same for them, just in publicity, promotion and travel expense would be worth it for us. Plus it’s going to be tremendous wrestling.”
Douglas said the plan is to make a package of meets that would include Iowa, Northern Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska and Illinois.
“We’re looking to create a promotional package where we could market our matches for the next three years, “Douglas said. “We’d have an eight home meet schedule set for the next three years, and we’re going to market that.
“It’s great for our program to go to Utah and back east to help promote wrestling, but right now we’re at a crisis stage and we’d better capture the opportunity to really grow wrestling right here in the state of Iowa and in the (neighboring) states.”
Minnesota coach J Robinson said series among traditionally solid programs could be a lively source of revenue – something a program such as wrestling always needs at the college level.
“At some point in time, wrestling coaches are going to have to understand that if they want their sport to grow, it’s got to grow at the box office, “Robinson said.
Today’s meet has an unusual aside. The 133-pound match between Iowa State’s Jesse Sundell and Minnesota’s Mack Reiter is a meeting of two of Iowa’s 14 four-time state champions. Theirs is believed to be the first time two of Iowa’s four-timers met in college since Iowa State’s Joe Gibbons beat Iowa’s Jeff Kerber, 10-3, in the 142-pound consolation semifinals of the 1984 NCAA Tournament.
Both coaches said today’s meet will provide a valuable challenge.
“I think they’ll come with their best game, “Robinson said. “It could be a close dual meet. We’re a lot better team than people think we are, but we have yet to prove it.”
Douglas said this will be Iowa State’s toughest test of the season.
“Anytime we get together, it’s a very hotly contested match, “Douglas said. “We know that what we see in that match is going to have a bearing on what happens at the national tournament. J and I are out of the same program, we think a lot alike, we train a lot alike and we evaluate and set up match plans pretty similarly. Every point in the match is going to be an important point, not only for now but for the future. We’re going to be in for a dogfight.”
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