When the Oregon wrestling team ends its final season, I’ll be the first to say sayonara.
Goodbye. See ya. Nice knowing you.
Many students on campus likely share my opinion. Ask nearly any student what they think about wrestling, and the reply will border on ambivalence. If you really think about it, the only response to wrestling’s removal has come from the wrestling community, whether it’s current team members, former wrestlers or past coaches. There has been little outcry, from what I’ve heard, from what make sports go and that’s the fans.
Oregon held its last home meet Feb. 8 against Oklahoma State, and returns to McArthur Court one more time for the Pacific-10 Conference Championships March 2 and 3.
Look at the lack of attendance at Oregon home meets and you have an illustration of the sport’s popularity. I’ve yet to attend a wrestling meet in my three years in Eugene.
The only real pity I have is for the athletes who will no longer be able to compete at Oregon in a sport at the Division I level. If they are passionate enough about wrestling, there are other colleges and other opportunities they can pursue.
I’ll be glad the sport will be gone. Wrestling has been a sore subject of mine for years.
In junior high, it was a requirement in our physical education class for the males to participate in wrestling. We spent a couple weeks paired up with a partner and under our PE teacher’s instruction, learned basic moves and how the sport worked.
I was young. I had little interest in understanding the sport and even less interest in performing the moves with a classmate. My wrestling partner and I pretended to act out the moves during class.
The end of the wrestling lessons coincided with a tournament. Students were divvied up by weight classes, and the competition to see who the best wrestler was, was on.
My first round opponent, Chad Stevens, was also a point guard and teammate on the junior high basketball team. He was at least a foot shorter, on the generous side, but had a thicker frame compared to my anorexic physique.
I figured sure, I can give this a shot. Normally passive, I could build my confidence up with a couple wins.
My timid side appeared instead, and after being tossed around a couple times, I resorted to waiting the match out and looked forward to the final buzzer. Stevens flipped me over on one move, and without thinking, I stuck out my left wrist to brace my fall.
The pain was instant and excruciating. My went body went limp and I lay there, hanging on until the PE teacher stopped the match and I was able get up and off the mat. My wrist hung limp at an awkward angle as I walked to the school office and waited for my parent’s arrival.
X-ray results revealed a fracture. I needed a cast. Much of my junior high basketball season and that of a local youth basketball league had just been wiped away.
Basketball teammates enjoyed a laugh about it. Stevens signed the cast, cleverly writing “I didn’t do it.” Although I could still practice, the injury kept me out of games.
The sport of basketball – the game I love – had been taken away instantly by a sport that I hated.
Years later, wrestling at Oregon continues to take away basketball opportunities, albeit in a smaller fashion.
The wrestling team’s move from the Casanova Center into one of the basketball courts in the Student Recreation Center took away a prime-location for pick-up basketball games.
There used to be always an open court, whether you wanted to shoot baskets or play in a game, except now peak basketball hours leaves the courts packed with plenty of players waiting on the side eager to join in.
Wrestling’s exit reopens the court and provides basketball hungry students another court to play on. It’s true. I equate wrestling’s level of importance to pick-up basketball.
College students are more likely to go out and mimic a sport they enjoy watching in the men’s basketball team and the high-flying skills of Bryce Taylor and long-range daggers of Tajuan Porter.
Few, if any students do watch wrestling, go to a meet and want to imitate what they see.
My competitive days of playing basketball are over. Wrestling took away some of that playing experience.
In a small way, reopening the extra basketball court in the rec center will provide more opportunities to play a sport I enjoy and make-up for the lost time wrestling took away.
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